The inspiration for “Jerry Maguire” does not believe life is solely about showing the money.
Sure, sports agent Leigh Steinberg negotiated a 10-year, up-to-$503-million extension for Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and also is steering the career of Hawaii-reared quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. But Steinberg, who has represented 12 football Hall of Fame members and 64 who were NFL first-round picks, is involved in several altruistic projects.
Steinberg is in Honolulu meeting with Dr. Jason Keifer, one of the nation’s leading authorities on concussions and sports-related brain injuries. Steinberg has long been interested in helping to make football a safer sport, from encouraging youth to wait until they are older to participate in tackle football to developing more protective helmets to inspiring a long-time client, former University of Hawaii coach June Jones, to limit contact in practices.
Steinberg Sports &Entertainment conducts workshops nationally to teach different sports-related professions. There is an academy for potential sports agents. “They break into agent groups, and then they have to recruit a client,” Steinberg said. “They have to go through the process of appealing to a player and his parents.”
Tampa Bay’s Ronald Jones, Indianapolis’ Marlon Mack and Mahomes have portrayed potential clients for the students.
There is a session in which a class is divided into general managers and agents. “They have to negotiate a big contract,” Steinberg said.
There are marketing sessions in which students learn about branding. “The currency in athletic profile is followers,” Steinberg said. “The question is: how many followers? What does the website look like. How many followers do they have on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok?”
For public relations, the 2019 rift between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers served as an assignment, with students having to write news releases from both sides.
“This is all an effort to give the next generation of sports professionals real experience in a skill set,” Steinberg said. “I’m also trying to teach them how to be ethical and not use situational ethics, where you’re good to cats and dogs and you’re a nice neighbor, but now you go into the workplace and use heinous social tactics.”
Steinberg is writing a book, a follow-up to “The Agent” that will contain “relatable every-day wisdom against the backdrop of my recovery from alcoholism.”
Steinberg admittedly fell into an emotional abyss after his two sons were diagnosed with a condition in which they experienced night blindness and eventually a narrowing of field vision. At that time, his father died after a long illness. And his dream home was infested with mold and needed to be razed. “I sort of felt hopeless and powerless, like Gulliver on the beach tethered down with Liliputians sticking forks,” Steinberg said. “I turned to the wrong thing to blunt the pain, which was alcohol.”
In 2010, he faced his problem, going through a 12-step program and achieving sobriety. “I said to myself, ‘if nothing else, I’m going to be a good father and be sober.’ ” he recalled.
He has not tasted alcohol in 11 years.
He also vowed to fulfill his father’s wish to “make a meaningful difference in the world.”
Steinberg was part of a group seeking to clear minefields in Asia and Africa. He worked with the Anti-Defamation League to promote tolerance and friendship in schools. The Sporting Green Alliance works to implement sustainable energy technology into stadiums and arenas.
Steinberg and his associates challenged their clients to create a platform of change. “Athletes have the power to serve as role models to trigger imitative behavior,” Steinberg said.
Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman paid back his scholarship money to UCLA. Hall of Fame running back Edgerrin James did the same for the University of Miami. Warrick Dunn led a foundation that made the down payment on homes for single mothers in Atlanta. In February, Tagovailoa announced the establishment of the Tua Foundation, a non-profit that supports youth initiatives.
In early 2000, before the pandemic, Steinberg and associates spent four days with Tagovailoa in Hawaii. They went to Tagovailoa’s ancestral homes, visited his grandfather’s grave, stopped by Saint Louis School, and participated in a prayerful ceremony.
“Tagovailoa’s family is one of the most wonderful groups of people I’ve ever met,” Steinberg said.
Steinberg, who was once part of a marketing team that helped UH adopt the H logo and introduced black as the football team’s dominant uniform color, said: “Hawaii has always been a special place for me. I love the smells and the flowers and beaches and views and fish and the culture.”
