Player agents

Frank can't understand why players (he's referring to English League soccer players) want agents. He agrees with Manchester United's Gary Neville that players should be able to negotiate their contracts without agents.

I was under the impression that agents did more than negotiate the contracts, but I could be wrong. I thought agents also arranged all the other pay-offs that players receive - sponsorship deals, appearance money, etc. I also think it's debatable whether the average player would negotiate as well as someone paid to represent him.

Having said all that, I've often had the impression that agents were nothing more than overpaid leeches.

Yet, maybe it depends on the agent. Take John Di Manno, for example. He's doing more than negotiating for his client, baseball player and Cuban defector Kendry Morales.

Wherever Morales went, Di Manno was by his side. They slept in the same apartment in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Di Manno hired the cabs for the 40-minute drive to the complex where Morales worked out every morning and sat in the cramped back seat. Along the way, the car climbed drive-shaft-scraping speed bumps and passed by roadside vendors selling mangoes, cigarettes and coconut water tapped with the swift slice of a machete. Morales, folded into the front passenger seat, sang along to the radio. When the car drove by an attractive woman, Morales reached over to honk the horn. Di Manno chuckled approvingly.

The way Di Manno followed Morales around, he could have been mistaken for a personal valet. At La Loma del Suenos, a collection of fields rented and operated by the New York Yankees, Di Manno carried the player's bat, spikes, hat and batting gloves. When Morales broke a sweat, Di Manno pulled a fresh shirt from an equipment bag. When Morales requested a cup of water, Di Manno trotted off to find a cooler and some waxy paper cups.

{Tip: Richard)

So, here's an agent who's basically a man-servant. And, of course, who could forget Jerry Maguire, who was basically the only trust-worthy person in his client's professional life.

All right, that was fiction, but there probably is some truth in the proposition that players can often feel pretty isolated as they are always competing with their co-workers (teammates) in a way that most employees are not. At least the player knows that the agent is on his side, even it's only because he's an overpaid leech.