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I just read an article about Jordy Nelson. He views himself as a farmer and not a multi-million dollar NFL player. It's not right or wrong how we view ourselves.
Jones was extremely lazy and gullible. Couldn't even pay his own bills? Sucks he was taken advantage of. But this is what happens when you have really no education, and by education this could be school or the school of hard knocks. He said he had people kissing his butt from 18 to his mid thirties. He sounds like an kid who never grew up and now has to face harsh realities of his decisions or lack thereof.
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Shitty deal for Jones. He's obviously figuring things out now. As far as his agent goes, 2 sides to every story. Still, if Jones was written out of the company without being consulted... If that is in any way true, douche move.
Mx has transformed from a participation sport into spectator sport.
People love watching mx on the tube, even muggles, but very few wanna go out and buy a bike or actually ride after watching it. And for good reason, right? There are giant triple jumps, that at least subconsciously, affect people knowing there is no way in hell they could do that, or if they did it would mean an ER visit. The guys going 50 mph down a ridiculously rutted/whooped out section, freestylers landing double backflips with ease, etc. What they watch is something that is impossible to them, so why even try riding?
Kevin is bitter and has had problems which I won’t care to discuss out of respect for someone that has battled inner demons in life. What I will tell you is that he never had equity in The Familie, and when Steve “PARTNERED” with WMG, Kevin wasn’t owed anything. I “SOLD” my company to The Familie prior to the WMG merger I got a check as well as a job that I’m still doing 14 years later.
In those 14 years we have had clients come and go, but the vast majority have stayed, obviously they leave when they retire, and some leave for what they consider greener pastures. What I can tell you is that in those 14 years I have seen Steve put his clients first, before himself or his family for that matter. On more than one occasion, I have seen him save careers much like what he did with Kenny earlier this year.
A lot of you are criticizing Steve, WMG, and when you do that, you blanket the “agent” term, so you are in effect disrespecting all of us in that field. I have had only a couple of rough times with clients which aren’t enjoyable as I take it very personally. I see some comments saying that we are just a good ole boy network of ex-riders without any contract law experience, which I find interesting, and misinformed. The fact is that we have on staff some of the finest attorneys in the world. Yes, it is true I have not personally been to law school, but my job isn’t to finalize the legal verbiage in the agreement. Do you actually think a company with 600+ employees doesn’t have fantastic attorneys. And, for the record after reading thousands of agreements over the course of 15 years I have a pretty good understanding of contract law. Experience does count for something!
If you want to know what we do for our clients why don’t you ask some of them for yourself. I have clients that I’ve been representing for 15 years already and I’m sure they would set you straight on the advantages to having someone in their corner battling it out for them. Steve has clients he has had for nearly 20 years. You don’t have longevity like that by screwing people over, whether in this business or any other. Some companies in the industries we work within don’t like us, and that’s because if the athlete has proper representation it is difficult for them to take advantage of that athlete. There are other major companies within action sports as a whole that have changed their agreements due to us showing them why their agreements were unfair.
To Mr. UpTiTe, again your statement is false in many ways, especially being directed our way. I might agree with you about a single individual doing this without any law school and no support staff, but that isn’t the case with us. Also, I can tell you with the amount of effort it takes to compete at the highest level a rider cannot do this alone. You must have help or you will leave millions on the table and not have favorable terms in your agreements. I can give you several more reasons but this should suffice.
I will close with this, there are two side to almost every story except for when there isn’t, and in this case there isn’t.
Wasserman Media Group
Jimmy Button Vice President, Action Sports and Olympics
1) why did you have some “rough times” with a few clients?
2) you backed up the statement of people saying you don’t have any contract law by stating that you hire people who do have it AND you are an ex-rider.....correct?
Just pointing out some inconsistency in your statement, nothing more nothing less! I was always a fan of yours and still am a fan of yours!
Signature material right there!
2. Im missing your point here. You don't have to be an attorney to negotiate a deal. You need to have a massive understanding of the environment you're dealing with and understand the way the landscape moves depending on each move that happens. Its a constant moving target and having deep relationships with the right people in the paddock is crucial. You can take the best attorney that just graduated with honors from an Ivy league school and throw him into any given sport and he will not do as well "initially" as an uneducated person would with experience. Once the deal has been agreed to with specific terms is when the attorneys are called into action.
Also, as I mentioned before, with the experience that I do have I'm quite sure I would hold my own against someone that had been to law school, as it relates to the agreements which we do often.
I am an ex-rider that has now been involved in this sport for 40 years with a ton of experience on each side of the coin. Going to law school would not change my view of things or my level of experience.
I don't know the snowboarder from the interview, nor what happened there, but I've known Steve Astephen for more than a decade, as well as some of his numerous, longterm clients, like Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Jeremy McGrath, Chad Reed, Carey Hart, Ken Roczen, Ryan Sheckler and more... Steve has always put his clients first, but he also always tried to "raise the tide" for the general good of whatever sport the athlete is in. He's a big picture guy, and I can't imagine what some of those guys' lives would be like without his guidance.
Things ended badly for him and the snowboarder, but all things like this usually end badly -- that's why they end, right?
DC
Racer X
Pit Row
WMG can’t round up the moolah, so Chad tells them “see ya!”
ORRRR......
Chad goes privateer, can’t afford an agent’s share
DC
Racer X
Justin Hill might disagree
The snowboarding analogy is a good one. It's been a few years since I went skiing but I guess that it's still the case that you can still choose to do your own thing and ride the type of terrain and technical difficulty that you want to. The entire mountain isn't one succession of half pipes and jumps...
Can we say the same thing about many modern, jump-laden MX tracks?
Lets just all be glad Reed's version went much smoother. I know he is way more on top of his business affairs but could you imagine that shit-storm had it gone south...... haha
Are you going to tell me that the "good ole boy club" doesn't do deals like "I'll take your guy onto this team for this and next season, if you can get a deal for my guy over the next two years as well"?
Are you going to tell me that there isn't preditory guys out there telling parents how great their kids are going to be while taking their money?
I could go on, but you get the gist
Do you really feel a guy making 250k needs a manager?
How did top guys as recent as ten years ago negotiate their contracts and then have lawyers to look over them and save 10-15% of their money .before having a manager became trendy?
You say you have guys on staff that know law, why dont I just hire them and save 10-15%?
Look, I'm not bashing you, I just dont see the need for riders to give up so much money to have a guy whispering in his ear how great he is. If managers were so important, and needed to put together the BIG deals, why is Reed now using a guy who has never been a manager doing his bidding? kinda makes you think huh?
Jimmy Button Vice President, Action Sports and Olympics
there are 3 sides to EVERY story...............what would you expect the VP to say in retaliation.........I personally got fucked out of millions in a very similar situation by one of "the most stand up guys that ever lived" according to some.
No skin off any of our asses and it seems that reedy and astephin are all good or sure as hell Reedy wouldn't lay down.........also from what I know button fly is one of the most ethical and honest guys in the game
Whether the agency screwed the guy or not, he should have lined his ducks up a little better.
I can’t imagine some of these up and coming kids getting the best deal without having someone like Jimmy in their corner. Very short careers in this sport, seems to me the top guys need to get every penny they can get while they can.
I keep reading here how Big James has burned so many bridges...
Post a reply to: Reedy/WMG Split