If you haven’t been following along with the whole Emmanuel Sanders situation, check out this piece by Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. In short, Steve Weinberg, agent for the newest member of the Denver Broncos, essentially agreed to a contract with the Kansas City Chiefs prior to inking a deal with the division rival Broncos.
The human piece of trash strikes again. How does this man have an agents license? http://t.co/9cYx9lgIze
— David Canter (@davidcanter) March 16, 2014
When a fellow agent calls you out, it’s pretty bad. I have had an opportunity to talk with Canter multiple times over the past year, and he knows full well the unwritten rules as it relates to contract negotiations in the National Football League. Want a source for this type of stuff, he’s always available to answer questions.
In any event, Weinberg didn’t only leave the Kansas City Chiefs hanging. According to multiple sources close to the situation from the San Francisco 49ers, they aren’t exactly too happy with how things played out as well.
One word quote from my 49ers source “disgusting.” Nothing else.
— Vincent Frank (@VincentFrankNFL) March 16, 2014
Sanders was supposed to meet with the 49ers saturday evening before he eventually blew them off to “sign a deal” with the Denver Broncos…a contract that wasn’t finalized until today. Since I tweeted that out last night, I have been able to get in touch with yet another member of the 49ers front office. Based on our conversation, San Francisco isn’t exactly too happy about this situation, as he indicated…
This isn’t the way you to business in the NFL, Weinberg’s list of clients have dwindled to the point of him being pretty much irrelevant. If he continues to make enemies in front offices around the league like he did over the weekend, he’s going to be on his way out. ‘
Is this an indication that San Francisco won’t deal with any Weinberg’ clients moving forward? Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get into too much more detail there.
Back to the Chiefs for a second. According to Rapoport’s report, the feeling around the NFL is one of disgust…
This was one of the worst situations in modern football negotiations,” one executive involved said. “Totally wrong. This needs to be stopped.
We have no idea who that executive might have been, but it’s safe to say he’s a member of the Chiefs front office. It’s an unwritten rule not to engage in contract conversations without leaving everything out on the table. Short of inking a deal with the Broncos, Sanders and his agent were not negotiating with the Chiefs in good faith. He had no intention to sign with them, and was just using the meeting as a ploy to get more money from Denver.
While this happens to an extent in nearly every negotiation, it’s the level of sleazeball tactics that has those around the NFL concerned. In fact, Weinberg is no stranger to controversy. Again looking at Rapoport’s telling report on NFL.com…
Weinberg, a Dallas-based agent, recently was reinstated by the NFL Players Association, which had barred and decertified him in 2003 because it had reportedly found he diverted assets to an offshore account during a dispute with a partner and collected a fee from a client prematurely.
Weinberg later filed suit against the NFLPA and its top officials, alleging they illegally took away his certification for eight years, along with past, present and future income of clients.
Unfortunately for the agent, his days as a certified NFLPA contract negotiator may be coming to an end. Outside of the fact that he only has one client outside of Sanders after representing over 40 in the past, the players organization isn’t too happy about this situation.
A high-ranking source within the players association indicated to me today that they plan on “leaving no stone unturned” as it relates to a likely investigation on the situation.
Former NFL agent and current National Football Post contributor Andrew Brandt has a different take on the situation…
Re player/agent reneging on one deal/team to sign w/another, it happens, been there. Learned a deal’s never a deal until signed.
— Andrew Brandt (@adbrandt) March 16, 2014
Again, it’s the level of deceit that has those around the NFL all upset over this. We fully understand that it’s not a done deal until signed on the dotted line. Things change over the course of a negotiation. To ignore this would be to play the ignorant role that it seems Sanders himself has taken on by indicating that there was no handshake deal with the Chiefs.
When all is said and done, Weinberg should be banned as a contract negotiator for the NFLPA. We will have to wait until the investigations play out, but that’s the path he is currently on. In any event, he’s already two clients away from not mattering in the first place.
Photo: Greg M. Cooper, USA Today