TOO Many Agents

Heard on ESPN a couple of days ago that there are 3,000 agents which are approved by the NFL to negotiate on behalf of any NFL players or perspective players. That to me is the problem with agents.

The are 32 teams who have approximately 60 players on each roster which comes out to 1920 players in the NFL. 3,000 agents, 1,920 players, seems that the ratio is backwards. There should be 1920 agents and 3,000 players. There are just plain too many agents who don’t have a client out there drumming up business by trying to be the first to contact a player.

We have all heard the old saying "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians". This case is clearly "too many agents and not enough players".

I had a close up experience in my life way back in the day when an agent made contact with a player. Back then there was no such thing as an agent. I was in a car heading to an American Legion game and riding in that car with me was Jimmy Hunter the top high school pitcher in North Carolina back in 1962 and 1963.

The driver of the car was Carlton Cherry who was a tobacco chewing country lawyer from Ahoskie who was a Legion member driving the car heading to a game. Since I was the batboy I was in the front seat and Jimmy Hunter sat beside me as we traveled down the highway.

Like any time you get in a car with a group of people there had been many conversations during our trip. There was one about all the scouts that were flocking to Hertford to watch Jimmy pitch and at that time he was only a junior in high school. Cherry said to Hunter that at some point in time you will be in need of someone to look after your affairs and I want you to know I will help you if you would like me too.

Twelve years later that country lawyer who had a spit cup in his car for his tobacco chewing made Jimmy Hunter the first millionaire baseball player in major league history.

There was never any money passed only a conversation of interest by one party to another. Those were the simply days.

Last night Kernersville won the State American Legion State championship in Asheboro beating Whiteville. Earlier Cherryville had knocked Kernersville from the unbeaten ranks but then lost to Whiteville to play in last night’s final game. Kernersville will now advance to the Legion Southeast Regional in Columbia Tennessee.

Sunday Post 58 was knocked from the tournament by Kernersville by ten runs. It is never easy to lose but it is comforting to know when you get waxed by somebody that they are the best. The Southeast regional begins August 5th and Kernersville will be representing us as well as all of the State of North carolina .