Canada, Career Alternatives, Football

The View From Up North: Meet Andrew Brandt -- NFL Exec, Player Agent, Sports Business Analyst

How does one go from law school to being a successful sports agent and more?

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Canada View From Up North Time for another in my series of lawyers doing interesting things with their lives — other than practicing law.

Meet Andrew Brandt. In sports parlance, he’s a “slash” — a person with multiple talents. Since graduating from Georgetown Law in 1985, he’s touched many aspects of the sports world. He’s been a player agent twice, the Vice President of Player Finance and General Counsel for the Green Bay Packers, and the General Manager of the Barcelona Dragons of the World League of American Football.

Since leaving the Packers in 2008, Andrew has focused on media and teaching. On the media-side, he provides NFL business analysis for ESPN and writes a column for Sports Illustrated at MMQB.SI.com. He’s also the Director of the Moorad Center for Sports Law at Villanova University, which is one of only a handful of sports law programs in the United States.

On top of that — and how I came to notice Andrew — he’s also a podcaster, focusing on the business of sports in a podcast cleverly named, The Business of Sports with Andrew Brandt. Let’s face it, podcasting has low barriers to entry. Anybody with an internet connection and a modicum of tech savviness can spark up a podcast about pretty much anything.

I am a serious consumer of sports business news. For me, this is what separates Andrew from any other joker who wants to pontificate on the business of sports: (1) Andrew’s background provides excellent credibility — he’s been there and done that; (2) he has extensive contacts, which allows him to reach out to some really interesting guests (most recently, Justin Tuck, for example); and (3) he puts himself in the seat of the listener and asks some really interesting questions on our behalf.

All-in-all, he helms a terrific podcast, and if you’re into the business of sports, you should check it out. In the meantime, I thought it would be cool to reach out to Andrew to see how he got from Georgetown Law to being a guy with more than 200,000 Twitter followers. He is my lightly edited interview with Andrew.

Steve Dykstra: You started out at Georgetown Law. Were you interested in getting into professional sports even at that point?

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Andrew Brandt: Yes, I was hoping there was a way to combine my love and passion for sports with a law degree. I was fortunate to be back in my hometown of Washington, DC, where a big sports firm, ProServ, was located. I grew up as a competitive tennis player in the area and ProServ was involved in every aspect of tennis — player representation, managing events, television, etc. I was able to join as an intern while in law school and worked there pretty much full time while going to law school on the side.

In my third year of law school, I went through the standard interview process, putting on the suit and interviewing with “real” law firms, even getting some offers, while weighing that against continuing to work for ProServ in sports. While it seemed like an easy decision to choose athletes over stuffy law firms, I did realize that the choice would take me away from being a “lawyer” in the true sense of the word. Agent work is more business-oriented, less legal, and that was a decision I was comfortable with (even though the starting salary paled to a law firm salary).

SD: What’s the hundred-word answer to how you got from Georgetown to Green Bay’s Vice President role a decade and a half later?

AB: It is a long story how I ended up in Green Bay, but I was an agent they liked and respected. When Mike Holmgren left for the Seattle Seahawks and took head of business operations, Mike Reinfeldt, with him, I was the first call they made to replace the latter. It was quite flattering, although moving to rural Wisconsin was never part of my life plan. 🙂

SD: Unfortunately, you left the Packers not long before they won Super Bowl 45. You would have been crucial in helping to build that roster. Do you take pride in that victory or is it mostly regret because you missed it?

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AB: I don’t look into the rear view mirror much, or use “former” — agent, team executive, etc. — in my title. Life is short; the Green Bay chapter was a good run but, to put it in simplest terms, it was time to go after nine years. I never have missed working there or working for a team (I have turned down a couple offers). I was at their Super Bowl win as a fan with my oldest son and will never forget it. Any small part I had in putting that roster together or giving them salary cap flexibility to add pieces is a bonus. I’m glad I could help but don’t need recognition for it. As I said, my Packer experience was a chapter in my life and a good one. I will never forget the people and the experience there, but I had my run.

SD: As agent, you represented Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams for a period. Then he left to join a rapper, Master P. Did you burn your Master P CD’s after that?

AB: My experience with Ricky and his family was another chapter, and an exhilarating one, that taught me a lot about the power of football in Texas. I was actually about to represent Ricky coming out of University of Texas as a junior — we had filled out all the paperwork and had it notarized — but he changed his mind at the last minute and wanted to stay another year at Texas. I then flew to Austin every few weeks for another year, fighting off all of the bigger agents trying to take Ricky from me. Only after signing him and being his agent for a couple of months did he inform me of his desire to be with Master P. He also proposed that I go with him and work with Master P, a move I was actually considering, until another door opened (Green Bay) at the same time that this one closed.

As for Ricky and his mother, I have nothing but positive thoughts. He was and remains one of the more interesting people I have met in my life and was nice and honest with me even when we parted professionally. Ricky was always interested and interesting; you don’t see a lot of young people that engaged.

SD: Why do feel there is a need for the Moorad Center?

AB: There are many sports education centers, institutes, concentrations, etc., but I think what differentiates the Moorad Center is that it is founded by former San Diego Padres’ CEO Jeff Moorad and run by me, both of us professionals with a variety of accomplishments as agents, team executives, owners, broadcasters, journalists, and businessmen. I greatly respect academics, but practitioner perspectives are needed to provide a more robust educational experience. I’d like to think the Moorad Center combines the best of both worlds in a meaningful and comprehensive understanding of the sports world. We now have five Sports Law courses and classes taught by not only myself and full-time Villanova faculty, but also by former Eagles/Browns president Joe Banner and former Villanova Athletic Director and current COO of the Big East Conference Vince Nicastro.

SD: You’ve now made a transition to working in media. I’m really interested in podcasting. What’s the lure of podcasting for you?

AB: I have been doing a weekly segment with Ross Tucker on Sirius XM Radio every Wednesday morning for years, a segment he then releases as a podcast on the Ross Tucker Football Network (RFTN). Earlier this year we talked about me not only being the weekly guest on his podcast, but hosting my own through the RTFN. I first approached ESPN and SI to make sure they were cool with me doing so, and they were, so I went ahead.

The lure of podcasting is filling a void among the hundreds of podcasts out there: taking listeners behind the curtain with industry leaders, asking questions that I am uniquely positioned to ask to draw out informative and enlightening responses. I want to have people that are interesting and have things to share, and have been able to do so. Guests already have included Tom Condon talking about Peyton Manning’s retirement and Sam Bradford’s protest in Philadelphia, Jeffrey Kessler talking about fighting the NFL, NBA, and US Soccer Federation, Joe Banner detailing his days as President of the Eagles and Browns, Justin Tuck talking about being more than an athlete as he enters Wharton Business School, etc.

SD: What would you say to lawyers who might be interested in taking a similar path to yours?

AB: Well, the “path” I took was certainly never laid out at the start of my career. Upon entering law school, the odds of me working in places like Barcelona and Green Bay had to be enormous. The key is putting yourself in a position to be successful and allowing for some serendipity in your life.

Also, I have always been most impressed with people that have balance and multiple interests in their life. For instance, football is what I have done but never what I have been about. I am passionate about music (I play jazz piano) and fitness (now training for triathlons later this summer) and always enjoy talking to people about their interests outside of work. Living in Green Bay grew frustrating as I could not go out and not be asked about the Packers.

Find a special skill, focus on communication skills, and talk to people about whatever they want to talk about. That will expand your network.

SD: Thanks for your time, Andrew.

That’s the View From Up North. Have a great week.

Steve Dykstra is a Canadian-trained lawyer and legal recruiter. He is the President of Steven Dykstra Law Professional Corporation, a boutique corporate/commercial law firm located in the greater Toronto area. You can contact Steve at steve@stevendykstralaw.ca. You can also read his blog at stevendykstra.wordpress.com, follow him on Twitter (@Law_Think), or connect on LinkedIn (ca.linkedin.com/in/stevedykstra/).

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