Thomas Mott Osborne: “As has been mentioned, currently only 20 States have comprehensive laws regulating sports agents; 17 States have no laws…”

“As has been mentioned, currently only 20 States have comprehensive laws regulating sports agents; 17 States have no laws at all. My State, Nebraska, is one of those. Thirteen States have a patchwork of laws governing sports agents. Here is the problem. I will use primarily a football illustration, because that is what I understand the best. As of April, 2002, the National Football League Players Association reported 1,200 certified agents to represent NFL players. The problem is that of those 1,200, only 400 had clients, so we have 800 people who say they are agents and they have nobody to represent. There are also several hundred other agents who are not even certified by the National Football League who also call themselves agents. So if they call themselves agents and do not have a client, they are pretty desperate. What these guys do is, they will go after undergraduates, and they will sometimes be very unscrupulous in doing so. There are some good agents, but many are not.”