Cliff Brady has heard it all: Sports agents are just out to make a quick buck. The worst of them make promises they can’t keep and bribe college athletes with money, cars and jewelry, then take their cut once the athletes turn pro and disappear.
They’re unscrupulous. They’re scum.
And those are just some of the nicer sentiments.
But Brady wanted to be a different kind of sports agent, one who was honest and fair, involved in all aspects of his players’ careers, not just contract negotiations. And he wanted to be readily accessible to his clients, someone with a reputation for returning phone calls.
He didn’t see it as a contradiction in terms, like a passive football player or a hydrophobic swimmer. He just thought that was the way things should be: honest, above board, authentic.
In 1982, Brady graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology (“right by White Sox park”) with a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling and a specialty in second career planning. He began helping displaced mill workers in Chicago and Gary make the transition to another career.
“If they got hurt on the job or if the mills closed down and they had no job, they’d come to me for vocational testing, and I’d help them find second careers,” Brady says.
At the time, he was working with a performance trainer, Bob Gajda of Northbrook. Gajda helped physically rehabilitate some of the injured mill workers while also treating tennis pros such as John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Tracy Austin. He also worked with a couple of Chicago Bears: Super Bowl teammates Gary Fencik and Leslie Frazier.
“I got to meet those two players,” Brady recalls, “and we kind of talked about how what I was doing with these guys in the mills wasn’t that far off from what they were going to be facing eventually, or what all NFL players were gonna face. That is, either you’re cut out by injury, or you’re cut out because you’re too old to compete against the 23- and 24-year-olds.Either way, they’re forced out of their careers and looking for a second career.”
So Brady, now 36, began his second career: being a sports agent for pro football players and helping them plan for second careers. He has done well; this year he negotiated the biggest contract in Chicago Bear history, one that will pay lineman Bryan Cox $13.2 million for four years. He also negotiated a $5 million signing bonus for Cox, the highest in the Bears’ history.
Though the outgoing and friendly Brady always has been a diehard football fan and played on the Thornwood High School team in South Holland, he never thought he could incorporate his love of the sport into a full-time career and become a sports agent.
“After all, the profession is saturated,” he says. “There are more certified sports agents than there are athletes to represent. Only 20 percent of agents have five or more clients. There are a lot of agents out there who say, `I’m an agent,’ and they have no clients. So that’s as saturated as you can really get.
“(When I thought about) getting into this sports thing, I thought, do I really want to try this? And I remembered the words of a professor of mine who said, `Cliff, there’s always room for one more good one,’ ” no matter what the field.
Brady was determined to be that “one more good one.” He knew many agents had the reputation for signing players, taking their 2, 3 or 4 percent, then disappearing. He wanted to offer more.
“What I wanted to do was offer an alternative to the athlete,” he says. “Instead of the one-man show of negotiating the contract, taking your percentage and being done, we wanted to offer them second-career planning, first and foremost so, God willing, you play 14 years, you’ve been planning for 14 years what you want to do when you get out. But if your career’s cut short by injury after three years, at least you’ve been planning for three years what you want to do.
“Now that confidence (that you’re invincible), that cockiness is really what separates the good college players from good pro players. But you can still have that confidence, that feeling of `I’m invincible,’ but be smart in the off-season and plan for the inevitable. It’s going to happen. I’m not saying injury’s gonna happen, but how many guys play 30 years in football? None. It’s gonna happen that you’re going to be forced out of your career.
“What do you do with the rest of your life? Plan, plan, plan.”
So in 1987, Brady started Sports Planning Inc. Based in Tinley Park, the business presents a holistic approach to athletes’ careers. In addition to offering contract negotiation and second-career planning, Brady offers the services of a team of experts: an attorney, a CPA, an investment counselor, an orthopedic specialist for second opinions, and a kinesiotherapist to help athletes get in top physical form for tryouts.
From January through April, Brady flies his clients (he currently has 17) from all over the country to the Chicago area for weekend workouts to prepare them for the rigors of NFL tryouts. “I work with the athletes on balance beams,” says kinesiotherapist Dave Buchanan, explaining one of the exercises he puts the players through. “I actually have these big old lugs on balance beams, doing different techniques, moving like a linebacker, moving like a running back on the beam, trying to keep their balance. . . . The athletes see in a very quick time that this works, they see quick results,” adds Buchanan, whose Ultimate Performance Therapy is in Arlington Heights.
Brady’s first client was John McGarry, offensive guard for the Green Bay Packers in 1987 and for the Seattle Seahawks in ’88 and ’89.
“(Cliff) was totally on top of stuff, calling me two or three times a week,” McGarry recalls. “And the most important thing, once I did start playing in the NFL, he was more concerned about, `What do you need to live on, what can you put away, what do you plan to do?’
“The average life of a football player’s career is what, 2.8 years now? You’re not going to play very long, you’re not going to play forever. It’s a very small part of your life. Enjoy it, and put away what you can. I mean, I was 21 years old, and the minimum salary in 1987 was $65,000. That is just a fortune when you’re 21 years old.”
McGarry, 32, has done well in retirement. He owns some apartment buildings in Hyde Park and manages his father’s bar, the Falcon Inn, on Chicago’s South Side. And he plans to open a nightclub in the city this fall. “I don’t think I could’ve done better in picking an agent,” McGarry says. “It was just a total leap of faith, and it worked out to my advantage. I’m happy with the way things have turned out.”
So is Cox, the new linebacker for the Bears. Cox, who has been with Brady for five years, previously played for the Miami Dolphins. “I’m the biggest client he’s had to this point,” Cox says. “A lot of this business is b.s., but Cliff’s been wonderful.
“I signed with him because my wife, LaTonia, really liked him. He thanks her to this day! We met with a number of agents; I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. What my wife really liked about him was that he called, he kept good contact with us, and he walked through different stages with us. We’ve had a good relationship throughout.”
Brady’s wife of 13 years, Carolyn, would agree with Cox’s wife. “He’s real personable; he wouldn’t lead you the wrong way,” she says. “Cliff’s just a real go-getter….This is a dream job for him.”
The family, which includes a daughter, Kelli, who’s 10, and a 2 1/2-year-old son, Cameron, lives in Griffith, Ind.
Brady credits God and prayer for his success. He wasn’t much of a churchgoer until he started attending Loyola University for undergraduate studies. “Not to sound like a holy roller type, but Loyola kind of helped me become good friends with Jesus,” Brady says. “I just feel so blessed. I’m one of the few people I know–all my friends know it, make no bones about it–I try to make it to church every Sunday. I used to go to church and ask God for this and ask God for that. And now I go to church and I find myself thanking him for more things than I’m asking for. That’s when you know your life is pretty good.
“I love football. I love all sports, but I love football. And even though there are a lot of perks in this business, what I like most is to see these athletes grow from their senior college year, see them develop into good football players and, most importantly, good citizens. And to know the role that I played in their development, both personally and professionally.”
JUST LIKE THE PROS
Whether you’re an athlete, a displaced mill worker or someone who has been “downsized,” the general rules are the same, says Cliff Brady. Here are his four steps for anyone considering changing careers:
1. Do what you want to do.
“If you’re forced out of your career by whatever means, think about what it is that you would really like to do, so you want to get up in the morning,” Brady says.
2. Research it.
“Find out what it takes to do what you want to do,” Brady says. This brings your dream closer to reality; you know what practical steps your dream requires.
3. Make a plan.
After you’ve researched your dream, act upon your research. Make a plan for how you can obtain your goal.
4. Have the guts to do it.
“Start it,” Brady says. To quote a famous athletic footware ad, “Just do it.”
