Episode #009: The Art of Athlete Representation (Drew Rosenhaus)

🎙️ Negotiation Warriors – Episode #009: The Art of Representation with Drew Rosenhaus

In Episode #009 of Negotiation Warriors, I sit down with one of the most influential agents in the history of professional sports - Drew Rosenhaus.

Over the course of his legendary career, Drew has negotiated more than $10 billion in contracts and represented over 1,000 NFL players, including Hall of Famers, Pro Bowlers, and some of the biggest names the game has ever seen. 

In this conversation, Drew opens up about:

• Breaking into the business as a 22-year-old law student at Duke
• Using the media to build his brand and advocate for clients
• The evolution from aggressive young agent to respected NFL negotiator
• Building Rosenhaus Sports alongside his brother Jason
• Managing internal negotiations with clients behind the scenes
• The importance of preparation, communication, and emotional discipline
• Why long-term relationships and integrity matter in negotiations
• His perspective on NIL, the transfer portal, and player compensation
• The traits that define elite negotiators and successful agents

Drew also shares candid reflections on balancing family and business, mentoring younger agents, adapting over nearly four decades in the industry, and what continues to drive him today.

This episode is a masterclass in advocacy, relationship-building, preparation, and the evolution of negotiation in professional sports.

🎧 Listen now: Search Negotiation Warriors

Follow on instagram: @frontoffice360

Follow on X: @frontoffice360

www.frontoffice360.c0m

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

But tell us what it has meant to build this business alongside your brother Jason.

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Yeah, I have not been bashful in giving credit to my brother Jason. You know, we we compliment each other really well. I think Jason can do anything. Never had a bad day together. We don't fight. Definitely love him with all my heart, and uh I appreciate him beyond words.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Welcome to Negotiation Warriors.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I am Cliff Stein, and I am on a never-ending quest to learn what it takes to be a great negotiator. In every episode, I will sit down with some of the greatest negotiators in professional sports who will share insights, knowledge, and draw upon their real-life negotiation experiences. Negotiation Warriors is sponsored by Front Office 360, premium cap management software. To find out how we are helping college athletic programs, go to frontoffice360.com to schedule a demo. Welcome back to Negotiation Warriors, the podcast that features conversations with the greatest negotiators in professional sports. I am your host, Cliff Stein. Today's guest is another negotiation giant. He is one of the most accomplished and influential negotiators in the history of professional sports. Over the course of his career, Drew Rosenhaus has negotiated more than $10 billion in contracts and has represented over a thousand NFL players, some of the biggest names the game has ever seen. His client list includes four pro football Hall of Famers, countless number of Pro Bowl players, and his impact on the business of football extends far beyond player contracts. Drew is also the author of two books, A Shark Never Sleeps and Next Question. Two books that I recommend. If you want to learn more about Drew, you want to learn more about how to be an agent, or you just want to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes in the player contract negotiation process. Drew is also one of the agents who inspired the movie Jerry McGuire. He is known for his relentless preparation, passionate advocacy for his clients, while building and maintaining strong relationships with NFL front offices. Drew has helped define what elite negotiation looks like in the modern NFL. Today, we're going inside the mind of a true negotiation warrior. Welcome, Drew Rosenhouse.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Thanks, Cliff. Appreciate the nice introduction.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Drew, really glad to have you here. I've enjoyed working with you for many years and taking the time to do this. And I thought just a good place to start. You know, your your career path is very interesting. You started very young. You're 22 years old as a Duke Law student. How did you break into it? How did you break into the business of being an agent?

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Yep, it is everybody who's an agent has, I'm sure, a very fascinating origin because it's not an easy business to break into. The way that I got started, really the University of Miami had a lot to do with it. As a student there, I became very friendly with classmates who happened to be future NFL players. Guys like Michael Irvin, Brett Perryman, Brian Blades, Benny Blades, so many guys that were sitting in my class that went on to play in the NFL became friends. Michael Irvin connected me with his agent when Irvin went into the draft, and I got an internship after my first year of law school. And it was in that internship that I learned uh, I guess, enough to start my own company in year two of law school. And uh, as it turned out, a lot of the guys that I went to school with, Cliff, decided to hire me. So at a very young age, I was representing players from the University of Miami that were draft picks that um that were my friends, including guys like Michael Irvin and Perryman, the Blades brothers, uh Bernard Clark, Jimmy Jones. This was in the late 80s and early 90s. The other break that I um that I benefited from was while I was at Duke Law School, I signed a player named Robert Massey from a small Division II school, North Carolina Central, that was adjacent to Duke University at Durham, North Carolina. And uh in representing Massey, who was a really good prospect, even though it was a Division II guy, I reached out to ESPN and I was able to start off by persuading ESPN to come down and do a feature on Robert Massey as an NFL prospect from a Division II school. Then I was able to build on that and get them to send a uh satellite and a reporter with Robert and I on draft day in my apartment while I was at Duke Law School for the draft. Uh that was huge to be on the draft as a young agent with Massey. Then I persuaded ESPN to do a feature on our negotiations between myself and Jim Finz. And they who was the president of the Saints at the time and the head of the NFL competition committee. And they actually went into our negotiation and filmed actual negotiations with myself and Jim Finch.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Jim Finks is a Hall of Fame general manager. You're 24 years old. You're just getting started. I have a son who's 24 years old right now, is in law school. And I just can't imagine. Were you always, first of all, how'd you come up with that idea? Were you always that confident to be able to do something like that?

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Yeah, it did take a lot of uh a lot of confidence because I had no idea really what I was doing. And I I was going up against probably at the time the NFL's most powerful NFL executive. But I think it just that's just my makeup. I uh I've always been aggressive, I've always been confident, I've always had a belief in my abilities, and uh I just gave it my best shot. And, you know, it was it was pretty good for my career because we got a lot of notoriety. I was able to use that to sign other players. I think I was probably one of the first agents who used the media to really grow his career. And really, almost every step of the way, the media's been my friend in advancing my clients' best interests and providing me with the forum to not only speak out on behalf of my clients, but also build my own brand. You know, I've been on 60 Minutes, I've been on the cover of Sports Illustrated, I've been on HBO Real Sports a number of times. I was on David Letterman, I was uh ESPN commercial, a Burger King commercial. So that was just always uh a tool that I was able to use to help my clients and also build my brand as an agent.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

I'm I'm super impressed that at 24 years old, you were you were just aware that you can use the media as a champion for your brand. That's very impressive. And and I haven't seen anyone do anything like that ever before or ever since. Um, and I've read Jim Fink's book, I've read a lot about Jim Fink since I worked for the Bears, and he was a Bears General Manager. Um, and I feel like I just know him through what I read. And so when I found out that you did that, because I teach a class, one of the first things I did, I really tried hard to find that video. Um I haven't been able to find that video, but it's I think it's video gold, if you drew, if we can find that.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

But how did I'm not in a hurry to give it to you? I don't uh it's I'm not very proud of it. I I was definitely very green. I was certainly uh at it at a big disadvantage with fates, and it it did come across that way. It taught me a lesson that even media that's not necessarily flattery can still be helpful for your career.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Well, I still think even if it's not for the masses in a smaller law school setting, what you did is one for the books, for for no question. So, but I want to talk about all right, so you advanced, you did that and did a lot of other things that involved the media. You started to gain your your client names were were huge. You started to gain a lot of notoriety. In the 90s, you were on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Uh, I think maybe still the only agent that was on the cover of Sports Illustrated ever. You were labeled on that cover the most hated man in the NFL. You went on, I'm gonna read a couple things to you, but you went on ABC News and you said, uh, and you had a persona. I I know that because I know the real Drew Rosenhaus, but you said, I have zero respect for my competitors, most of them are clueless. And then I looked in your book, because I read this book even before I started working for the Bears and when before I negotiated with you to kind of do research on you, and you said you were talking about a Randall Hill situation, but I thought that it was interesting. You said agent is considered a four-letter word, or referred to as the A-word, synonymous with being a sleaze ball lawyer. I became the face for this picture, I became the poster boy for greed in sports today. I wanted to be famous, I became infamous, my contract negotiations were brutal and bloody. How did you evolve and just overcome that persona that would have been hard for a lot of people to have success?

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Yeah, I mean, I've evolved a lot. I think that young uh 20, 22-year-old kid uh where you see him on the cover of the book in the orange ball with cash on the table, I've just grown up so much. This is my 38th year in the business. So it's really been a complete evolution where I was a very aggressive guy when I broke into the business and I had a great deal of passion and a tremendous hunger and work ethic, but I was really able to modify my approach to have long-term success. I learned early on that the best way to be a successful agent was not to be a ruthless warrior, but to find a way to get deals done. To get fair deals for your clients, good deals, but not burn a bridge with the NFL teams and to operate with professionalism, integrity, and treat the NFL negotiators with great respect. That was just an evolution. I certainly did what I had to do to break into the business, but I think very quickly in my career, I learned if I was gonna have sustained success, then I would have to grow uh as a professional. And I I certainly am pleased that I was able to do that. The the guy today that negotiates with NFL teams is very different than the one who did it 38 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

The one other thing that has been really, really impressive to me that a lot of people know about you or have heard of you, but they may not have heard about your brother Jason. And I've always been impressed of how the two of you build a business together, how you complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, how well you get along. I mean, on the surface, I have two brothers, so I know that sibling rivalry is a is a real thing, and I try to always get along really well with my brothers, but I know how loyal the two of you are together. I also knew when I was negotiating with you, I always knew that it was really important for um Jason to be involved because he knew he knew a lot of the details. And I also noticed when I, you know, he he writes your books, you know, he's heavily involved in that. Tell us what it has meant to you. First of all, I know family is super important to you, but tell us what it has meant to build this business alongside your brother Jason.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Yeah, I have not been bashful in giving credit to my brother Jason. There's no doubt that Rosanow Sports is much a byproduct of his contributions than it is mine. We're 50-50 partners, and he's contributed to our company's success at least as much as I have. You know, we we complement each other really well. I think Jason can do anything, but I do think one of my skill sets was working with the media, out there, being a recruiter, you know, I think uh interacting with teams and managing clients was my strong suit. But I would not have been nearly as successful without Jason's partnership, where he does a lot of the analytics. He does a lot of the research. We we put our game plan together when it comes to negotiations. He is awesome at reviewing every deal. He's got a great legal mind. He's uh really got so many attributes that are better than mine. He's got a lot of strengths that are my weaknesses. So we've complimented each other well. We've been equal partners, we've never had a bad day together. We don't fight. I definitely love him with all my heart, and uh, I appreciate him beyond words.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Oh man, I see it. I know it every time I'm around both of you. Um, it inspires me staying on the topic of family for a minute. Uh $10 billion in contracts, thousands of players, more than you can remember, tremendous success, married to the business, really. And but your greatest accomplishment is meeting Lisa and your children Robert, Blair, L, Conan, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

All under 10 or yep.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Yes. All right, so how much more cut out for me?

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Do I have this right? That's your greatest accomplishment, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Yeah, it it is, Cliff. I think you know, at this stage of my career, the biggest uh challenge that I have is continuing to be as good an agent as I have been in the past, and running this business and serving my clients, and also being the best dad I can be. Um, I was raised by my mother and father the right way. So I believe my parents were unbelievable to me. So I want to do everything I can for my kids, and it's a real challenge that anyone can appreciate to spend basically 30 years in your career single, just running around the country doing whatever you want to get the job done. Uh the last nine years, nine or ten years, I can't do that. So I've had to make real adjustments, and what I have found is that I can make it work uh beautifully by incorporating my family. And I think a lot of our clients and their families, a lot of our recruits, a lot of our NIL clients really like seeing that side of me when Lisa's around seeing me as a dad with my kids. I think there's it's helped it's helped my career, quite honestly.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

So I was gonna ask you, but maybe you already answered this. I was gonna say if your children stumbled across this podcast 10 years from now, what would you want to say to them?

SPEAKER_02 18:29

You know, I tell them every day that I that I I love them, I'm proud of them, and they're the most important part of my world, and I'm always gonna be there for them. And uh I take great joy in my kids, uh, and my wife. And I appreciate every day because let's face it, like when I was uh you know 45, 46 years old, when I first met first met Lisa, it wasn't a sure thing that I was gonna have a family, and I was really stressed out about that because I come from a really loving family, and it was really important to me. So I'm eternally grateful to my kids for giving my life balance. It was really one-sided work, building the business, taking care of my clients for a long time. And the last 10 years have easily been the best 10 years of my life. I take it over college, take it over law school, take it over the building of my business. By a mile, these last 10 years have been the best with Lisa and my kids.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Have you ever you ever had a client say to you, show me the money?

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Not not seriously, joking, joking, because everybody knows that all my clients know that I was involved in Jerry Maguire. For those guys who see the movie, they like to joke around and say it to me, but I can't say that on a serious note, that's still something that guys say to me. I I think that that was an all-time brief line, but it's probably outdated at this juncture.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Well, you have shown them the money and you've gotten them a lot of money, you've been successful, you don't have to do this, but you do. So I'm gonna ask you, why do you still do this? And what impact have you had on players' lives and their families beyond just showing them the money?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Yeah, um, but you know, Cliff, I think that what what keeps me going is I love helping people. It's a great feeling to help guys in high school now grow with NIL, to help young people in college grow with NIL, to help your clients go from college to the NFL, to help your clients, once they're in the NFL, find long-term success on and off the field, to help your clients transition to life after football. What pushes me is my favorite part of this job always was the love that I have for my clients and their families and the bond that I have with my clients. And so I can't ever see myself retiring. This is one of the greatest joys that I have each and every year, the wins for our clients. Uh and and they're they can be big or small, helping a client get in and IL contract, helping a client get an NFL deal, helping a client with an off-the-field issue, helping a guy who comes to me who needs guidance. My relationship with my clients is very different now. I'm old enough to uh be their father. So for most of my career, these were buddies, and we were similar in age for a long time. Now that that's evolved, it's it's to you know treat guys sort of as a father and look out for them.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

I'm gonna talk about building relationships. When I first, I was a young front office executive when I first met you. And I realized when I look back at my career, I learned so much from each of the people that I got to work with, good on bad, but a lot, a lot of good. I thought I had done research on you, and then we in 2003, we traded for your client at a Wally a gunly. One of the things, and I and I asked you this question because there are a lot of younger or contract negotiators for NFL front offices, and and they can learn from this and how to deal with you, but also experienced agents or any agent is one of the things we did was we didn't loop you in until too late. We called Miami and we sort of had it all worked out before you knew anything that was going on. When I look back, I feel like maybe maybe you weren't happy and maybe that was a mistake. Can you talk about that or just in general, something that could help people that are in similar situations? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

You know, when you guys traded for Gunlier, it was very painful for him personally, because he loved playing for the Dolphins. And we were great friends. He was not only a client, but a great friend. And we were both excited about him having a long future with the Dolphins. Both of us. When you guys traded for him, it was really a blow because I didn't want to lose my friend here in town and at the games, and he didn't want to leave. So it was, it did require me to get over my feelings and my emotions. And it was very similar to when the Dolphins traded away one of my first clients, Randall Hill, who was traded from the Dolphins to the Cardinals, and it was devastating because I'm here in Miami, and he's from Miami, and he played a game, and it hurt us both. So, you know, it's very hard to separate your emotion from the business, but I've gotten better at it, and I'm sure I would handle the Egolier situation much differently today than we did back in 2030.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Oh, I'm glad I asked you this because I I I didn't I didn't know this. And um we never really talked about that. The other thing about building relationships, so I surveyed many front office executives around the NFL recently. And I asked them who is the best agent to deal with? And your name consistently, if it wasn't number one, it was in the top two or three. Didn't surprise me because I I know from dealing with you, but it just blew me away the consistency you've been doing this for so long, and there's so much competition. How do you do that? How do you balance being such a passionate advocate will do anything for your clients, and at the same time leaving that impression upon NFL front office executives?

SPEAKER_02 26:06

I think the key is to let the NFL executive know up front, hey, I hope you appreciate my job is to get the best deal for my client. And the reason that I have been a successful agent is I really push hard to get the very best deal for my client. At the same time, I want you to know that I respect the job that you have. And I also want you to know that I respect you as an individual, and I appreciate this relationship that we've developed through this negotiation. And I'm gonna be honest and transparent with you, and I'm always going to do my best to treat you with respect and operate with integrity. So I think it's being a nice guy. You know, you don't have to be surly when you deal with the people you negotiate with. Ask them how their family's doing, how they're feeling. Uh, talk to them about what's going on in their world, uh, get to know them, spend time with them. I'm not necessarily saying that they become a friend, but why not? Develop a camaraderie. And uh so I take a lot of pride in that. Uh also I don't root against people, uh, I didn't hold a grudge. Um, I just, you know, really respect people in the league and their job, and I'm gonna do my best to get along with as many people as I can.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yeah, and also like I just know like anytime someone you work with loses their job, you always reach out to them. You always reach out to them. I think you see a bigger picture, but you also see the personal side of it. I think people appreciate that and they get a feel for what it might be like to be one of your clients. The other superpower that I've always been impressed with and really learned to appreciate more and more over the years because dealing with different people in the sports industry is there's too many people now that don't return calls, don't respond to emails, aren't available in this business, even agents. You have always, always been accessible to teams, especially your clients. Has that always been who you are? Is that a philosophy within your agency? Talk about being a great communicator.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

So one of one of the things that uh I've learned over the years is that humility is very important. And to recognize that your success is on a day-to-day basis. I always operate with a fear of failure. And I have a tremendous amount of anxiety on a day-to-day basis. And it's internal. I don't think I feel more comfortable with my life today than I did when I was, I barely had a few dollars to rub together when I was 22 years old, borrowing money from my grandparents to build my business, you know, or asking my parents, friends for loans so that I could build my business. I I don't think I've changed in terms of that fear of failure or that anxiety that it could all come crumbling down. I think a part of that is that each one of my clients depends on me. And my performance means a lot to my clients. And it's very impactful in their lives. So this isn't a casual job. And when you represent a player, it's not a, you know, something you do lightly. You gotta operate with integrity, but also intensity. And so for me, I'll always return a call, work hard, because that's one of the things I can control. There are a lot of things in this business I cannot control. And I worry a lot about those things. But if I if I can control how hard I work, treating people right, man, I'm gonna do that 10 out of 10 times.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

That's amazing. And I think that just is a lesson in any business on how to build and maintain strong relationships, especially when we're becoming more of a society where it becomes okay to not respond. And I love that you've always held on to that. This is a tough business. I know I did it for a short period, but I've heard you talk about it other agents, and you could do a whole episode on just how tough it really is. One of the things, though, that applies to when we talk about the art of the player contract negotiation, we try to get the perspective of front office, the agent, the owner, the other people who influence those decisions, like family, friends. But what the internal negotiation is something that very few shine the light on. You get you get a breaking news where you know Tyree Kills just signed this big deal, but what they don't realize is behind the scenes, you've spent an inordinate amount of time on an internal negotiation. Maybe it's as hard or just as hard as the actual negotiation. When your client maybe they overvalue themselves, maybe they don't want to do something, maybe they want to do something that you don't agree with, like hold out. And it's your job behind the scenes, no one knows that's going on, to conduct, to successfully conduct that internal negotiation. Otherwise, you can't get that final deal. Can you talk about that process?

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Yeah, I think you very astutely, Cliff, identified one of the biggest challenges in our business as an agent, which is, you know, I'm not the ultimate decision maker. I work for each of my clients. And I recommend to clients what I think is in their best interest. But there are often times where a guy will not want to do a deal that I recommend or will sit out workouts because they don't want to be there, even though I would recommend it. For me, I'm not worried about a client getting angry with me. My job is to look out for them. So I'm gonna always make my recommendation. But ultimately, I'll support their decision and I'll do my best to make it work. But it is hard when you let's just say you think a deal is a good deal and you recommend your client take it and he decides to turn it down. That's really difficult as an agent. It's really important that you sometimes negotiate with your own clients. Sometimes the negotiation with your client is harder than the team because your clients struggle to accept their real worth. You know, NFL players live in a world of self-confidence where they have to believe they're bigger, stronger, faster, badder than anyone else. So they have a very high opinion of themselves in order to survive in this business. And so you have to help guys be realistic with their value and understand their true worth without offending them. And so I think I do a pretty good job at that.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Amazing job at that. And I love that you talked about it because I think when people think about wanting to be an agent, you're probably someone that comes to mind and they don't realize all of this is really happening behind the scenes, which is where all the work is put. I'm gonna shift just really just two main questions. One is I know now you're you and your agency are in the world of college sports and NIL. There's no agent regulation, there's no barrier to entry, there's no financial data really, there are no rules, there's no collective bargain agreement. Talk about how are you operating on this space and any advice you would have to even the college front offices that might help them in this process.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Yeah, I I think uh for me, I've uh put together a good team of other agents that work with me. I've really expanded my company for most of my career with myself, Jason, Robert Bailey, who's the president of our company, who's been working with me for over 30 years as a client and uh executive as an agent with Rosenow Sports. But we really have expanded. We've expanded our marketing agency, we've expanded the number of agents that we have. And I just try to mentor every one of the younger agents, just do things the right way. There are no shortcuts, work hard, put your client first, treat the teams, the college executives with respect, be a man of your word, honor deals, be an advocate for your client, but also operate with a lot of dignity and appreciation for the college executives that you're working with. It is a new world. Um, and you just like any other aspect of life, you just got to work hard, learn from your mistakes, make the necessary adjustments, and find a way to be as successful as you can.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

What do you think about the amount of money that's being paid to college athletes right now? Of course, I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

What age it wouldn't. I think it's just great to see college guys getting paid. And I hope it only becomes more and more. I'm a big believer in the free market. I've always felt that college players deserve to be paid. Now I think it's just awesome to see all the competition, all the wheeling and dealing, and all the free agency and the transfer portal and recruiting. I embrace it and I'm happy for the players and their families.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

All right, I'm gonna throw this at you. There's a recent study that I've helped lead shows that 25% of all of the players in the NFL today, including players on the 53-man practice spot and injured reserve, were zero-star recruits coming out of high school or FCS school, group of five, division two, like your client, three kill. But they're playing in the NFL. What would you say? Is that an opportunity that colleges are missing, maybe even agents, but is that an opportunity that's being missed of these are really good players. They're making it through the entire college process, not at a big school, not high-ranked, not getting paid, yet succeeding in the NFL. What do you think of that?

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Well, I think it's great. I personally love it. I believe that people grow, they get better. That just because you're a certain recruit at a high school doesn't mean you cannot be improved, that you can't get better. I think stars on recruits is subjective. And who's making these uh ratings? I believe in people going out there and showing what they can do. And a lot of these guys at small schools, a lot of players who don't get recruited hard become great. And a lot of guys get drafted late or are free agents, go on to have great careers in the NFL. You gotta love it. You gotta love that sports is not about what your rating is, but what you actually do on the field and the ability to prove people wrong is always there. So for me, I'll always respect the underdog and people that come from a small school who aren't highly recruited and become great stars, but it doesn't surprise me because you can't measure someone's heart and their work ethic and their toughness.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

All right, one last question, which I ask everyone. What are the key characteristics of being a great negotiator?

SPEAKER_02 39:39

Well, number one, you got to be prepared. So you better know your stuff. You have to have a great game plan, uh a strategy. Be a chess player, know what your end game is, but also have a plan on how to get there. You can never ask for what you want. You better ask for more, but don't ask for so much that you lose credibility or you blow an opportunity to get a deal done. So the great characteristics of negotiators are guys that do their homework, walk into a negotiation prepared, definitely have a plan, do not take things emotionally, keep your poise, don't lose your cool, be patient, allow for other people to talk and make their points, hear them out, try and see their perspective, and uh see if you can develop a bond with the person you're negotiating with because it's much easier to get deals done with people that you got a good lot of communication with than otherwise.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

Yeah. Well, you summarized all the things that make up a negotiation warrior, and I and I know you did that because you are one. You are a legend. Grateful for you having met you in my career and being you and your brother, ally, friend, champion just all these years. So I really appreciate you coming on here. And now everybody else can see what I've always known and I've always seen and on this side of you. So I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

Yeah, Cliff, you've you've said a lot of nice things about me, and I appreciate it. I'll just close by saying that in my close to four decades, you were always, without a doubt, one of the most professional and admired negotiators that I would work with. I always had a lot of respect for you and the way you did things. I always had a great deal of admiration for your work ethic, your character, your commitment to your job, the way you did things. You operated with a lot of integrity. You were a man of your word. Always a lot of fun to uh get to know you, to spend time with you. I thought I always learned something about the business when I when I spoke with you. I always thought you went over and above to do a lot of research and get the facts. I always felt that you paid attention to the details. I always felt that you worked harder than other people. I felt you were a pioneer in creating the salary cat uh manager. I always thought that Jerry Angelo had a great vision when he hired you as an agent because you came in and you truly were a pioneer of someone who just concentrated on running negotiations and a team salary. And I think you really created uh a role that every team has right now. And you were one of the original guys doing this job, and now every team has someone that's patterned after you. So you definitely have been one of the great pioneers of your business as an NFL executive, as a team negotiator, as a capologist, whatever term, you were great. And then I also what I also admired about you is when you were for a period of years, when you stepped away from the negotiations and you focused on legal work and other issues for the Bears, I thought that was a really special thing. You put your ego aside and you continue to work for the club, even in a different capacity, and that was really cool. And then when you came back and you started doing it again, that was very rewarding. But I've always uh liked you, I've always uh rooted for you to be successful. And uh really I I hope you get back into it because it's a much better business when you're working for an NFL team and negotiating with guys like myself.

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Well, I really appreciate it, Drew. I'm so humbled by you that you and you pay that close attention and those I mean uh mean so much to me. You would say all those things. So thank you. Appreciate your time. We'll be in touch for sure, and uh look forward to see what's next for Drew Rosenhouse and Rosenhouse Sports. You too, Cliff. Good luck, man. We'll cross paths.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

Take care.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

Thank you for listening to Negotiation Warriors. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you like what you heard, please subscribe on the Negotiation Warriors YouTube channel and follow us at FunOffice360 on Instagram and X. And to find out how we're helping college athletic programs, go to frontoffice360.com