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Interview with Kelli Masters
I was fortunate enough to interview owner/ceo Kelli Masters with Kmm sports. She is a partner at her law firm practicing business litigation and runs her own sports agency as a separate entity. Growing up she was one of the top baton twirlers where she had traveled the world to compete, which gave her a sense of athletic competition. After working in the legal field since 2000, Kelli branched out and in 2004, she registered to become a sports agent where she first represented Olympians, then eventually expanded out to baseball and the NFL. Currently Kelli’s NFL client roster consists of 3rd round draft pick of the 2010 Gerald McCoy who plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She also has other notable clients that play for the Dallas Cowboys, and Indianapolis Colts.
I spoke to Kelli on October 14th 2011, as she was wrapping up duties with her law firm.
I was curious to see how Kelli first got started in the industry and she had stated at first she never intended to become a sports agent, but knew she wanted to practice law. She had represented Olympian Guard Young where she had met through college and was able to secure endorsement deals and various public speaking appearances for him. She stated, “ I really enjoyed the inner-workings of the business aspects of sports and wanted to expand in other sports arenas”. I notice you have signed Gerald McCoy which was a top 5 draft pick in this past draft, how did you recruit him? Kelli actually met Gerald McCoy about 5 years ago at a high school church function where he was the guest speaker. Kelli had a chance to meet with the parents and gave her business card to them stating if he ever needs representation down the road call me. Gerald ended up going to Oklahoma Kelli’s alma mater where eventually Gerald’s parents gave her a call. Kelli stated it was highly competitive to sign him because she had to compete with a lot of other agencies trying to sign him. In the end it was between another firm and Kelli so to make things work, Kelli and the other sports agency partnered up to help Gerald in the draft.
Kelli went on to describe the draft as one of the most exciting and nerve racking experiences because of the anticipation, but really enjoyed seeing Gerald’s family proud of their son being picked so early in the draft. What is the NFLPA process for someone that wants to be certified to become an agent? Kelli stated you have to go to the www.nflplayers.com website where you have to register and pay the fee for the exam which is offered once a year in Washington D.C. The deadline runs from January 1st to January 31st the fee runs around $1300, once you pass the exam you have to take out liability insurance which varies from state to state in price, and pay another additional fee to represent athletes in a particular state. Kelli really stressed that starting out especially on your own can get really expensive. A perfect example of this would be when you sign a player they need additional training before entering the NFL combine which can cost upwards from $15,000 to $20,000 and hopefully if they make an active roster you might break even.
Kelli it seems like the business can be very tough and challenging to break in especially if you do not have the financial means or support, knowing what you know now, what advice can you give someone looking to get into this field? Your best bet would simply be getting an internship with a team, union, or a sports agency. That way you can see first hand behind the scenes what really takes place as a business point of view, ideally if you can get hired by a sports agency which will back you in recruiting players even better.
After speaking with Kelli I found out invaluable information about the sports industry world where sometimes you have to partner up with another firm just for a deal to work. More importantly the challenges one must face when going into this line of work. Kelli told me that this is not an overnight business endeavor, but takes years of hard-work, patience, and consistent dedication in order for it to work. For Kelli she stressed that in the end it was well worth it because of her passion in the field and how far her company has come. Having this opportunity to speak with Kelli was an eye-opener on what kind of financing, challenges, and paperwork you must do in order to licensed by the NFLPA. More importantly being strategic about starting off in the field. Kelli brought up a good point on being able to identify talent because you do not want to waste money on a client that never gets drafted or signed onto a team. It can be a very expensive lesson which especially starting out you have to be extra careful. I’m glad I’m doing extensive research into this field because I now have a basis of the costs, roadblocks, and challenges I have to face just getting started in the field.
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