00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. It is awesome to catch up with our next guest. Of course,
00:05you may be very familiar with him being a super agent in the National Football League for five decades. It
00:12is incredible to see Lee Steinberg still doing it at a high level, getting ready for another NFL draft coming
00:18up here.
00:19Lee, it's really remarkable that you've been at this so long, and I do want to certainly talk about this
00:25book that you have because I think it's super intriguing to find out all of the stories that you're now
00:30sharing with the public.
00:31But thank you so much for coming on the show. It's great to see you.
00:34My pleasure, Craig.
00:36All right. So, Lee, before we get to the book, let's talk about this here. I mean, what keeps you
00:42going on here and doing this for so long?
00:44Another NFL draft's coming up in a couple of weeks. I mean, you certainly have accomplished everything that there is
00:49to accomplish being an agent, having a movie made about you.
00:53For those unfamiliar, Jerry Maguire, 30 years of Jerry Maguire, one of my favorite movies, too. What keeps you going
00:59here, Lee?
01:00A passion for trying to make a difference in the world.
01:04So the athletes are role models, and they retrace their roots to the high school, collegiate, and professional communities, set
01:11up scholarship funds and charitable foundations.
01:15And I've been very active in the journey to try to discover how we limit concussions and how we put
01:27some highlight on that.
01:29We do an agent academy in a couple of weeks that trains young agents, and there are always new challenges.
01:39Yeah, definitely so. And by the way, Lee's book is out. It's The Comeback, a playbook for turning life's setbacks
01:46into victory.
01:48So there's a number of things in the book, and you see that QR code on your screen, folks.
01:51For those of you who are streaming, just take out your phone. You can scan that QR code.
01:55Either now, we'll show it at the end of the segment, too. Lee, 51 drafts for you.
02:00I can only imagine there are so many stories in the book, but the one in particular that I love
02:05the story that you tell so well
02:07is one of the most popular quarterbacks in the history of the NFL, Troy Aikman.
02:12My gosh, when you had Troy Aikman and he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, the turn of events that
02:17happened so quickly after is incredible.
02:19So this book's about resilience and coming back. And in Troy's case, he's the first pick overall in the 1989
02:27draft.
02:28He gets picked and promised the world by the Dallas Cowboys. And then a month later, they have a supplemental
02:36draft.
02:37And they draft Jimmy Johnson, the new coach's quarterback, who took him to the national championship.
02:46And all of a sudden, Troy, with very little talent around him, is ensconced in a quarterback controversy,
02:53even though he'd been promised he'd be the long-term quarterback there.
02:57So it tells the tale that life will inevitably set us back. It could be financial, it could be health,
03:04it could be relationships,
03:06or it could be, as in my case, substance abuse. And the question is, how do you recover?
03:15How do you show resilience and the ability to strike a better future?
03:23And resiliency, the story of one of your other longtime clients and good friends, Warren Moon.
03:29I mean, before this day and age of the last 20, 25 years of the National Football League, Warren Moon,
03:35one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the NFL, but had a hard time convincing teams, Lee,
03:40that he could be quarterback in the NFL. I mean, simply put, teams did not draft and develop African-American
03:46quarterbacks
03:47until they gave Warren Moon a shot.
03:49I know it's hard to believe now, but there was a period where there was great doubt as to whether
03:55a black quarterback
03:57had the wherewithal to play the position. And so Warren goes to Canada for six years for his most valuable
04:05player,
04:06and then he comes back with 12 teams bidding on him to be a free agent and play 17 more
04:14years in the NFL.
04:15So he had a, he and I grew up together with 23 years together.
04:22And Lee, we have about a minute to go here. The book is called The Comeback, a playbook for turning
04:27life's setbacks into victories.
04:30I know certainly this is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and stores as well.
04:34And what would you encourage people to learn most about you, Lee, when they read the book?
04:40That the quality of being able to get back up on your feet, the quality of being able to envision
04:49a better life
04:51than current circumstances is important for us all.
04:57Lee, it's been great to catch up with you. I've always had fun through the years.
05:00I look for that invitation to your Super Bowl party every year if I go to the Super Bowl to
05:04make sure I am there.
05:05Lee, thank you again. Enjoy your rest of your week.
05:07Lee, thank you.
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