The Shark is wide awake, prowling NFL waters, and he’s as hungry as ever.
Agent Drew Rosenhaus, who represents nearly 90 players and once described himself as a “ruthless warrior,” is the Miami-based power broker behind this offseason’s high-profile contract battles:
* Flamboyant Philadelphia wide receiver Terrell Owens, who wants to tear up his contract and start from scratch. He skipped the Eagles’ mandatory minicamp to prove his point.
* Up-and-coming Green Bay wide receiver Javon Walker wants more money now – not in two years when his current contract expires. He, too, missed minicamp.
* Former Broncos running back Reuben Droughns, now with Cleveland, is boycotting the Browns’ offseason program until he gets a new deal.
* Washington safety Sean Taylor is skipping team workouts, and there are reports he is contemplating a holdout this summer.
* Arizona wide receiver Anquan Boldin recently skipped the Cardinals’ mandatory minicamp. He has agreed to begin attending the team’s offseason workouts, beginning today.
It’s enough to make a football fan’s heart ache. And blue-collar Philly fans are having a tough time grasping Owens’ concept that the seven-year, $49 million deal he signed last year – including a $10 million signing bonus – makes him underpaid.
But Rosenhaus offers no apologies for what his critics consider strong-arm tactics.
“Let me make this clear: There is no tactic,” Rosenhaus said last week. “And I really don’t think there is a story here. This is the offseason. This is when you are involved in contract issues. So I would tell everyone to relax and we’ll see what happens when we get to the real deal.”
Rosenhaus, who grew up a Dolphins fanatic and at one time wanted to be a sportscaster, has been evoking strong emotions in the NFL since 1989. That’s when, at age 22, he signed his first client, North Carolina Central cornerback Robert Massey, who was drafted in the second round by New Orleans.
After landing Massey, Rosenhaus went a step further. He convinced Jim Finks, the Saints’ general manager at the time, to have Massey’s contract negotiations televised on ESPN.
Rosenhaus further inflated his warrior-as-businessman image with his 1997 book, “A Shark Never Sleeps: Wheeling and Dealing With the NFL’s Most Ruthless Agent.”
Fellow agents, the front-office folks who must deal with him and even Rosenhaus concede he has toned down his act in recent years. But he continues to rub some people raw.
It’s no secret some of Rosenhaus’ fellow agents have problems with his business tactics and his ego. Several agents contacted for this story, while highly critical of Rosenhaus, refused to allow their names to be used.
Droughns has nothing but praise for Rosenhaus, whom Droughns hired on Christmas Eve last year. Droughns, still residing in Denver, has refused to participate in the Browns’ offseason workout program. He also has threatened to hold out during the June minicamp or even training camp unless the Browns give him a new deal. Droughns has two years left on his current contract, which totals just less than $2 million.
Asked whether it was his idea, or his agent’s, to boycott workouts and threaten to be a holdout, Droughns said, “I can’t talk about me or any of that, or about my contract, because we’re trying to work things out.”
Asked if it unnerves him to see so many of Rosenhaus’ star clients holding out, or threatening to do so, Droughns said: “It doesn’t make me nervous, because I’m in a different category than those guys are. I’m not looking for those types of dollars. I just know that I’ve got a guy who is working as hard as he can for me.”
Last week, Packers quarterback Brett Favre blasted Walker for not honoring his contract.
“If Jevon wants to know what this quarterback thinks, and I would think he might, I’d tell him he’s going about this the wrong way,” Favre told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “When his agent tells him not to worry about what his teammates think and all of that stuff, I’d tell him I’ve been around a long time and that stuff will come back to haunt you.”
The Rosenhaus-Owens game plan for more money has drawn the most attention and criticism. After signing his seven-year deal with the Eagles last year and then helping lead them to the Super Bowl, Owens fired longtime agent David Joseph and hired Rosenhaus this spring.
Last year, Joseph failed to file papers that would have made Owens a free agent from San Francisco. Owens ended up being traded to Baltimore, but he protested and refused to show up for his physical. Eventually, Owens was traded to Philadelphia, where he signed the seven-year deal. It’s a deal Owens can’t stomach now.
“Everyone knows my former agent settled for a low-ball number because of my situation last year when Baltimore traded for me,” Owens told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Rosenhaus insists Owens’ minicamp boycott, and others, are much ado about nothing.
“Let me just say that I have been an agent for more than 17 years now,” Rosenhaus said. “And I have negotiated well over a billion dollars worth of NFL contracts, and I have gotten more deals done than anybody in this business. And I have gotten more guys signed than anybody in this business.
“So, the perception of me should be as agent who gets deals done and gets players signed.”
He proved that last week when he brokered a six-year contract extension for Redskins wide receiver Santana Moss worth $31 million.
But there’s also no denying Rosenhaus’ nasty reputation. Through the years, in newspapers and magazines and on TV, competing agents have called him a “pimp,” “a pathological liar” and a “sleazeball.” Rosenhaus says he doesn’t care what other agents say, as long as his clients are happy.
In 1997, about seven months after Rosenhaus appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with a headline that read, “The Most Hated Man in Pro Football,” he was lambasted by a fellow agent named Tim Irwin.
Irwin, who claimed that Rosenhaus had stolen a client already under contract to Irwin, reportedly stood in front of 250 fellow agents in Indianapolis and said, “There is a cancer in our profession.” Then Irwin walked over to where Rosenhaus was sitting and added, “The cancer starts in South Florida.”
But if Rosenhaus has earned the scorn of some fellow agents, he has earned the loyalty of some of the game’s high-profile players, including Edgerrin James, Willis McGahee, Chad Johnson, Jevon Kearse and former Broncos running back Clinton Portis, who was traded to Washington for cornerback Champ Bailey last year after Portis had threatened to be a holdout.
Rosenhaus has two Broncos – cornerbacks Lenny Walls and Willie Middlebrooks – on his client list. Rookie offensive lineman Chris Myers, Denver’s sixth-round draft choice out of Miami, also is a Rosenhaus client.
Walls, who grew up in the rough Fillmore section of San Francisco, likes the toughness he sees in his agent.
“I grew up in a neighborhood where if people didn’t hate you, you obviously weren’t doing nothing,” said Walls, who hired Rosenhaus last year. “But this guy has done it. He’s made the big deals.”
Walls will become an unrestricted free agent after this season – unless the Broncos work out a new deal in the coming months. Walls said he wants to stay in Denver, but he also wants a big payday. He says he’s fortunate to have Rosenhaus in his corner.
As for Rosenhaus’ reputation as a gun-slinging agent whose weapon of choice is the contract holdout, Walls said: “I don’t agree with that. I think players have to make that decision on their own. An agent can’t make you hold out. The bottom line is you have to make that decision for yourself.”
Rosenhaus offers this as his own bottom line: “At the end of the day, I get everything worked out. People will see that. And all of this nonsense about me holding people out? It’s just not true.”
Rosenhaus’ roster
Drew Rosenhaus, the controversial Miami-based agent, has been stockpiling clients since he was 22 years old. Last year, he added more than 20 players to his roster, and with the addition of this year’s draft class, he has nearly 90 clients. Here’s a look at the NFL players he represents:
Arizona Cardinals
WR Anquan Boldin
DT Darnell Dockett
Buffalo Bills
RB Willis McGahee
Carolina Panthers
LB Dan Morgan
Chicago Bears
LB Lance Briggs
DT Tommie Harris
DE Adewale Ogunleye
Cincinnati Bengals
DT Matthias Askew
DE Duane Clemons
WR Chad Johnson
CB Keiwan Ratliff
WR Peter Warrick
WR Kelley Washington
LB Nate Webster
Cleveland Browns
RB Reuben Droughns
DE Kenard Lang
Denver Broncos
CB Willie Middlebrooks
CB Lenny Walls
Detroit Lions
LB James Davis
Green Bay Packers
S Arturo Freeman
S Earl Little
WR Javon Walker
Houston Texans
CB Phillip Buchanon
WR Jabar Gaffney
Indianapolis Colts
RB Edgerrin James
S Jarrell Weaver
Jacksonville Jaguars
QB Quinn Gray
P-K Chris Hanson
DE Bobby McCray
OL Brett Romberg
DE Paul Spicer
DT Marcus Stroud
RB Fred Taylor
Kansas City Chiefs
DE Carlos Hall
Miami Dolphins
CB Yeremiah Bell
DT Tim Bowens
OL Anthony Bua
K Olindo Mare
OL Stockar McDougle
TE Randy McMichael
RB Travis Minor
WR Kendall Newson
CB Will Poole
DT Dario Romero
LB Zach Thomas
DT Matt Walters
New England Patriots
RB Cedric Cobbs
LB Larry Izzo
S Guss Scott
CB Duane Starks
TE Jed Weaver
New Orleans Saints
CB Mike McKenzie
S Dwight Smith
New York Giants
WR Plaxico Burress
LB Barrett Green
LB Antonio Pierce
TE Jeremy Shockey
New York Jets
WR Jonathan Carter
CB Andrew Davison
LB Darrell McGlover
Oakland Raiders
RB Rob Konrad
DT Warren Sapp
Philadelphia Eagles
DE Hugh Douglas
DE Jevon Kearse
DE Jerome McDougle
WR Terrell Owens
OL Tra Thomas
Pittsburgh Steelers
RB Verron Haynes
San Francisco 49ers
DE Andre Carter
DE Andrew Williams
St. Louis Rams
CB Travis Fisher
DT Damione Lewis
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
DT Lynn McGruder
Tennessee Titans
OL Zach Piller
Washington Redskins
WR Antonio Brown
WR Taylor Jacobs
WR Santana Moss
RB Clinton Portis
S Sean Taylor
– Source: NFL Players Association
* Note: This list includes only those players currently signed to NFL rosters and does not include this year’s rookies or free agents not now on a roster.
Staff writer Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-820-5459 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
