According to LSU Administrative Coordinator Lois Young Stuckey’s Facebook page, Albert Elias, the founder of football agency Elias Sports Management, LLC has passed away. The unfortunate and very sad news posted on her Facebook status reads:

Just found out that God has taken one of his angels home…. Albert Elias I love ya and gonna miss you so much.

In a comment on that same thread, Stuckey says that Elias was on a ski trip and was found this morning.

Elias was respected in the football agent community. In my many years of covering the profession, I never heard a bad word spoken about him. In fact, many praised him for being able to defeat the odds and build a successful sports agency on his own, without having to associate himself with a big name company or hefty investors. He was also outspoken about controversies surrounding sports agents who pay college athletes.

Albert Elias made his name by recruiting the area he knew best – Louisiana. When I was in law school, I wrote that Elias gave me hope that I could achieve greatness in the sports agent industry. While I am no longer a practicing sports agent, I will forever be thankful to Albert for providing motivation and allowing me, and others, to believe that anything is possible.

Without a doubt, Albert Elias always took pride in his practice and his clientele. It is hard to find a picture with Albert and a football player where the agent is not smiling. His clients provided him joy and he was able to do wonders for his players. A perfect example of Elias’ strength as an agent is when he was able to negotiate an early contract for 2012 NFL Draft pick Michael Brockers at slot, but without “offset” language. That move benefited many other players (and their agents) selected in the first round of the draft.

Recently, I highlighted Elias’ signing of two NFL prospects: Robert Alford and Brandon Williams. I can only imagine how hard this news is for them to deal with. Albert was not only an agent, he was a friend. He always told me if there is anything he could do to help me, I should not hesitate to call. You surely will be missed.

Here’s an article Albert wrote for Sports Agent Blog back in 2009 – “Football Players May Be Tough as Nails, but They’re Not Invincible.“