For women rising as NFL agents, growing strength in numbers helps change landscape

Lindsay H. Jones | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption NFL agents dish on the league In a poll conducted by USA TODAY Sports, NFL agents reveal their thoughts on NFL teams, general managers and coaches.

When Alexa Stabler first sat down to pitch herself as an NFL agent to aspiring professional football players, she addressed the obvious question upfront.

Yes, she’d say, I am a woman. But then she’d explain why her gender could be an asset for her job, in which she communicates with NFL teams, negotiates contracts and establishes marketing deals on her clients’ behalf.

“I would say, look, some of the people you trust most in your life are women. I think that’s true in most cases. This role, your agent, this has got to be both of us being honest and having open communication,” Stabler said. “I need to know if you’re hurting, if you think you’re concussed, where you are in your head. Are you happy and fulfilled? Sometimes men are willing to open about those things with women.”

This pitch helped Stabler, the daughter of Hall of Fame quarterback Ken Stabler, sign six players eligible for the upcoming draft as she’s become part of a growing number of female contract agents in the highly competitive and male-dominated industry.

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And a woman, Kim Miale, currently represents both the biggest veteran free agent on the market, former Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant, and a potential top-five draft pick in Penn State running back Saquon Barkley.

Stabler was one of 33 women (out of 224 total people) to take the agent certification exam administered by the NFL Players Association last October, the highest number of women since the exam began in 2001. Oklahoma City-based agent Kelli Masters took the exam in 2005, and she did not recall seeing another woman.

“Just because the NFL is so testosterone-driven and everyone has an ego, it doesn’t mean women can’t be successful. It was about shifting that mindset,” Masters said.

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Currently only 5% of the 830 certified agents are female, according to the NFLPA, but the 41 women with active certification represents a roughly 50% increase since 2010. Of the current group, 21 had a client signed to an NFL contract in 2017.

These are all encouraging changes for veteran NFL agent Kristen Kuliga, who began working as an attorney for a Boston sports agency in 1994. She has represented dozens of NFL clients, most notably former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie, and merged her firm with Vanguard Sports in 2017.

“My mindset is the more women in the business, the better the business will be,” Kuliga told USA TODAY Sports.

Stabler, 31, did not originally intend to become an NFL agent but decided to take the agent exam after her father passed away in 2015. Ken Stabler died from complications of colon cancer, but posthumous tests on the brain of the former Raiders quarterback revealed he suffered from the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

“When he passed away, I had a lot of anger. I was frustrated. I was angry at football for a while,” Stabler said. “I was dealing with a lot of uncomfortable feelings. I was in a place where I was like, ‘What am I doing with my time? I need to do something to make my dad proud.' ”

Stabler, who received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Alabama, her father’s alma mater, launched her own agency last fall, while still working as an intellectual property attorney in Mobile, Ala. Her client list includes Jacksonville State running back Roc Thomas, a transfer from Auburn; Florida State safety Nate Andrews; and Troy quarterback Brandon Silvers.

“It’s extremely important to me that I help them build better lives for when this is over. I hope they play for 20 years, but I want them to be able to transition – financially, emotionally,” Stabler said. “I want my guys to be able to run around and play with their kids. My dad was so limited because of football. To be able to set them up post-football, that’s something I think my dad would be proud of.”

Stabler said she feels lucky to not have experienced any overt sexism as she’s launched her agent career, and she’s grateful to women like Kuliga, who endured years of it.

Indeed, Kuliga and other veteran female agents who spoke to USA TODAY Sports said they have heard disparaging remarks, ranging from coded language – like hearing women are “too emotional” – to college coaches steering their players away from “that girl,” as well as vulgar sexual comments and harassment.

The worst behavior, several of them said, always came from their male competitors, not from players or NFL executives.

Masters recalled being approached by a male agent from a large agency at her first NFL scouting combine in 2006. She said he “grilled” her about her credentials and clients, and essentially told her to get lost.

“He trying to explain to me how I wouldn’t be taken seriously, all the reasons I should do something differently with my life,” Masters said. “At the time, I had one client. I had never negotiated a contact. Finally, I said, ‘Are you done? Let me tell you why you’re wrong. You’re going to have to watch out for me.’ In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘Wow, you’re really going to have to back this up.’”

Masters said she felt very alone in those early years and now hopes to help build a supportive community. At events such as the combine and Super Bowl, she regularly hosts social gatherings for female agents and other women who work in professional football. She and Kuliga have both hired aspiring female agents as interns.

Miale was one of Kuliga’s students at Suffolk University Law School and later interned for her before landing the position as an NFL contract negotiator for the sports division of Roc Nation, rapper Jay-Z’s entertainment agency. In addition to Bryant and Barkley, Miale also represents Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Shuster and Chargers backup quarterback Geno Smith.

“For the business as whole, the more women are, the less sexual discrimination there will be, the less sexual harassment will take place,” Kuliga said. “The more women, the more influence we’ll have in this space. I also think it’s important for young women to see they can do it.”

Follow Lindsay H. Jones on Twitter @bylindsayhjones.