Leigh Steinberg was the biggest agent in sports long before “show me the money,” the iconic catch phrase from the Steinberg-inspired film “Jerry Maguire,” became part of the everyday American vocabulary.
During his career Steinberg had negotiated contracts reportedly worth more than $2 billion for a client list that included Super Bowl winning quarterbacks Steve Young, Troy Aikman and Ben Roethlisberger, and world champion boxer Oscar De La Hoya. An unprecedented eight of Steinberg’s clients were selected as the top overall pick in the NFL Draft.
But by 2009 the Newport Beach-based agent, had by his own admission, “hit rock bottom.”
He was unable to work as an agent, decertified by the NFL Players Association, was millions of dollars in debt and facing a series of lawsuits. Two of his children were afflicted with retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that causes near blindness. He had lost his home and his marriage. And after bouncing in and out of rehab for two years, he was losing his battle with alcoholism.
“By 2009 I was focused on sobriety and not focused on lawsuits,” Steinberg said. “I had people telling me ‘Hey, you’ve got to save your life.’”
An interview with Steinberg, 62, by The Orange County Register and documents filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week reveal how the life of one of American sport’s most influential figures, the original uber agent, unraveled, a fall from grace that mirrors the script of the blockbuster film he inspired minus, at least for now, the Hollywood ending.
“I felt like I was in the movie Pinocchio, in that scene where the kids go off to the island and they smoke and drink and break windows,” Steinberg said. “The only problem is they turn into donkeys.”
Steinberg, who once negotiated a series of record-setting, multi-million dollar deals for Hall of Fame clients, filed for Chapter 7 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana on Wednesday, saying he is $3.18 million in debt His list of creditors include a former NFL player, a top college coach, a prominent Orange County company, a group of Philadelphia-area businessmen and a local socialite, according to documents filed in the case.
“The wreckage I’ve created,” he said referring not only to his financial problems.
