Damian Knight
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So part of my initial thought process was like, Hey, I know all these guys. And they're coming up on contract years and they trust me like we're boys. They're about to sign with me. This is going to be awesome. It's going to be a slam dunk. And that was just not the case. So I go through, I become an agent. I'm texting all my friends like, hey, man, I made it. I made it. I made it.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And they're like, cool. Like, are you going to work for a big agency? And I was like, well, you know, I reached out to a couple and I'm not going to name them, but like their morals and ethics just didn't align with mine. Right. So for that reason, I actually met someone else through the process of becoming an agent. We started our own agency together. Right.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So I have a business partner in this whole thing, Jeffrey Poe. And I was like, no, man, I'm going to do my own thing. And almost every player would be like, oh, that's bold. And I'd be like, oh, what do you mean? They're like, well, how about I make a call and you can work with my agent? And I'm like, oh, man, like, what am I getting my hands into? You know, I'm like, no, no, no. I trust myself.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I know the process. I'm going to kill it. And none of those players signed with me. Obviously, or else I'd be in a whole different boat right now. But I will say that those players would check in on me through the process. They'd ask me. They'd tell me about certain athletes that maybe aren't even in the NFL. They never made it, but it was their friends, so they could kind of connect me with them.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
But largely, man, connecting with these athletes, it's like online dating. You're sliding into the DMs. You watch. So, you know, the office now is, you know, Saturday watching a football game. And then you see a player who looks flashy and fast and you look up the stats on ESPN. And then you turn around, you read every report you've ever heard or that's ever been written.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And then you find them on Instagram and you go, hey, man, you looked really good on Saturday. You know, like I love the way that you attack the ball. Would you like to talk? You know, and it's like, it's really hit or miss. And obviously it's a little bit more in depth than that, but that's really what it feels like.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And you'll have players that, you know, they leave you on red and it kind of hurts your heart a little bit. You're like, man, I thought a lot into that message. And then you have players that'll immediately hit you back or you have players that'll never, ever even open the message because they have so many followers, you get lost in the mix. So yeah, I got really fortunate.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I guess it's a mixture of being fortunate and having a drive that a lot of other people don't. So when last year, October came around and they're like, hey, this counts as one of your years being certified. You only have three years to sign somebody or you expire. Oh, I'm getting somebody year one. That was my whole goal. I'm getting somebody.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And so I went through and started looking at every team across America, hopefully thinking that I could get someone in Florida. We got someone at FAMU, luckily. But outside of that, man, Florida is untouchable for me. I'm over here in Mississippi, Auburn, the Carolinas, you name it. I was able to collectively as an agency, we signed over 10 people in year one. And we were able to get
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
nine people into the nfl in year one and out of those people you know of the ones that i directly was kind of like the lead agent on two of them stuck in the nfl so i had two players stick in the nfl year one and the other ones we all got two or three tryouts for so it's not like they had one opportunity we we were able to provide them all the opportunity which is really our job at the end of the day right and you know i can't play football for you
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
You know, unfortunately, I wish I could, man, if I could, I'd be in a different tax bracket because I'd be out there, you know, right. So no, and it was awesome. So and again, we got we got a guy Swayze Bozeman for the Kansas City Chiefs and Alex Hale for the he's a kicker actually for the Green Bay Packers. So those are my two guys. And then my partner has several guys as well. So.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
That is a good question, man. We had a list, a laundry list of about 100 names and we hated every single one of them. And so instead of just like throwing them away, I started making logos. Like sometimes you have to see it, you know, for it to be the name. And nothing was sticking, man. Like nothing. And I was sitting on the couch one day, just got done playing with my daughter.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I just had a beer and I was sitting there and I was like, what, what am I doing here? Like, what is this agency about? You know? And the biggest thing is I don't want a player to ever think like, we're going to ditch them. Like, Hey, you, you used to be a guy and now we're going to forget about you. Like, no, I want to help you through retirement.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Even if you had one year in the NFL or 10 years in the NFL, I want to see you succeed afterwards too. Right. And so I was sitting there and I was like forever. And I just got stuck on the word forever. Right.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
and uh one of my boys hit me up he texted me he's like hey fam what's up and i was like fam i was like hold on forever and i just sat there and finally i sent it to my partner and he was like nah man that ain't it and i was like what do you mean like this is crazy like this is so good and uh the next day he called me up he's like hey man i was thinking about that like i actually think you're onto something and so i made the logo up and
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
you know, put it on a website and we're like, oh man, this is it. This is, you know, cause it just is who we are. Like cool. It's, it's cool branding. Right. But also like we treat every player like you are family. And that's not just being corny. Like I know about your mom, your dad, your sister. If you got a brother that was locked up, like I know that stuff. Right. And they know it about me.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Like I'm not trying to hide anything because I feel like if I'm open with them, they'll be open with me, you know? And that's just part of that process of getting
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Man, yeah, I really appreciate it, man. And I'm just trying to spread that positivity throughout the world, no matter what I'm doing, man.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Man, that's I don't think I've ever heard it worded that way. And I love that, though. Like, what is the because? And again, like, because I don't want to see guys get left behind. I don't want to see guys get forgotten about. And you hear this statistic of your NFL players three years after the NFL are broke. Yeah.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Well, even at the very minimum salary you can make, let's say you were even only a practice squad guy. So we'll look at like really the nuts and bolts. Like you only made $750,000. Right. And it's like only $750,000 is more than some people will make in their entire lifetime. Right. Probably my parents included. Right. So when I look at that.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And I realized that the NFL doesn't require us to make them have a financial advisor. That's kind of crazy to me. So I don't require you to, however, I highly, highly, highly recommend it. And we've already vetted a handful of them. So I make you vet them as well as part of the process. You want to join fam, you're joining and you have to like kind of abide by what we are going with, right?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Our system. And, um, I just don't want any of these guys to call me three years after the NFL and go, man, like you got a job because I'm broke. I need something, right? I want them in three to five years to be thinking, I want them to see, you know, that happening and then be able to call me and be like, dude, thank you so much. I am so glad I'm not in that, you know, situation.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And it's not, I don't even need to thank you, but I just want them to realize that that's what I want for them, right? I don't want them to feel trapped, you know? Yeah, that's good stuff, dude.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Yeah, so that's a good point. You know, when you talk about guarantees and in reality, you know, talking to the common people, if you take someone who's been in real estate, right? When someone has been in real estate and they go to sell their house or someone who hasn't been in real estate and they go to sell their house, what they're going to do is they're going to look at comps in the area.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
How much did my neighbor sell his house for? How much was my house sold for in the past? And what does the current market look like? Right. It's kind of the same thing with players. Cool. So I got a wide receiver who has these stats and he played in these years. Let me look at every other receiver who is similar in height and weight and shape and play size and.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
the years that they played and see how much that guy got, you know? Okay. So now we have our comparison amount and a lot of people they'll look at it as like, Hey, the Jacksonville Jaguars, they were offering me $1 million. Right. But no guarantee. Okay. Well, the San Diego, you know, or we'll say like the LA chargers, they were going to give me, you know, 2 million with 1 million guaranteed.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So at face value, You look at it as, all right, well, if I go there, it's double the amount and the total amount of Jacksonville is guaranteed in LA, right? Which is great, you would think. But now dial back a little bit, we have to look at the tax rate for those cities, right? And where are you playing your games?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Because a lot of people don't understand that you don't just get taxed for the state you're in, right? You get taxed for every single city you play in. And so if I'm on a West Coast team, I'm probably playing a little more on the West Coast. And we know those tax rates are higher, right?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Yeah, man. And so a lot of the times when you look at those West Coast contracts, it will be a lot higher for that reason. And people are like, oh, he must just be a better player. It's like, no, in order to be there, he needed more money to survive. So I would say that's kind of one thing to look at, but the guarantee is always the biggest thing.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
You could look at a contract and say, you're getting a three-year, $5 million contract, but four is guaranteed. That's awesome. Or you could get that same three years at the same location for $15 million, but none is guaranteed. You know, you have to really ask yourself, what do I think I'm going to get? Right. So if it's not guaranteed, there's probably incentives. Right.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Well, we'll keep it with wide receivers. Maybe he has to have X amount of touchdowns or X amount of first downs, or he has to, you know, have a thousand yards receiving every year to get a million dollar bonus, like whatever it is. And it's not just betting on yourself. A lot of players will be like, man, I'll bet on myself. I'm the best. And that's great.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Every football player in the NFL was the best at some point. And they probably still are like they're better than everybody else. You know, I mean, that is a fact. So it's great that you're willing to bet on yourselves, but you have to look at this whole thing as a business now. And they're bringing in other receivers with similar incentives, you know, and then the coaches know the incentives.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So sometimes, you know, in certain situations, quarterbacks or whoever will try to help you with that incentive. But maybe there's an incentive to the quarterback to not get you that incentive to save the franchise some money. So there's a lot that goes into it, man.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And I would say one of the other big things to look at, and it's back on that guarantee thing, is when you're looking at a guarantee, things are guaranteed regardless of skill, injury. And if you're a guy who's had a bunch of injuries and you can get a guarantee that says, hey, even if I re-tear the same ACL I've torn three times, I'm guaranteed a couple million, maybe it's worth you taking
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
some off the top to have guaranteed generational wealth you know so i think it's funny that when you get into this industry and this isn't with everybody but when you get into this industry and you're talking to a player about five million dollars and like man that's not much money it's like man you want to sit down and talk about how much i make real quick right so it is interesting when you when you hit that tax bracket and then start realizing what do you consider a lot of money you know oh you have to be making 20 million dollars a year to be making a lot of money
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
You know, that's that's crazy.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Man, I would say that's kind of twofold. So one, when we're going through our process of finding athletes, we try to really screen for that, you know, and that's hard because sometimes it'll come out later in life, right? But we really try to screen for that and like really do a lot of character evaluation on our players.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Man, that's definitely a good view on this whole thing. I wouldn't trade it for anything else, right? It taught me a lot of lessons. I joined super young. I graduated high school at 16 years old, thought the military was my way out. I had to get out of town.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
But I would say if I was faced with that situation, you just have to be honest with the player. Be like, look, you were the best. Now you have to prove that you're the best again because you're currently under a contract. You signed, right? And every year, It's kind of like, you know, if you compare it to the national debt, unfortunately, our debt keeps growing, right?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So the budget for the NFL keeps growing every single year. And so that debt that America has, things are going to adjust according to that debt, what percentage people are taking of it. It's the same thing with a salary cap, right? Every year that salary cap grows, you are already locked in. You're locked into whatever it is, and so now this player can get a larger percentage.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So it's really about how do we look at this in the future and make sure you're the highest paid again. So in order to do that, you have to swallow your pride for whether it's one year, two years, three years, and go out there and show why you're better than him every single year. Show why you deserve to make more than him every single year. So when that day does come, it's not even a question of –
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
If he's there, if he's lost a step, if he's worth the money, they're going to be throwing the money at you. So yeah, the ego may be there and then be like, hey, man, screw that. Release me. I got to go somewhere else.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
But the reality of it is a lot of times, even if you get released by that team because you feel this is a personal attack, when another team picks you up, they're picking up the same contract. Sometimes it's better, and I'll probably mess this up, but it's better to be with the evil you know than the evil you don't know. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably the way that I would approach that.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So I joined the Marine Corps and early on got identified to be part of this nuclear reaction team where I had to go through this big selection and everything was Super, a lot of red tape to get into, like realistically, right? Made me grow up really quick, especially for a 17 year old kid, right? That's what I was, a kid, you know?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Yeah. And everybody's at a different point, you know, so it's got to recognize that.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Yeah, man. And... It's kind of a revolving door, right? Like it's constant. You know, I think our only down time is maybe in the summer. Right. But I would say for me personally and as an agency, what we value. Right. And I'll say it time and time again. And some people take it the wrong way. But when you really unpack it and understand what I'm saying, it's a good thing.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So what I look for are great people who are good football players. Right. Because you can take a great person who is intelligent, who's good at football and make them better at football. Right. That is very possible. But if you have a person who's a great football player, they're a killer on the field, but they're not a good person.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
It's a lot harder to make that adjustment and make a character adjustment at 23, 25, 26 years old. Right. And I'm not saying that's not something I'm willing to do. I'm willing to help mentor and guide you and try to develop you. But some of those people don't want it. Right. Hey, I am the guy. I'm the best corner in the NCAA. I don't need to be a better person. Right.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Like that's kind of the attitude you'll get. And the reason that I'm looking for those great people is because, for example, a guy like Swayze Bozeman, right, who played college football for seven years, right, two years in junior college, five years of Southern Mississippi, had some injuries along the way.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
such a great guy and a high work ethic that we knew once he gets his foot in the door, they're not letting him go. Like we, we just knew that. And the thing is like when I went to the AFC championship game and I'm down on the field and I was meeting the linebackers coaches and defensive coordinators, they're like Swayze Bozeman. That is one of the best people I've ever met, you know?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And that's what I want to hear. Right. He's obviously in the room for a reason still. Right. But he's one of those people when there's an optional linebackers meeting, he may be the only person who shows up. And that goes a long way.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And if you're one of those guys with an ego or a chip on your shoulder and you don't show up to that, like you said, people will notice when you don't show up just as much as they'll notice you do show up, you know, and sometimes even more, they'll be like, man. he didn't show up to this meeting today. You could have been there 29 days out of 30 of the month and you missed that one day.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And everybody in the office is going to talk about the one day you didn't show up. Absolutely. So that's what we look for, man. And a lot of the times everything else follows after that, right? You find this person who's a great person and someone who is receptive to criticism and I just keep it real with these guys. I'm a lot different than most agents. I'm a little bit younger.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I just keep it 100% real with them. When they tell me, man, I'm the best, I'm the fastest, I'm the strongest, I'm like, maybe at your college, but not in the NFL. You're going to be one of the slowest if you don't get it together. Hey, if you want to be the best, you need to get off the video game and you need to get in the books. I just keep it real with these guys.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Because I don't want to see guys get left behind. I don't want to see guys get forgotten about. And you hear this statistic of your NFL players three years after the NFL are broke.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Again, at face value, there's some people who will be like, what did you just say to me? They get caught off guard because a lot of agents, I say we, because I've caught myself almost doing this, is you want to be a people pleaser. You want to be like, oh man, you're the best. You can do it, blah, blah, blah. But I don't think that does anybody a benefit.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
At the end of the day, you're just really just building this person up for mediocrity. And if you want to be great, if you want to be a guy who's in the NFL for more than two or three years, you have to show these intangible traits of why you're better than right? You got to have that work ethic. So that's what we try to get in all of our guys.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And then very quickly was put in charge of people and assets and, you know, seeing things that people only see in movies, you know, like very quickly. And it was awesome. I feel like it made me mature a lot quicker than my peers. You know, I'll go back home on leave and I'm 18 years old telling people to be careful and be responsible and this and that.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Man, this is going to sound cliche, but I guarantee you I work harder than anybody else in this industry, right? Again, everybody's going to say that, but why I know that that's factual is if you look at this entire industry, you have over a thousand agents as of this year. And I don't know the exact number, but it's between 150 and 200 agents actually have people on a roster. That's it, right?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So we're looking at about 20% of agents actually have someone somewhere. And if you look at myself and my partner, we have five people in the NFL. So we're not, it's not like, hey, we accidentally got a guy on the practice squad. Like, no, what we're doing is working, right? And in year two, like quote me, I'm gonna have, we're gonna have 10.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
We're gonna have 10 guys in the NFL and we're gonna keep building. And the thing is, Why we're different is I'm never going to give an athlete an intern's phone number or a secretary. You're always going to be able to get a hold of me, my business partner. We have another guy who does just endorsements, another guy who just does PR, and you'll have all their cell phone numbers.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
You're going to have the guy's cell phone numbers. It's never going to be, oh, can I take a message? No, you're getting a hold of somebody. That's no matter how big we get. Again, I say we've been growing. We have this year's draft class. We have guys we're doing NIL for in college. We have our pros. We even have one in the UFL now. We are getting everywhere quick.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
We brought in another agent who's actually NFL and NBA certified. Right. So eventually there's going to be an NBA branch of fam as well. And that's what we intend to keep doing is we get more athletes. We're bringing in more agents that are like minded to keep that ratio high. So you always have someone you can reach out to and you never get lost in the mix.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Man, I guess if there are any other athletes out there listening to this, what I would say is the money is going to come. Don't get so wrapped up in the money now. If you focus on your education and you focus on your development, your personal development on and off the field, the money is going to come. So don't get so wrapped up in it now.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Yes, I'm on Instagram, NFL underscore agent underscore Damian Knight, as well as Forever Athlete Management. That's our at. We're also on X as fam agency. And yeah, if you guys want, you can shoot me a DM. If you have any questions, I'm an open book. And yeah, our website is foreverathletemanagement.com. If you have any questions, want to submit, you know,
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And all they're thinking about is the party on Friday night or whatever's next, you know? So it was great. So I made a lot of really good friends, lifelong connections there at the, my first duty station in South Georgia. And then, um, I had a couple of options of where to go after and, uh, California popped up as one.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
any of your film or tape for us to look over, yeah, we'll definitely have someone reach out to you.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Yeah, yeah. No, again, I appreciate you having me on here and I look forward to going back and watching this when I have some time and sharing it with the people on the internet.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And I was like, man, I've never been, I've never been more West of like Mississippi at this point in my life. So I was like, let's do it, man. So jumped in, ended up getting stationed in 29 Palms, California, which was a, uh, It's the middle of nowhere. It's the desert. You know, the closest thing is like Joshua Tree, which is beautiful, but it's the desert. You know, it is what it is.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So I always told people it's in the middle of nowhere, but in the middle of everything, because, you know, everything in life is what you make of it. And I was about two hours from Vegas, two and a half hours from L.A., two and a half hours from San Diego.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So if you wanted to do something, you were in the prime location, you know, but if you wanted to sit there and sulk, you were also in the prime location if you want to feel bad for yourself. So one thing that I did early on was take in a lot of guidance and leadership from everyone. I just wanted to learn.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I volunteered for literally everything, even the things that going back, I wish I wouldn't have volunteered for. And I learned a lot and was able to develop myself as kind of a servant leader. And that's something that I transitioned into this NFL space of how can I best lead these
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
You know, they're not soldiers or Marines anymore, but they're high level athletes that, you know, they don't always have it all together. Right. So they need that mentorship and that guidance and that what's next planning. And that's what I feel the military was able to help me really transition into the space.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And that's the thing, man. I always tell people, you go back and check the transcripts, and they're not as pretty as they should have been. I had a mission. My mission was to get out of town, right? And so I went to my guidance counselor, my junior year of high school, and I was like, how do I get out of here? And they're like, well, if you want to... you could take night school, right?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So I was going to school normal, like nine to four o'clock every day, whatever it was. And then I would go work. I had a job. I was working at Zaxby's. I was working there from about five to eight every day. And then I would leave there and go to the technical college in town and take school with adults that were trying to get their GEDs. And
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
If you look at this entire industry, you know, you have over a thousand agents as of this year. And I don't know the exact number, but it's between 150 and 200 agents actually have people on a roster. That's it, right?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I was taking like a couple extra English classes and math classes just to check the boxes. And I ended up graduating with like a 2.7 GPA, but I got out of there, man. And it was a super busy senior year. You know, everybody has these stories of their senior year, how wild and crazy it was, man. Mine was, I started grinding right away. I was trying to get out of town, man.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
You know, if you go back, I don't think there was ever one catalyst. There was like multiple things that kind of led me into this path. And, you know, I got out of the Marine Corps, didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew how to shoot guns. Right. So I started working at these gun ranges and gun stores, just trying to make it make sense.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
After about four or five months, I was like, man, I need to be back in the military in some capacity. So I joined the Florida Army National Guard to try to become a Green Beret actually. And I went through this thing called Special Forces Readiness Evaluation where I actually got selected through this process to be able to continue training there.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And then I started college kind of simultaneously, definitely bit off a little more than I could chew. It was great, man. I started playing rugby in college, doing all this stuff. I was in probably the best shape of my life trying to do all these things at one time. And then COVID happened.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
When COVID happened, everything kind of slowly shut down in Florida more so than, you know, the pace it did the rest of the world. But I remember I was working at a gun store. I ended up meeting an athlete who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who's now actually one of my best friends.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
He's actually going to be at my house Sunday for the Super Bowl, like one of my best friends in the whole world. And I just kind of seen how he was treated by agents along the way and kind of like forgotten about here and there. And I just thought to myself.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
It reminded me of the military and all those times where I was forgotten about or kind of treated like a number when I knew like, hey, man, I'm the guy. Like, why are you treating me like a number, you know? And so I wanted to take that and apply it. You know, hey, how can I help these guys?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And, you know, during COVID, I went and I was actually a contractor for the Department of State as a sniper. There was nothing else to do. The world was shut down. So let me go make some money. And I did that for a while. I actually got stuck in Afghanistan because flights were happening.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I was supposed to be there for three months, ended up being there for like seven and a half, eight months, something like that. Wow. And came back, met my wife, who actually is the sister of one of my fellow rugby playing teammates. You know, so that was kind of cool.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And after that, man, she kind of convinced me to start my first business, which was, you know, kind of leaning into that long range sniper, you know, military background that, you know, I kind of had from all the things I had done and started my first company, which was like doing security consulting and teach people to shoot. and obviously it was easy. It was a lot of fun.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I was able to do all the stuff I liked from the military, but leave all the stuff I hated behind, which was great. Uh, it ended up teaching like a handful of NFL players, you know, every month how to do this. And I, you know, it, it started becoming a trend. It wasn't just one NFL player who would complain about their agent. It was,
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
you know, this guy and this guy, or maybe they wouldn't complain directly, but they'd be like, Hey man, this guy's tripping, you know, like he's got to figure this out. And I'd be like, you know, just kind of take notes. I didn't really ask many questions. I was just taking notes, you know? And finally asked one of my friends, like, Hey, do you think I should do this?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
He was like, Oh, a hundred percent, man, you kill it. And I was like, all right, when you hear that from someone in the space, you just got to, you know, Jesus take the wheel. You got to do it, man. And so I talked to my wife about that, too. It was a really big decision. And she was like, yeah, you can do anything you put your mind to. She's a rock star, man.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Like without her, who knows where I'd be. And I went back to school, got my master's degree and, you know, went through the process to become an agent, which I did not do nearly enough research for.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Yeah. So the first thing you have to, you have to have a master's degree or better like a terminal degree. So like a lawyer, doctor or something of that nature. And then you go through this application process, which opens up every January and they make it sound like it's just a normal job application. You know, you pay your fee and that's it. But then you open it up and it's like 160 pages.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And you're like, what, what am I getting myself into? I felt like I was back in the military about to try to go for top secret security clearance, you know? And you fill this thing out and it's asking you for references and everything you did. And a lot of jobs I've had, I've let people know like, hey, I'm going to put you down as a reference.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
There was no way in my head I thought the NFL was going to reach out to every single reference I put down. And I started getting called from Marines that I hadn't talked to in 10 years that were like, hey, bro, why did the NFL just call me? And I was like, oh, no. So I started like backtrack and trying to get everybody up and let them know. So anyways, you do this application in January.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
It's due by February. And then they go like radio silent. You don't hear anything from them at all until about May. And then all of a sudden they're like, Hey man, congratulations. You're eligible to take the test. And they, they send you, you have all these materials that are sent to you.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And I remember looking at it, you know, through the same lens I did in the military, which is when I was given information, I would just memorize it. Right. But this was like 700 pages and I had two months and I was like, Oh no, I can't memorize this.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And I thought I was going to, I told my wife, I was like, I'm going to sit right here every night when the kids go to bed, I'm going to memorize a couple of pages. And I opened it up and I closed it right back and I slid it aside. I was like, you know what? We have a seminar in a couple months. They'll teach me everything I need to know. Oh, boy. And I just trusted the process, man.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And I really didn't open the book at all until I went to that five-day seminar. And you go to the seminar and they're teaching you so much information. So basically, you go to the seminar like seven or eight every morning until about 5 p.m. And then what I was doing from 5.30 p.m. until midnight was studying all the information they just taught us. And I did that for five days.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
On the sixth day, you take the test. And, you know, I was hearing all these horror stories about people, because if you fail it the first time, you can take it again in a year. Right. If you fail it the second time, you have to come back in five years. I'm hearing horror stories. There was a lady in our class who's like, this is my fourth time taking the test.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
You know, and I'm no mathematician, but I'm over here crunching the numbers.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Wow. This is. And I was like, what do you do for a living? She's like, I'm an attorney. And I was like, oh, no. I was like, if an attorney can't pass this, and this is like a very law heavy, you know, book, I was like, this is, this is a wrap. I remember I can't, I called my wife after the test because the biggest thing people tell you is they time out.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
They, they, they lose track of time because the questions are too dense and you have basically three minutes of question. And, um, You know, when I did my average time at the end of this, I finished it in about 40 seconds a question. I just, I flew through the test and I called my wife and I was like, hey, I finished. And she was like, oh no, like, how was it? And I was like, I definitely failed.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
You know, like one thing that people probably don't associate with sports agents having to know is like these are the benefits the NFL gives you.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
Like, there's no way I finished that quickly and people are struggling with time unless I misinterpreted every single question. And I really think the thing that helped me the most is that I wasn't an attorney. So I didn't read too deeply into every single question.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And like, I'm very good at, from my time in the military, they give you a mission and you have to sift through a lot of BS, you know, to find out what you actually have to do as a unit. So it's the same thing I just went through and it may be. a 1000 word question that you're only looking for eight words, you know, and so I'm pretty good at skimming that and finding what I needed.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
And then yeah, it worked out, man. So you take this test in July, and you don't even find out again, it goes silent until October, whether or not you passed. So I finally got the call in October that I passed and hit the ground running, man, never look back.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
One thing that people probably don't associate with sports agents having to know is the benefits, health benefits that players get. Obviously, you expect us to know money. You expect us to know contract values, that kind of thing, because that's negotiation. But what we also have to know is if a player gets hurt because of an injury, how do you guide them through that process?
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
What does their medical recovery look like? It's not always as easy as the player is going to get help by the team. They could get released by the team and need one, two, three opinions, go on workman's comp. Now we have to navigate that state's workman's comp on top of the NFL's processes and so forth.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
I would say that's one of the things that really gets a lot of people are the benefits that you have to memorize. Like we're over here having to understand like the 401k that the NFL has, you know, the matching that the NFL has, like stuff that will never apply to me and I don't get a percentage on. So why should it matter? Right. But it's so you can educate your player.
Mick Unplugged
Transitioning from Military Precision to Sports Agency with Damian Knight
So they're set up for life after the NFL. And I would say that's, that has to be the biggest thing that I did not expect. They gave me 40 pages on, Hey, these are the benefits the NFL gives you. And I'm like, Oh, wow.