Earlier this week, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio made waves when he called out his colleagues for currying favor with NFL agents in the way they report player contracts.
“The agents use the reports of the value of the contracts they negotiate as recruiting fodder to get more clients,” Florio said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday. “So when the agents sends the group text to all of the folks who are clamoring to be the first ones to win the thumb race to Twitter with the details, the reporters don’t ask questions. They don’t push back. Because you know what happens when you push back? I found out. You don’t get the texts anymore.”
If Florio needed a specific example to support his claims, it came merely a day later as Zach Ertz and Dalton Schultz each signed new contracts.
Curiously, the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero used similar language in reporting the new deals for the tight ends, who are both represented by Wasserman’s Steve Caric. Both reporters referred to Caric as a “TE guru” while tagging both Wasserman and the agent in the post.
Three-time Pro Bowl TE Zach Ertz is signing with the #Commanders on a one-year deal worth up to $5 million, per source.
It’s a reunion for Ertz and Kliff Kingsbury, who got him a ton of targets in Arizona, on a deal negotiated by agent and TE guru @SteveCaric of @WassermanNFL. pic.twitter.com/GYvJaTmax0
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 6, 2024
Sources: The #Texans have agreed to terms on a deal to keep TE Dalton Schultz in Houston. He gets a 3-year, $36M new contract with $23.5M fully guaranteed at signing. Schultz is a key weapon for CJ Stroud.
The deal was done by TE guru and agent @SteveCaric of @Wass_Football. pic.twitter.com/DmvAEi43jm— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 5, 2024
As noted by PhillyVoice’s Jimmy Kempski, this could very well be a matter of Caric — or someone working on his behalf — requesting that the reporters use very specific wording when reporting the transactions.
Maybe only funny to me, but Zach Ertz’s agent is clearly telling reporters to call him a “TE guru” in return for scoops lol. pic.twitter.com/KJ5yfyjd06
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) March 6, 2024
As Kempski’s post gained traction, Wasserman director of football Molly McManimie pushed back, insisting that Caric has never used the phrase “TE guru” and that he has earned the reputation his through his work. If that’s the case — and it could be — then Pelissero and Rapoport both wording their posts in such similar fashions is quite the coincidence.
It’s also worth noting that while Caric does represent several tight ends (among players at other positions), Ertz and Schultz are arguably his two highest profile clients.
Regardless of how Caric earned the alleged nickname, the phrase “tight end guru” is objectively funny, especially for an agent. Does it mean he has some sort of special ability to connect with tight ends that no other agent has? Or does it imply that he understands the NFL landscape in a way that’s specific to one niche position?
Either way, despite McManimie’s objections, it’s easy to understand why many would view this as a thinly veiled transaction in which reporters are exchanging public praise of an agent for information. Surely, Florio agrees.
