Top 45 Quotes & Sayings by Leigh Steinberg

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American businessman Leigh Steinberg.

Last updated on April 14, 2025.

Leigh William Steinberg is an American sports agent, philanthropist, and author. During his 41-year career, Steinberg has represented over 300 professional athletes in football, baseball, basketball, boxing, and Olympic sports. He has represented the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft a record eight times. Steinberg is often credited as the real-life inspiration for the sports agent in Cameron Crowe's film Jerry Maguire in 1996.

American - Businessman | Born: March 27, 1949

Source: Wikipedia

My grandfather was running Hillcrest Country Club, and that's where a whole group of Hollywood comedians hung out.

Leigh Steinberg

Forty years ago the chances of journalists reporting - or the authorities even prosecuting - a pro athlete were practically nil.

Leigh Steinberg

School gives you the freedom to explore different philosophies, religions, aspects of yourself, and subjects.

Leigh Steinberg

I just knew that economics had never been my big motivation.

Leigh Steinberg

Challenge yourself, its fine not to be a totally finished person.

Leigh Steinberg

Then I went to UCLA - so of course I became a huge Bruin basketball fan... and later came to football.

Leigh Steinberg

We live in a niche world.

Leigh Steinberg

Very narrow areas of expertise can be very productive. Develop your own profile. Develop your own niche.

Leigh Steinberg

We can always find creative ways to do things.

Leigh Steinberg

Well, when you've had Tom Cruise play you, anything else is a comedown.

Leigh Steinberg

The whole concept of negotiating is intimidating to many people.

Leigh Steinberg

Well, my favorite sport as a kid was clearly baseball.

Leigh Steinberg

Hey, our Founding Fathers wore long hair and powdered wigs - I don't see anybody trying to look like them today, either... But we do look to them as role models.

Leigh Steinberg

Then the Angels came in 1961, and I fell in love with them.

Leigh Steinberg

The NFL today has bigger, stronger, bodies than ever, moving faster than ever, hitting a stationary object harder than ever before - so the physics of the hit have changed.

Leigh Steinberg

But the equipment to protect the players hasn't developed along with that, so now you have more players out with worse injuries, for longer periods of time.

Leigh Steinberg

Cameron was able to get an inside look at professional football from the standpoint of athletes and agents and general managers that few people have ever seen.

Leigh Steinberg

Now we're getting a whole generation of kids who have never had a football team in L.A., so they don't miss it and don't ask for it. It becomes self-perpetuating. They don't know what they're missing.

Leigh Steinberg

It is soooooo necessary to get the basic skills, because by the time you graduate, undergraduate or graduate, that field would have totally changed from your first day of school.

Leigh Steinberg

You know, we don't look much alike, but Denzel Washington would make a great sports agent.

Leigh Steinberg

I ran track, and basically played every sport.

Leigh Steinberg

I have to say that it was a very strange experience when, later in life, I represented Byron Scott and was negotiating with West - whose picture I used to have over my bed! That took some getting used to.

Leigh Steinberg

In reality, we can prove that the incidents of drug, alcohol abuse and violence have dropped dramatically among professional athletes - but the problem is it would be impossible to convince than fans, because of what they read on the AP wire.

Leigh Steinberg

I try to live in the moment, every moment.

Leigh Steinberg

Now some alien force seems to have come and captured the Dodgers. I don't know what happened to my Dodgers.

Leigh Steinberg

As for football in L.A., it's going to take a loooong time before another team comes here.

Leigh Steinberg

It's learning how to negotiate to keep both sides happy - whether it's for a multi-million dollar contract or just which show to watch on TV, that determines the quality and enjoyment of our lives.

Leigh Steinberg

I'd like to add that negotiating is not something to be avoided or feared - it's an everyday part of life.

Leigh Steinberg

Work needs to be a reflection of your social values. You are how you work!

Leigh Steinberg

Never underestimate the capacity of another human being to have exactly the same shortcomings you have.

Leigh Steinberg

The Super Bowl is like a movie, and the quarterback is the leading man.

Leigh Steinberg

Be open to the amazing changes which are occurring in the field that interest you.

Leigh Steinberg

When it came to football there was a certain age where I realized that my future in football was being a grease spot on the side of some bigger player.

Leigh Steinberg

But the truth is, growing up in California, we knew nothing about hockey.

Leigh Steinberg

We're all negotiators.

Leigh Steinberg

A player cannot be part of the training camp experience as a rookie unless he is signed to a contract.

Leigh Steinberg

For a generation that gets most of its information off a computer screen (be it Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or what have you), an athlete has to be very careful about the public/private aspect of that. Be careful not to be overly critical, be careful with use of language, and understand the whole world is watching.

Leigh Steinberg

Whatever fighting words you hear from the bargaining table, the reality is that with the new TV contract about to take effect and the incredibly lucrative ancillary revenue streams, both sides know we are on the verge of ushering in the most lucrative payday in the history of professional sports. The history of professional football is that nothing happens until the very last moment.

Leigh Steinberg

There's never a benefit to bragging too much about a deal because the only sure thing is that I'm probably going to be dealing with that same general manager or that same person over and over again.

Leigh Steinberg

The only thing certain about any negotiation is that it will lead to another negotiation .

Leigh Steinberg

When it comes to holdouts, there's a presupposition that the player is some angry rebel who's defying authority and only cares about the money.

Leigh Steinberg

People who have addictive problems usually have some subset of emotional difficulties that causes them to abuse substances.

Leigh Steinberg

I love the values football can teach. It gives young people a sense of how to defer present gratification for future success, it teaches self-discipline, it teaches teamwork, it gives them a bonding experience that can be hard to find somewhere else, it teaches the ability to process large amounts of information and apply it in real time.

Leigh Steinberg

So George Burns and my grandpa took me to my first baseball game.

Leigh Steinberg

As I write in my book, there is a misnomer that destroying another person's position is an effective and practical way to negotiate.

Leigh Steinberg