Eugene Lee (born February 14, 1973) is an American sports agent. With over eighteen years of experience as an

NFLPA The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is a labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president J. C. Tretter and executive director DeM ...

certified contract advisor, Lee has represented over fifty NFL players over the past decade.

Background

Lee was born and raised in Canton, Ohio by his parents, a teacher and an engineer. Growing up, he was a member of the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

and earned the rank of

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle S ...

. After high school, Lee earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree, summa cum laude, in Accountancy from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

and his Juris Doctor degree from

Notre Dame Law School Notre Dame Law School is the professional graduate law school of the University of Notre Dame. Established in 1869, it is the oldest continuously operating Catholic law school in the United States. ND Law is ranked 22nd among the nation's "Top 1 ...

. Lee was a National Merit Scholar and a member of

Beta Alpha Psi Beta Alpha Psi () is an international honor society for accounting, finance and information systems students attending universities accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or the European Quality Improvement System ...

and

Beta Gamma Sigma Beta Gamma Sigma () is the International Business Honor Society. Founded in 1913 at the University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois and the University of California, it has over 980,000 members, selected from more than 600 collegiate chapters i ...

Career

After graduation from law school, Lee practiced law in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

at Fish & Neave and Brown Raysman where he specialized in the practice areas of

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

licensing A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...

ing, outsourcing and information technology.

ETL Associates, Inc.

Lee served as the founder and president of ETL Associates, Inc. ("ETL"), his first NFL player representation agency from May 2001 to April 2015. During this time span, Lee was the first NFL agent to negotiate a 53-man roster salary for a client on a practice squad. As a result of this negotiation, the NFLPA revised its bylaws and opened the door for other players to collect greater compensation while under contract to NFL teams.

MBK Sports Management Group, LLC

After ETL Associates, Inc., Lee formed MBK Sports Management Group, LLC in May 2015. It is an NFL player representation agency headquartered out of New York City with offices in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. As managing member of MBK, Lee is responsible for overseeing a team consisting of four NFLPA certified contract advisors, a player development consultant (and former NFL general manager) and five full-time employees. Lee and his team have negotiated NFL player contracts totaling well over $1 billion.

Television and Film

ESPN's 30 for 30 "The Dotted Line"

Lee was the NFL agent featured in

Morgan Spurlock Morgan Valentine Spurlock (born November 7, 1970) is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and playwright. Spurlock's films include '' Super Size Me'' (2004), '' Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?'' ( ...

's 2011 ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about the inside world of sports agents. The documentary, titled ''The Dotted Line'', revealed the behind the scenes lives of top NFL, NBA, and

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

sports agents and followed their ups and downs from recruiting and marketing top-tier clients to negotiating record breaking contracts.

Television

Lee is a frequent guest on

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

, Fox Business,

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

, CBN,

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...

and other publications to provide insight as an industry expert on NFL player contracts, the salary cap, the collective bargaining agreement and athlete branding.

Author & Motivational Speaker

In October 2015, Lee published his first book, ''My Brother’s Keeper: Above and Beyond The Dotted Line with the NFL’s Most Ethical Agent.'' The book focuses on several NFL players in various stages of their careers and the integrity and faith with which Lee conducts his business in an otherwise cutthroat industry. Lee speaks at law schools nationwide, including Harvard, Fordham University,

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and Notre Dame.

Philanthropy

Lee serves on the Board of Directors for the New York City chapter of

Positive Coaching Alliance Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is an American non-profit organization which strives to create a positive youth sports environment. Since its founding in 1998, PCA has established 18 chapters nationwide and has delivered more than 20,000 live g ...

, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the development and well-rounded growth of student-athletes and coaches nationwide.

External links

Michael Sam: Courage In The Line of Fire

Op Ed: Two Minute Drill

Brady's Burden: A Legal perspective on "Deflategate"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Eugene American sports agents 1973 births Living people