In the world of sports, you will at sometime come in contact
with the wives, significant others and the infamous jump-offs. Often you will come into
the players and athletes lives with little to no introduction which in turns
has the spouses, significant others and even the jump-offs giving you the
side-eye. They don’t care how many degrees you have, how you have your own man,
how you don’t even think this one is cute; they will give you the side eye and if you wanna keep your job,
you will have to build trust with them.
I once had a client who I had come aware of years before. He
had been a major player at Georgia Tech and when the draft came, they came for
him. By the time he and I began working together he had moved on to the Miami
Dolphins and was married with three or four children. He wanted to get more
exposure back home in Atlanta
so he was referred to me. We worked out a great plan to get him radio, TV and
special appearances. At first we kept our working life at the office but one
day on our way to an event he had forgotten something and needed to make a stop
by his house. When we arrived, I told him that I would just wait in the car but
he vetoed that idea and said get out, plus my wife needs to meet you. I agreed.
When we entered the house there was an eerie calm, it felt as if someone had
been watching us as we sat in the truck before coming in…. Well the wife came
down from the top floor of the immaculate house, as she walked down the stair
case the scowl on her face was not warm and well wishing. Her eyes looked like
daggers and she was looking at me. He hardly paid any attention and just said
something like yeah, this girl I told you about that works with my agent. She
do our Marketing.” Well I turned back to see if that would break the ice queen
stare, it didn’t. A bit weary, I walked over to her, extended my hand and
formally introduced my self. She hit me with “Hi”, no handshake. OK then I
thought as he disappeared down another stair case. She and I just stood in the
kitchen. I was hoping she would just say something; ask me whatever question
that was burning through her eyelids but nothing. I keep smiling when ever I
looked in her direction. Finally he comes back and says let’s go. I grab my bag
and head for the door. His wife screams, what time are you coming back and he
say, later. (WTF).
Now since he was a veteran NFL player, who had been married
for almost as long as he had been in the league, his wife had seen it all.
She’d had the groupies calling her house, she’d hired private investigators,
she’d moved out and most importantly she didn’t trust any woman around her
husband. She was apart of a crew of women whose men were professional athletes.
They all had the same style, same high priced designer bags, same stylists,
same attitude – stank as hell but could you blame them. They had the rings, the
kids, the house, the cars, the money but their man was somewhere else doing God
knows what else with someone else.
One night as our firm was courting a young athlete and
the sports agent set-up a night for the vets to take him out to see Atlanta and told me I
needed to tag along. We all met at the office then picked the rookie up and
headed to the infamous Magic
City. Luckily a guy I
knew from undergrad was managing the club and because I came in with all that
potential money, my drinks & food was free. (I was quite happy with that
deal!) Now what I didn’t know is that one of the dancers had an on going
relationship with one of the players who was out with us that night. I’m not
sure how long they had been involved but I did know she didn’t like him
bringing what seemed like sand to the beach. The guys were in VIP and I killed
time by seating at the bar with my guy friend and going over to check on the
party. Somewhere in the evening I had to go to the ladies room. When I finished
in the stall I walked out to three young ladies fixing their make-up. As I made
my way to the sink, one chic bumped me. Side stepping it as an honest mistake,
I was quickly informed that it wasn’t when one chic said, “So you with (bleep)?”
Knowing exactly what it was at that point and replied, “Yes.” The other chic
said, “So what are you to him?” I laughed and asked “why, cause you are not his
wife, so why are you asking?” The chic that bumped me chimed in and said
because we wanna know.” I just looked at them and walked out of the bathroom,
right over to VIP and told him what had just went down in the bathroom. He
laughed....Get the rest of this story when you pick up your copy of Industry Life & Times ebook series, Vol. II
