Sports Business Journal (Oct. 12, 1998)

When it comes to competition from the opposite sex, Jerry Maguire has nothing to worry about.

Although a number of female agents represent top female athletes, women have not begun to scratch the surface of the glass ceiling when it comes to representing male athletes in the four big-money major leagues.

As far as a female Leigh Steinberg, the agent on whom the movie “Jerry Maguire” was based, “there is no woman who would be the equivalent of a superagent in football, basketball or baseball,” said Gary Uberstein, a board member of the Sports Lawyers Association, a national trade group.

Uberstein said he has noticed that 30% to 40% of those attending the annual sports attorneys conventions are women. Many of those women, however, are employed in the sports television industry and in sports marketing firms and not involved in negotiating player contracts.

But there are a few…

Sheryl Shade, president of New York-based Shade Global, a sports management and marketing firm, is considered one of the top female sports agents in the United States, sports marketing experts said. In three years of athlete representation, Shade has signed several top female athletes, including U.S. gymnast Shannon Miller and U.S. soccer star Mia Hamm.

Although few women represent major league men now, “I think you are going to see a lot more women trying,” Shade said.

Shade is considering taking a plunge into the business of recruiting NFL players.

“It has been a man’s world, and you have to earn your reputation, and that is what I am doing,” Shade said. Women agents have “reaped some female athlete success, and the next test is going to be our ability to go out and get some males.”

Read the full Sports Business Journal article: “Women Agents? So Far, Only a Handful”

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