Andrew Brandt on his new book ‘Smarter About Sports,’ and the rapidly changing world of sports and business

Andrew Brandt has seen a lot over his decades in sports. The 65-year-old has served as an agent, a Green Bay Packers executive, and an NFL business analyst for ESPN. He is currently a sports law professor at Villanova and an NIL consultant for the University of Louisville and Villanova. Brandt also hosts The Business of Sports podcast.

You can now add the job of author to his list of accomplishments.

Brandt has a memoir coming soon: Smarter About Sports: My Life Navigating Athletes, Agents, Media, and the Business of the NFL will be released on July 14. We recently caught up with Brandt to discuss his book and the rapidly changing world of sports and business.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

What inspired you to write a memoir?

Andrew Brandt: “Since I left the Green Bay Packers 17 years ago, the No. 1 question I’ve been asked is ‘When are you going to write a book?’ I guess I’ve always thought I already do enough writing. I wrote columns long ago for a site I co-founded, National Football Post, and for ESPN.com. Then I moved to Peter King and Sports Illustrated in 2013. I write a newsletter every week. Then, of course, I write my journal, write for my consulting gigs, and write for my teaching gigs.

“But at some point, I felt like I needed to get everything I’ve experienced out there, and that need overcame my resistance to not doing it.”

Why should someone buy your book?

“The title comes from a time when I was at ESPN, and Mike Tirico came over. I’d never met him, and he just said to me, ‘You make us smarter.’ It’s something I’ve been trying to do throughout this chapter of my life, in teaching, writing, podcasting, being interviewed, and in my newsletter. Everything I do is hopefully to make people smarter about sports. This is kind of a culmination of that. My hope that they read this and, through dozens and dozens of stories about a life in the business of sports, they get smarter about sports.”

What did you learn during your time with the Packers?

“I think that at earlier points in my career, I tried to prove myself as a good negotiator and took advantage of maybe inexperienced negotiators, which led to lopsided contracts. I’m speaking specifically about my early days negotiating for the Packers. I learned the hard way that’s not the way to do things. In the latter part of my career with the Packers, I learned to leave things on the table, not squeeze every ounce out of every contract, and to make people feel good about dealing with me as a negotiator and, thereby, the Packers.”

How would you describe your style?

“My style is reasoned, measured, and respectful of the other side. I began my career working for an NBA agent named David Falk. He represented Michael Jordan and used that representation as extreme leverage, sometimes for the good of other clients. In other words, when we were negotiating with Nike, having Michael led to many shoe deals for players most people had never even heard of, simply by using that relationship to help others. But I saw David be relentless at times in negotiations, doing things I would never do. So, I learned a lot from him, and I learned that you have to adhere to your own style.”

What’s the biggest difference between being an agent and being a team executive?

“An agent’s like a fantasy football player. You’re just worried about different guys on different teams and trying to maximize those players’ earnings, regardless of how it fits the team concept. When you’re on the team side, everything matters. Every contract has a reaction to another contract. You have to be almost mechanically consistent. If you do something special for a player you like or an agent you like, you’ll have a line at your door with all the agents and players wanting that same little clause in their contract.”

What was Aaron Rodgers like back then?

“I knew him as a very young player, especially during the three years he was the backup, but we in the front office all had a fondness for him. I tell the whole story of the draft: how he sat in that green room for five hours, and finally, we called him. He came in with an incredible sense of confidence, a wry sense of humor, and California cool, as if he were never going to let anything fluster him.”

“He was coming into work every day and sitting with Brett, and poor Brett was sitting next to his replacement every day, and poor Aaron was never going to play, and we had to manage that. People turn away, saying, ‘Oh, they drafted a first-round quarterback, and they have Brett Favre.’ That was the easy part, the drafting. The three years of managing that situation before Aaron ascended were work.”

How did you become an NIL consultant?

“Louisville athletic director Josh Heird was at Villanova for several years. I didn’t know him well, but I knew him some. I obviously knew him as a great runner, too. I’d seen him running around the area. In the fall of 2024, I think he was at ACC meetings, hearing about the house settlement coming down the pike. He called me and said, ‘I got four words for you: Can you help us?’

“What that really meant was being a voice of experience in a professional sports model that is now being implemented at the college sports level. Advising on negotiations, cap budgeting, roster budgeting, roster construction, and the overall look of the athletic department, as well as meeting with senior management at the athletic department. I’ve been doing that officially since January 1, 2025.”

So, for Villanova, are you doing this for men’s basketball?

“Yes, and some women’s basketball. Louisville is football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, a little bit of track and field, a little bit of women’s volleyball, and whatever they may need.”

How many times have you looked at a reported NIL figure and rolled your eyes because it’s not true?

“I do that a lot. I would say over 50% of the things I look at, I’m like, ‘No.’ And listen, I’ve been a player advocate. I’ve been a player agent for over a decade. But I think a lot of people on social media feel that, even with these large salaries, the players are somehow not treated well. That sort of makes me shake my head. They’re making these large monthly payments, which are in essence salaries. They have a scholarship. They have the training table year-round. They have nice apartments and cars. Sometimes these programs stay at nicer hotels than I do. I get it. They make a lot of money in college sports, but sometimes it’s portrayed as if the schools and the NCAA are evil. And now being in it, I see a much different world than that.”

What will college sports look like in 10 years?

“I would hope for a system where it’s not perpetual free agency. Everything I say does not eliminate the idea that student-athletes should get paid. I would never be against that. I just think that, from a holistic point of view, we want student-athletes who have some commitment to their university and academics and who can feel like they have a home in 20 years, not somewhere they were for five months. Maybe we can bake into the system a way to incentivize people to stay, including coaches to keep their players longer.”