Representation reimagined for the modern athlete.

Est. 2026 · Los Angeles

A new kind of sports agency. Founder-led, small on purpose, and built around one belief: the right deal is the one still paying you ten years from now.

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Now Accepting Founding Clients
Philosophy

The athlete is the institution.

For most of sports history, the team has been the institution and the athlete has been the talent passing through it. We don't see it that way.

An athlete's career is the one thing that doesn't change. Coaches move, teams trade you, you might play in three different cities. The player stays the same. So does the money the player keeps. Brunson is built around that. Every contract and partnership is one part of a longer career, and we judge every decision based on where a client will be at forty, not at tomorrow's press conference.

That's why we keep the roster small on purpose. Depth over scale. Judgment over volume. A career, not a contract. And a financial plan built to outlast both.

S.B. Sam Brown, Founder

Your career deserves more than an agent.

Apply to the Roster
Roster · 2026

Founding clients wanted.

Brunson Sports Agency is brand new. We are not signing in volume. We are choosing the small group of athletes who will define the agency from day one.

Our roster is intentionally empty.

We started in 2026. We don't have a wall of headshots, fake deal totals, or a "selected clients" list. What we have is a clear philosophy, a founder who picks up the phone, and a small number of seats saved for the athletes we believe in.

Founding Slot 01

Your name here.

Open · Accepting Applications
Founding Slot 02

Your name here.

Open · Accepting Applications
Founding Slot 03

Your name here.

Open · Accepting Applications
Founding Slot 04

Your name here.

Open · Accepting Applications
Who we're looking for

A small group, taken seriously.

We pay more attention to the shape of a career than to a single highlight. The athletes who fit Brunson aren't always the loudest names. They're the ones with a long horizon, a clear point of view, and the discipline to build something that outlasts a single contract.

  • Pro and college athletes with a defined long-term vision
  • Rising prospects who value judgment over volume
  • Veterans planning the next phase of their career
  • Athletes building a brand beyond the field of play
  • Talent in football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and beyond
  • Anyone who would rather have a partner than a salesperson

Think you belong on the founding roster?

Start the Conversation
Services · 2026

A full-service practice.

One agency, one team, every part of an athlete's career. From the first contract to the chapter after sport. No outsourced specialists. No referral fees.

01 / Contracts

Contracts

Tough negotiation backed by real market data and long-term thinking. Every clause read, every option weighed, every dollar earned.

  • League contract negotiation & restructure
  • Free agency strategy & market positioning
  • Bonus, option, and incentive structuring
02 / Brand & Endorsements

Brand & Endorsements

We treat brand the way we treat contracts. With patience, taste, and a long view. The right partners, on terms that compound over time.

  • Endorsement & NIL deal architecture
  • Long-term brand partnership strategy
  • Equity, ownership, and venture deals
03 / Media & Content

Media & Content

An athlete's voice is an asset. We help build the platforms, productions, and relationships that turn it into a body of work.

  • Podcast, documentary & series development
  • Social and editorial strategy
  • Press, interviews, and crisis communications
04 / Financial Planning

Financial Planning

Career earnings should outlast the career by decades. We coordinate with vetted advisors who don't work in our office, because the same person handling your contract should never be handling your money. Conservative where it counts. Ambitious where it actually pays.

  • Wealth planning & advisor coordination
  • Tax, residency & entity structuring
  • Investment due diligence support
05 / Performance & Wellness

Performance & Wellness

We help build the team behind the athlete. Trainers, recovery specialists, and mental performance coaches who keep careers long.

  • Training, recovery & medical introductions
  • Mental performance & coaching
  • Travel, logistics & family support
06 / Post-Career Strategy

Post-Career Strategy

The hardest negotiation of any career is the one with the version of yourself that comes after sport. We start that work early, and we stay for it.

  • Front office, broadcast & media transitions
  • Founder, investor & board pathways
  • Education, philanthropy & legacy planning
— Disciplines

Same principles. Eight different sets of rules.

Every league pays its athletes differently, and the part of the contract that matters most isn't the same in any two of them. Click a sport to see how we read it, and how that reading turns into long-term money instead of just a flashy first-year number.

  • How we play it

    Most of an NFL contract is air. The headline number can disappear the moment a player gets cut. So we negotiate as if the guaranteed money is the only money that exists. Hard money first, signing bonus structure second, and the deal front-loaded so the value is in the bank before anything goes wrong.

  • How we play it

    NBA money is mostly guaranteed, so the work moves to optionality. When to extend, when to opt out, how to time the next contract against the cap and a team's flexibility window. We think three contracts ahead instead of one, and let that math drive every signature.

  • How we play it

    MLB is the sport where the money happens late, after six years of service time. The decision that matters is whether to take an early extension or wait it out. We make that call with the math, not the hype. Done right, one pre-arb deal can be the difference between generational money and just good money.

  • How we play it

    Soccer is the only sport where a contract has a second life. Every transfer is basically a new negotiation. We treat the buyout clause, the image rights split, and the loan terms as if each one is its own deal, because in five years, one of them probably will be.

  • How we play it

    In a hard-cap league, structure beats raw AAV. Signing bonuses are the part of the deal protected from the next work stoppage, so we push the bonus skew forward. The no-trade list, term, and team cap calendar all get weighed against each other instead of chasing the cap-hit headline.

  • How we play it

    Fighters get paid out of three pools: purse, sponsorship, and PPV. One of them almost always gets ignored until it's gone. We negotiate the sponsorship calendar with the same intensity as the purse, because for most fighters the longest-paying part of the career is still five fights away.

  • How we play it

    No team, no salary. The brand portfolio is the paycheck. We treat partnerships the way other sports treat contracts: multi-year, layered exclusivity windows, and equity wherever we can get it. The goal is a deal book that keeps producing through a swing change, an injury, or a cold year on tour.

  • How we play it

    Olympic sport pays in four-year waves, and federation rules quietly shape what's possible the rest of the time. We plan against the calendar. That means locking in sponsorship before the year actually matters, and protecting commercial rights through the rule pages most athletes don't read until they cost them.

One practice. One team. Every chapter.

Talk to Us
About · 2026

A new kind of agency.

Brunson Sports Agency was founded in 2026 by Sam Brown on a simple bet: that athletes are better served by depth than by scale.

Sam Brown, Founder of Brunson Sports Agency — Founder
Sam Brown Founder · CEO

Built around one belief.

Sam Brown founded Brunson Sports Agency in 2026 after years inside the traditional agency world. Long enough to see what it does well, and where it stops short. The goal was never to start a bigger agency. It was to start a different one.

Brunson is built to be small on purpose. A founder-led practice with a tight team, a small roster, and the kind of attention that big agencies structurally can't give. Every athlete on the roster works directly with the founder. That isn't a marketing line. It's how the agency actually runs.

“The work isn't getting the deal. The work is making sure the deal still looks right ten years from now.”

— Principles

Three rules we don't bend.

— 01

Selective by design

We will always represent fewer athletes than we could. The roster size is the product. Less is the strategy.

— 02

Founder-led

You will not be handed off to a junior account manager. The founder is on the call, in the negotiation, and on text the night before the deal closes.

— 03

Career, not contract

We measure ourselves by the shape of an entire career, not by the size of any single deal. Long horizon, every decision.

— Voices we listen to

The wisdom we're building on.

Brunson is new, but the thinking isn't. The principles we work from come from years of listening to people who have lived inside this business. Veteran agents, players' association lawyers, professors who teach sports law. A few of the lines that shaped us:

If you've been through enough of this, you can anticipate some of the stuff that could go wrong. The inexperienced ones lean on the union to get them through it.
Ethan Lock, NFL Agent & Sports Law Professor, ASU
On why experience matters in negotiation
I don't know that you want your agent handling your money. When the same guy doing the contract is also touching the financial side, there are conflicts of interest you don't see coming.
Ethan Lock, on separating contract work from wealth planning
The reason we coordinate with outside advisors instead of handling money in-house
Most guys think they deserve more than the market will bear. They don't really consider the market. But if you're an agent, you have to.
Ethan Lock, on the agent's job
What it means to actually represent someone honestly
— Roadmap

Where the practice is going.

  1. Now / 2026 Live

    Founding chapter

    Doors open. We are accepting a small number of founding clients across sport and discipline. Every conversation goes directly to the founder.

  2. Phase One

    Build the practice areas

    Stand up the in-house contracts, brand, media, and post-career teams. Bring vetted financial and performance partners under one roof.

  3. Phase Two

    Grow without scaling

    Selectively add a small number of additional athletes, only where we can hold the standard the founding clients were promised.

  4. The Horizon

    A practice that outlasts the careers

    The ambition is simple. To still be the right partner ten and twenty years from now, for the athletes we sign today, and for the chapters that come after the playing career.

— FAQ

Questions, answered honestly.

You shouldn't, unless the answer is obvious to you. Founding clients sign because they want the founder's full attention, a stake in how the agency is built, and a partner whose interests line up with theirs. If "biggest agency in the room" is what you want, you should pick one of those. We'll tell you that, plainly.
The founder. That's the entire point of the agency and the reason the roster stays small. As we grow, we'll hire. But the rule that the founder is on every client's deals is structural, not aspirational.
We work across sports by design. Football, basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, combat sports, golf, tennis, Olympic, and action sports. Our clients include pro athletes, rising prospects, college athletes navigating NIL, and veterans planning the next chapter.
Standard, transparent, and within league-regulated maximums where applicable. We will walk through every number with you in writing before anything is signed. No referral kickbacks. No hidden retainers.
Use the contact form, call or text (949) 293-4446, or email sambrown3rd@icloud.com. Every inquiry goes straight to Sam. Expect a personal response within 48 hours.

Build the next chapter with us.

Get in Touch
Industry · The Read

What we're reading.

A curated reading list for athletes, agents, and anyone trying to understand where the representation business is moving, sport by sport.

We don't break news. We read it carefully. The list below points to the publications and beats we follow most. The ones still doing serious reporting on contracts, agents, unions, and the smaller mechanics that decide whether a career grows or just peaks. Filter by sport, or browse the whole shelf.

Sportico · Football

How NFL guaranteed money is quietly reshaping the contract

Coverage of the post-Watson era and how guarantee structures, not headline AAV, have become the most negotiated part of an NFL deal.

Read at Sportico
Front Office Sports · Football

Inside the working economics of an NFL agent

Ongoing reporting on the small group of agents who actually move the football market, and what it costs to run a representation practice that lasts.

Read at Front Office Sports
Sports Business Journal · Football

CBA, cap, and what the next round of bargaining could rewrite

Long-form analysis of how the next collective bargaining cycle could reshape player compensation, and what agents are positioning their clients for.

Read at SBJ
The Athletic · Basketball

The three-contract player: modeling NBA career earnings

How agents and front offices are starting to model value across the rookie scale, the second contract, and the supermax window, instead of one deal at a time.

Read at The Athletic
Sportico · Basketball

Player empowerment, five years in

How player options, no-trade clauses, and roster control reshaped the NBA's leverage equation, and where the next pendulum swing is starting to land.

Read at Sportico
Front Office Sports · Basketball

The Klutch and CAA effect on what representation means

Reporting on how the largest NBA agencies have raised the floor and the ceiling for what an agent is now expected to deliver beyond the contract.

Read at Front Office Sports
The Athletic · Baseball

Pre-arb, service time, and the math of an early extension

Why the timing of an MLB extension is often worth more than the dollar value of the offer itself, and how the best agents model that decision.

Read at The Athletic
Sportico · Baseball

Boras, the open market, and managing a career toward free agency

How baseball's most prominent agency consistently steers clients toward the open market, and why that approach doesn't fit every player.

Read at Sportico
Sports Business Journal · Baseball

Service-time manipulation: the long quiet fight

Running coverage of grievances and pending CBA fights over how teams keep prospects in the minors, and what's actually changing.

Read at SBJ
Sportico · Soccer

FIFA's agent reforms and the European pushback

Coverage of the Football Agents Regulations, fee caps, and the legal challenges shaping how working soccer agents do business across borders.

Read at Sportico
Front Office Sports · Soccer

The MLS Designated Player and how the cap actually works

Reporting on how MLS structures keep evolving around DP slots, GAM/TAM mechanics, and the U22 initiative, and what that means for player value.

Read at Front Office Sports
The Athletic · Soccer

Image rights and the modern soccer contract

How European clubs are negotiating image-rights companies and personal sponsorship windows, and why a soccer contract is really a bundle of separate deals.

Read at The Athletic
Sportico · Hockey

The signing-bonus era of NHL contracts

How hockey agents structure deals around the lessons of the last work stoppage by front-loading bonuses to protect against the next one.

Read at Sportico
Front Office Sports · Hockey

No-trade lists, recapture, and the things agents quietly negotiate

Smaller mechanics inside NHL contracts that don't make headlines but determine what a player's career actually looks like five years in.

Read at Front Office Sports
Sports Business Journal · Hockey

Inside the NHL agent network in the cap era

Coverage of how a small group of NHL agencies came to dominate the market once the cap put real pressure on every dollar negotiated.

Read at SBJ
Sportico · Combat Sports

UFC fighter pay and the antitrust reckoning

Ongoing coverage of the long-running fighter antitrust case and how its resolution could reshape MMA contracts for the next decade.

Read at Sportico
Front Office Sports · Combat Sports

PPV splits, sponsorship, and what fighters actually keep

Reporting on the still-changing economics of boxing's biggest cards and how managers structure the three different pools fighters get paid out of.

Read at Front Office Sports
The Ringer · Combat Sports

MMA sponsorship after the outfitting policy

How fighters and managers work around the UFC's outfitting deal and where modern sponsorship money actually lives now.

Read at The Ringer
Sportico · Golf

PGA Tour, LIV, and the new player-economics question

How agents are advising clients on the choice between guaranteed LIV money and PGA Tour equity programs, a decision with 15-year tax and brand consequences.

Read at Sportico
Front Office Sports · Tennis

The tennis endorsement stack

Long-form on how individual-sport athletes assemble portfolios of overlapping brand partnerships across racket, apparel, watch, and lifestyle categories, and how the layers compound.

Read at Front Office Sports
The Athletic · Golf

When the career is the brand

Long-running coverage of how golf and tennis players manage commercial value across decades instead of seasons, and what happens when the career outlasts the contract.

Read at The Athletic
Sportico · Olympic

Rule 40 and the Olympic athlete's marketing window

How USOPC and IOC rules limit Olympic-athlete commercial activity, and how agents work around the restrictions during games years.

Read at Sportico
Front Office Sports · Olympic

NIL and the Olympic pipeline

Coverage of how college NIL deals are reshaping the way Olympic-track athletes earn money before the four-year payday actually arrives.

Read at Front Office Sports
The Athletic · Action Sports

Action sports brand-building outside the quad cycle

How surf, skate, and snow athletes build commercial value through brand exclusivity windows that run independent of the Olympic calendar.

Read at The Athletic

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Contact

Let's talk.

Roster applications, brand inquiries, and press all go to the same place: the founder. Expect a personal response within 48 hours.

Every inquiry, whether roster, brand, or press, goes directly to the founder. Reach Sam by phone, text, or email below.

Based In

Los Angeles, California

Phone & Text (949) 293-4446
Founder

Sam Brown · Direct line

Response Time

Within 48 hours, every time.

— Apply to the founding roster

Or reach Sam directly: (949) 293-4446 · sambrown3rd@icloud.com

Application received. Thank you.

Sam will personally review your application and be in touch within 48 hours. Every inquiry is read directly by the founder.

Need him sooner? (949) 293-4446

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