Earlier, we shared (and characterized) a report regarding the NFLPA’s “runner rule.” Per the initial Twitter report from FOX Sports, the NFLPA “tweaked” the runner rule, allowing non-certified employees who work with NFLPA agents to sit in on meetings.
PFT has since obtained a copy of the memo sent Friday to all NFLPA-certified agents.
Based on the memo, the runner rule hasn’t been tweaked or changed or revised. The NFLPA has interpreted the rule to allow a non-certified employee to meet once -- and only once -- with a potential client. The meeting must occur at the certified agent’s place of business, and the certified agent must be present.
More importantly, no other contact may occur between the non-certified employee and the certified agent. Specifically, there can be no phone calls, text messages, emails, social media contacts, or in-person meetings.
The rule permits only one meeting at the certified agent’s office. At the meeting, the non-certified employee can’t act as a closer. Instead, the meeting may happen “in order to introduce that player to the range of services and capabilities offered by” the certified agent’s firm.
It’s unclear how this interpretation has resulted in the reported decision by the NFLPA to clear Kim Miale, the certified agent who works for Jay Z’s Roc Nation agency, of violating the rule. Unless Jay Z (who is not certified by the NFLPA to represent players) attended only one meeting with the goal of introducing Jets quarterback Geno Smith to the services and capabilities of the firm with no other contact of any kind, a violation still occurred.
As a source with knowledge of the NFLPA’s rules explained it to PFT, it’s possible the union’s Committee on Agent Regulation and Discipline simply decided to cut Miale a break because she is relatively inexperienced and the rule is relatively new.