Neil's brief primer:
Born and raised in Houston, Murphy spent most of his time on the baseball diamond and even fielded a couple of juco offers out of high school. However, he decided to attend Texas Tech because he wanted to go to a big school, get a good education and try to walk onto the baseball team. McGuire did make the team for one semester, but then decided to get intense about his studies so he could get into law school. He spent 2012-2014 as my right-hand man at ITL and top assistant before taking and passing the agent exam in 2015.
Active NFL clients: Murphy was the only independent rookie agent to have a player drafted in 2016 as Texas Tech WO/KR Jakeem Grant was selected 6/186 by the Dolphins. It was quite a year for Murphy, as not only was Jakeem drafted, but Murphy played a major role as the Red Raider was featured in the NFL Network series, Undrafted (check out Murphy and Jakeem in action here). Since then, Murphy's career has only gained momentum as he was hired by one of the top firms in the business, Octagon Football, in 2017. Today, he's one of a handful of young contract advisors to already appear on our list of agents by total clients; as of June 2019, he already has 17 active NFL clients.
Why did he become an agent?: "
I feel like I've always wanted to be an agent. It's something I've always wanted to do. I've always had an affinity for sports. When my baseball career was over, I decided I needed to go full throttle and try to really pursue this thing. It really just fell into place during my time in law school. I wasn't really sure about what it took to become an agent or what it entailed until I went to law school and I met Neil. It really just made sense from there and it really clicked."
Day job: Contract advisor for Philadelphia-based Octagon Football.
His take on the NFLPA exam:
"I think I was one of the first guinea pigs with this new way of them implementing the test. It was the lowest passing rate in a really long time. Luckily for me, I had studied for three or four weeks prior to flying to D.C. to take the test. I was pretty aware of what was in the CBA. Every slide at the seminar I wrote down. My hand was so cramped when it was done, but I'm one of those guys, when I write something down, I memorize it. And since it was an open-book test, it really helped me to go back to some of the stuff I might not have remembered during the test."
Hardest part of being an agent:
"Being a new agent and not being with a big firm, I think it's trying to prove to these young men that you are an established guy and you can take care of them and you know what you are doing. If I was with a big firm, I think it would make it a little easier for me because I've got the big name. At this point I don't have that, so I have to prove to these guys that I know what I'm doing. The hardest thing is just to get your foot in the door and make these guys believe that you can get it done for them both in the short-term and the long-term."
He felt like he'd had a successful first year as a contract advisor when:
"I had my first player drafted in my first year as a licensed agent. When his name got called it was pretty surreal."
Lesson he learned that he wished he'd known last summer:
"Not to get caught up in some of the other signings. You don't want to feel rushed. You still want to implement the plan you had, the strategy that you had from the outset. Strategies and plans change but you don't want to do it as an emotional thing, keeping your cool and sticking to the script you had is the best possible thing you can do because at the end of the day, that's how you have the best class. It's a marathon; it's not a race. Stay true to the plan you had at the outset and don't veer off path."
Neil Stratton
