THE SUPER AGENT | LEIGH STEINBERG

We spoke with legendary sports agent, author and philanthropist, Leigh Steinberg. It was intriguing to hear how he became a sports agent before it was a core field and what research and strategy he puts into win-win dealmaking. Agents, managers/owners and entrepreneurs alike surely benefit from listening to and following his tried and true methods. He is all about making relationship bonds and helping athletes on and off the field. We discuss some of his major sports deals; working with top sports players and teams; as well as landing endorsements that align with player values. His new book, The Comeback: Resilience, Empathy and What Matters, comes out this Super Bowl, and includes his story of alcohol addiction and rebounding to be over a decade of continuous sobriety, as well as continuing to help athletes on the field; their health; as well as being a role model and supporting their respective communities, nurturing young sports talent, and during local tragedies.

ATHLEISURE MAG: So what led you to become a sports agent?

LEIGH STEINBERG: Well there really wasn’t a field of organized sports agentry when I began.I was a dorm counselor in an undergrad dorm working my way through law school and they moved the freshman football team into the dorm, and one of the students was the quarterback, Steve Bartowski, and in 1975 he became the very first player picked overall in the draft, the first player in the first round, and he asked me to represent him. I was out of law school a year choosing between different offers, and all of a sudden here I had the first pick in the NFL Draft and we ended up with the largest rookie contract in NFL history.

So that got it started, but my dad had two core values. One was treasure relationships, especially family and the other was make a meaningful difference in the world. In that very first experience, I saw that athletes were venerated in idol worships and that if I used their experience to try to trigger positives in the world that we could send them back to the high school community, and they could set up scholarship funds, or work with Boys and Girls Club, or a Church at the Collegiate level, they could endow scholarship or retrofit equipment and bond with the alums, and at the pro level that we could set up a charitable foundation that would attack some problem that bothered them in the world and use the leading business figures political figures and community leaders to assist in executing the program.

So that’s work done and running back who just put the 220th single mother and her family into the first home they’ll ever own, or Patrick Mahomes II his 15 and the Mahomies it helps at-risk kids, kids in hospitals, kids without enough to eat, and so that’s how I began, and that’s been the spirit of our firm.

AM: So how is it that you built the relationships with the team owners, the managers, and the GMs to get to some of those biggest deals ever?

LS: I think the whole key in life is listening skills. It’s being able to draw out another human being cut below the surface; understand their deepest anxieties and fears and greatest hopes and dreams; and see the world the way the other person sees it.

Now put your heart and mind into the heart and mind of a general manager, of an owner, of a potential client, and really people don’t tend to share their deepest emotional feelings very easily - so you have to create an atmosphere of trust around another human being so they’ll peel back the layers of the onion and show you who they are, and then you can craft win-win scenarios.

AM: That’s great. So what is it about win-win negotiating that has such big results? We’d love to hear more about your formula.

LS: So it’s first of all, doing an internal inventory so you understand how important is short-term economic gain and how important is long-term economic security. What about family or geographical location, or profile or autonomy and for an athlete? How important is being on a winning team, the quality of coaching, the system that they run the facilities.. and it’s to have an understanding if you’re representing a client of really what is critical to them in this transaction. It’s understanding what’s critical to a management type in the same situation. So it’s doing research ahead of time, it’s understanding the business, the profitability, the revenue streams and in contemporary sports salary caps, and understanding how they work and how to work around them. So it’s really a commitment to a win-win scenario where both parties walk away happy, and it takes creativity so there are times where you need to think outside the square and be more creative in how to problem solve.

AM: There’s so many lessons that you could give us just in an entrepreneurship in general, so what were some of the tools you used or even a war story about when you saw an owner a manager and or GM on the other side, but they weren’t really meshing where they agreed on what to do?

LS: So that’s where it can be important to go to the ultimate decision maker, and hopefully if I can negotiate with an owner.. can I create a concept of whose reality will govern in the situation. So one of the things I do is to create exhibits that show exactly how valuable a player is in a series of statistical categories or honors and that just how that relates to the market, so if we’ve done that correctly it should be a blueprint for a logical conclusion. So instead of saying I want the money or the most money, or whatever you’re trying - motivate the other side through logic, statistics and give them a framework to view compensation through.

AM: What has been part of your recipe for building strong relationships and bonds on and off the field?

LS: Part of it is not embarrass people publicly. That it’s understanding that there are, especially in sports having public exposure, putting the team in an awkward position creating a conflict publicly doesn’t near to the benefit of a client. In other words, you should try to do these things seamlessly behind the scenes quietly so that the first time anyone even knows negotiations are happening is when you have a happy player sitting signing his contract. So it’s being careful to safeguard relationships. if you’re in a situation where someone from the other side has his neck exposed and you’re tempted to step on it, the only thing I can tell you for sure is your neck will be exposed at some point in the future, and I think it’s critical to honor those relationships.

We live in primarily an oral world, so your word is your bond. So I think it’s really important to be trustworthy and to not try to build your own stature through diminishing others.

AM: Very true. So I know you’ve been asked a lot about Jerry Maguire in the past. It really hit me hard when I got to see it, so I wanted your impression by being an advisor, by being the inspiration and also the memo and the infamous tagline - I’d love to hear your thoughts about it.

LS: Well for the memo as you know, our concept is role modeling making a difference in the world. So it’s a boxer Lennox Lewis cutting a public service announcement that says real men don’t hit women and that could trigger behavioral attitude in rebellious adolescents more than a thousand authority figures ever could. So Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) called me up, the writer/director in ‘93 and asked if he could follow me around for a film that would be based on a sports agent. So he went to the NFL draft with me in New York. He went to league meetings in Palm Desert. He went to Super Bowl. He came to a series of games with me and went to pro scouting day at USC. He was like a fly on the wall and I told him stories.. lots and lots of stories and what part of those stories went into it, I’ll leave to Cameron, but then I was technical advisor so I had to vet the script to make sure [there was] the willing suspension of disbelief that holds you in the picture, and that the dialogue seems real, that the look is authentic and didn’t get tampered with, and then I worked with the actors.

I took Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Men of Honor, Boyz N The Hood, Selma), who played the wide receiver down to Phoenix for the Super Bowl and made him pretend he was a wide receiver client of mine all week and he hung out with Desmond Howard and Amani Toomer. I actually had to show the quarterback in the film played by Jerry O’Connell (Stand By Me, Las Vegas, Scream 2) how to throw a spiral because he had gone to NYU and they didn’t have a football program. So anyway it’s been 27 years and still every time I go to an airport or go out to dinner someone runs up to the table and either asks me to say those four words or says them to me that start with ‘Show Me The..’

AM: And is it taken well by you for the most part?

LS: Sure I think that I believe the film humanized sports agents and showed some of the true caring that goes into the relationships and you know it was the highest grossing sports film of all time until The Blind Side came along.

AM: Hmm, well we love that movie and thank you for being part of it and being an inspiration. It’s also inspiration for business people on passion, ethics, discipline and holding on; it’s an inspiration for people in romance - I mean the movie does go beyond sports too.

LS: So it’s really cool one of the reasons it was popular was the relationship, yeah romantic relationship. I have a new book coming out at the Super Bowl and it’s about resilience. It’s called The Comeback and it comes from the realization that life will frustrate us all at some level, hopefully minor and not catastrophic, but in many cases because of divorce and relationship problems and financial problems and substance abuse, people hit a situation where they lost their way and and they seem to be destructive. So the question is not whether that’ll happen in some form, it happens to us all. It’s how do you come back from that? How do you find resilience seeing the light at the end of the tunnel? So, it’s stories of resilience, including my own story.

AM: That’s really cool, looking forward to reading it. A lot of people need comebacks and you know as you’re speaking I think there is also a big epidemic right now of people functioning in their jobs or tasks or relationships but silently maybe not liking it or fitting where where they’re they might be just accomplishing the status quo but they need that pivot or growth that we kind of all need a comeback.

LS: Right, so sometimes not the most devastating moments, but it could be assessing yourself every now and again and making sure that you’re on the right path that’s where that internal assessment tool where you know short-term economics, long-term economic, profile making a difference in the world autonomy - you know vacation, whatever it is it’s having the most pristine clarity as what really will bring fulfillment to a person.

You know it’s fair to say, I battled with alcohol and crashed back in 2010, and so you know people are out there still suffering. The first key is breaking denial. OK, alcohol and addiction is a disease that tells you that you don’t have a disease, so it’s having some clarity about the fact that you’ve hit bottom. You don’t want to live this way for the rest of your life and you’ll take action. My action was a 12-step program, with a unique fellowship and the point is there is light at the end of the tunnel. I mean I just turned 15 and a half years continuously sober, so the point is for people out there despairing, who are confused and despondent - reach out! There’s help available and you can turn your life back into the fulfilling journey that you hope for that’s great.

AM: Let’s discuss the groundbreaking Mahomes deal, so how is it going through all that when you land that deal in 2020 with the Chiefs? What were you feeling when you closed the deal? What did it take to get there? How did Patrick feel and I guess you guys were on top of the world then!!

LS: Again, I think it’s understanding every client and to Patrick what was important was winning and wanted to go to the super bowl. In other words, it wasn’t enough to be the highest paid player on a team that was losing or under, so it’s part of what’s different about representing athletes, is that you’re not representing a corporation or a pig iron manufacturer or some commercial, and they’re a human being, so that you start to grow and care for the person you become bonded with. So being able to guarantee lifetime security felt really good.

AM: You have been a such a pioneer involved with endorsement deals. You know it’s great, that in the endorsement deals that you advocate and close for like-minded values between the players and hopefully the brand at the time and continuing. How is it finding those relationships between athlete and brand and showing athletes that they don’t just have to do things for money, that they could do things with money and values attached.

LS: Well one of the things I’ve tried to be careful of is advising clients not to do all that many endorsements [until] they’ve established a sports career. So to sort of take it easy so Mahomes didn’t do endorsements his first year, he wasn’t a starter and the second he was at the end of that year it was fine, but you want to prove to the fans of the city, to the ownership, to the other players that you’re serious about football or baseball or basketball, and you’re committed. Also hopefully set up a charitable foundation that shows you’re serious about being involved in that community, so a lot is about values, it’s about understanding that high profile is a role model and that your associations with products and and companies in the world ought to do what you suggested, which is to share the same values about what’s important. If you believe in helping people, then there’s a component there and each of the deals can actually have a structure where they go back to help the charity.

AM: Then sometimes you’re involved with helping athletes give back just to a disaster and being involved with the situation. How do you help facilitate those positive impact scenarios?

LS: I remember Ben Roethlisberger donated when they had the big tidal waves in Thailand. He donated a game check to relief, so it’s having an awareness of the time and place. One of the things we’ve been able to do at our Super Bowl party which I hold every year, is to address problems. So for example, back in Miami around 2008 or 2009, we shipped the water machine to Haiti. They had just had an earthquake and cholera problems with impure drinking water, we were able to ship a water machine that purified the water for 140,000 people. So it’s when we had troops in the field, we did a live hookup with troops between the Super Bowl party and Afghanistan and Iraq, so it’s having an awareness of what’s going on societally.

Years ago I created something called the Sporting Green Alliance and it took sustainable technology and wind, solar, recycling, resurfacing and water to state the arena and practice fields to drop carbon emissions and energy costs and it transformed them into teaching platforms. So the millions of fans that go could see a waterless urinal or solar panel and think about how to integrate those concepts into their homes and businesses.

AM: Then there’s also the Leigh Steinberg Foundation, so that’s where you’re helping educate about head trauma and CTE.

LS: I had a crisis conference back in the 1980s because I’m representing half the starting quarterbacks and they keep getting hit in the head and we would go to doctors and ask how many is too many? What’s the number that should contemplate retirement and they had no answers. So we started holding brain health summits back in 1994, and the first one here in Newport Beach had Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Warren Moon, and Drew Bledsoe, all came and listened to neurologists. By the time we got to about 2006, doctors like Bennett Amalu told us that three or more seemed to be the magic number, and after that you had an exponentially higher chance of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, premature senility, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and depression. So I call this a ticking time bomb. We’ve continued to have those brain health summits. We did two hours in New Orleans at our Super Bowl party, and I thought why not establish a foundation to raise money for research into brain health. There are two new modalities, one’s called RTMS and the other is neurofeedback. They can actually through neuroplasticity rehire a concuss rewire a concussed brain, so we’re making some progress and I have a series of neurologists on the board of the foundation and some iconic athletes.

AM: You’ve done so much, including golf tournaments and youth support for talented youth to get sponsorships. What is it that drives you to do so much good in the world beyond being an agent?

LS: So my my dad used to say if you see a problem in the world as tiny as picking up a piece of trash or as big as racism or climate change, and your tendency is to wait for they or them to solve the problems, older people, political figures, you know someone else, he would say, you could wait forever son, ‘the they is you,’ ‘you are the they.’ So it’s just a sense of responsibility, that’s part of why I’m in this world, is to heal pain to help people who can’t help themselves, to try, and be as active as I can in bringing hope and healing into the world.

AM: What is one lesser known story in either closing a deal, or in working with a top client - our community would certainly love it.

LS: So Ben Roethlisberger, Super Bowl winning quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, was very superstitious, and so he had a routine he did before every game. So it came time to see the AFC championship, which was Pittsburgh versus Denver in Denver, and usually players will reserve tickets for you as an agent and everything. So I called Ben before that game about tickets and there was silence on the other end of the line, and I said is there a problem? He said, ‘yeah well, last year you came in Pittsburgh to the AFC championship game, and we lost.’ I said, well Ben there were 70,000 other people there too. He says, ‘I don’t know,’ but I said you mean I can’t come to the game? He said, well you could go to willcall, but you’ll be waiting for hours. So at any rate, they played, they won. So go back to the Super Bowl, which was played in Detroit, and I’m on the bus on the way back with him, and I said, ‘Ben guess what? You just won the Super Bowl, and I’m here, so I guess I get to go to more Super Bowls?” And he says, “Yes, but never an AFC championship game.”

IG @leighsteinberg

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Leigh Steinberg

Read the OCT ISSUE #118 of Athleisure Mag and see THE SUPER AGENT | Leigh Steinberg in mag.

IT'S ABOUT THE GAME | DILLON GABRIEL

This month has been a busy one and for NFL prospects, it has special significance as they awaited the NFL Draft 2025 which took place Apr 24 - 26th in Green Bay, Wisconsin. We had the pleasure of talking with quarterback Dillon Gabriel of the University of Oregon. As we talked with him prior to the draft, we had no idea where he would go although as of the release of this issue, he will be playing for the Cleveland Browns!

In sitting with him prior to the draft, we wanted to konw more about his love for the game, his approach to playing it, his partnership with Echelon fitness, what it's like to go through the NFL Combine and what it involves, being a finalist for The Heisman Trophy, and more.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you fall in love with football?

DILLON GABRIEL: I think it was from a young age being able to watch my dad. It was just someone you look up to and someone that you wanted to be able to emulate and to be just like. I think that was just in life, but I also think that sports is a big part of our upbringing and of course, I have played all of the sports that you could play at the time. But I just fell in love with football because it has been something that I just – it’s just enjoyable, it’s something about it with it’s team aspect that you have everyone coming together to accomplish a goal. So, I would just say that at a very young age.

AM: What do you love about being a quarterback?

DG: I love the ability to have the ball in your hands for every single play. I think that the decision making and processing is a lot of fun. I think that it’s the combination of preparation and then actually doing it. Getting those 2 things in sync is actually difficult to do just by yourself.

AM: Yeah.

DG: Let alone having to do it with other people. You can’t throw the ball unless you have protection up front. You can’t get yardage unless there is a catch down the field and I just think that that teamwork aspect in every single play where 11 people have to be in unison, it’s just a lot of fun because you are doing it together. I think that more than that, the relationships, the people, and the friendships that last a lifetime. Those are memories that no one is going to be able to take from you and that’s good and bad!

AM: Well, that’s true too!

Did you always think that when you started playing that you would do this all throughout school and did you imagine yourself going to the NFL?

DG: I did. I always had this dream where I know that a dream is one thing, but in order to make it a reality, there has to be work behind it. I always felt like I was determined in that way of matching my habits with my goals. I think that for a lot of the time, I just stayed present. I tried to be really good with where my feet were and I learned that in college.

Now that I am here, it’s hard to believe in the sense of time has gone by so fast. But I’m not surprised that I’m here because I know that when I was in certain moments, I knew that I was going to maximize it and I knew that my love and care for my passion – how disciplined I am every single day. So when you match those 2, I knew that I’d be in a good spot and it’s still surreal. I’m back home and you see the kids – how excited they get and for me, I see it as myself being in their shoes once. But all it was was me committing to a goal or a dream. That’s always been a way for me to just ground myself and to understand that even though it's a higher level football there is still that passion aspect and love for it. It’s the work that I have done behind it that I have been doing from a younger age. Now, it just gets that much more challenging as a competitor.

AM: What’s an average week for you when you’re training in season versus the off season?

DG: I think that off season is very grind mode. I would say that it is physically more taxing. You’re always trying to get your speed work in and your strength work in. For a quarterback, throwing a football is a whole different aspect to your off season workout. So you attack those 3 while still being around ball and talking football. I think that that is a language, just like any other language to excel at it, you have to speak it consistently and live in it. That is what I try to do while still making the physical aspect more of a focal point.

In season, I think the physical aspect takes a back seat at least day-to-day until gameday comes, but mentally, it’s a lot more challenging. Learning a game plan, executing it, getting everyone on the same page, having conversations individually position wise as a unit and a team. Then there are aspects too that are more than Xs and Os. The motivation aspect and being able to keep people motivated and having themes of the week. So, you encompass all of that while having the physical tax on your body. If I looked at it like that, I would say those 2 things are different in the off season vs in season.

AM: Our community is always excited about workouts that they can include in the routines that they already do. What are 3 workouts that you do that you think could be beneficial for us to think about when we want to switch up our routines?

DG: I love rotational strength. Of course, I’m a throwing athlete, but I believe that being able to have strength in rotation is still good for change of direction. It’s done me well and I love the cable machine. So anyone who can do the cable machines, we’ve tried it from each angle – high, hip height, and low. I love cable rotation and I’ll do those 3 different angles.

I really love working with speed. I love speed and one that I love to do as well is a core bosu ball. I got put onto this core routine that I love. It’s a bosu ball, you put your back on it. You do single leg V ups 10 on each side and then you do cross leg kind of like elbow to knee. So I do 10 reps each and that’s 40 reps total. I don’t care how good you get at it, there’s a rush and a burn and that’s one of my workouts.

I’m also going to go with the curls and things like that. Those are our base workouts that we do with legs - you’ll always catch me doing core and arms at the end.

AM: Tell us about this partnership with Echelon Fitness and how it’s giving back to your high school, Mililani which we think is really interesting.

DG: Yeah, I think that what I love about Echelon is their ability to be able to make training fun, but also that coaching aspect that you still get. I believe that when you are able to have intent behind your lifts and workouts – there is that motivational aspect too where you get direct feedback.

Are you lifting, what’s the strength, speed – and that is where the strength is going. That’s strength training and working out in general. I used it every single day when we were doing team lifts. Being able to have that aspect in our workouts is huge, but I think that when you’re marrying that with what we are doing at Mililani High School, I think that that’s powerful. The impact that that will create for athletes that are trying to get back on the field – it’s like double the work that you’re trying to do. You’re trying to get healthy and you want to dominate when you’re on the field. Being able to have that direct feedback and have measurables, but also walk into state of the art equipment allows you to feel really confident in your workout. I think that for anyone to be able to work in that kind of an environment, you’re going to be better. You’re motivated that much more to get better and to benefit yourself so that you can see results on the field. I am just appreciative of them because they see the vision as well and they understand the youth and what’s up and coming is very important. Any way that we can protect them in any way – I always talk about protection with working out. How are they doing workouts that are beneficial to them and will translate to what they ae doing on the field. With Echelon, you have all of that information in that database on your monitor for each piece of equipment. That’s a unique and cool part to what we are all doing.

AM: That’s so exciting. How did that come together between yourself and Echelon to provide that equipment for your high school?

DG: I think it was about similar visions and being able to hop on the phone with them with Dara and their CEO Lou. We got both of them on the phone and it was just clear visions on both ends with what we wanted to accomplish and believing in that. I think that now that we’re here and you see it in person finally, there have been all of these conversations, but now to see it it’s just a whole different aspect to see things happening in real time. I’m glad that we got to this point and I know that they are a huge piece of what we are doing.

AM: You’ve had an incredible collegiate career, you were a finalist for The Heisman Trophy – what are you the most proud of in this portion of your life right now and what has this meant to you?

DG: I’m definitely most proud of the memories and I think just the journey. As a whole, it has had a lot of success. I’d be lying if I said that there was no failure. I think that when you’re able to learn from that failure, and grow, ultimately whenever there was an uncertainty or an unknown, that is where I have had the most ability to grow. I think that I’m just proud of that journey and how I managed that. I have always chosen good people to be around, but at the same time, the law of attraction. Who you are as a person is who you want to be around. I’ve always tried to live by that and I have faith in what God has in store for the future.

But then I also have those memories that are just day-to-day. The locker room stories – even to this day, I still laugh at those little interactions in the weight room. Just as little as that, on top of those big wins and great environments – the triumph of working through something that was difficult. Because everything worth having doesn’t come easy. For me, I think that all of that is what I think about. The awards and all of that is something that you appreciate because a bunch of people came together to accomplish a goal. There was success in that way. But more than those, I think that you just know that it is the ultimate team sport. Although we highlight individuals, there is no way that you do it alone. That is why I appreciate the game of football.

AM: Can you talk a bit about the NFL Combine, what takes place there, and how one prepares themselves for this so we have a better feel for the journey leading up to the draft and being placed on an NFL team (Editor’s Note: The purpose of the NFL Scouting Combine is to provide NFL teams with a standard platform to evaluate and assess the physical and mental abilities of 300 or so invited top draft-eligible college football prospects before the NFL Draft for 4 days. It allows teams to gather comprehensive data, including medical exams, psychological tests, and on-field drills, all in one location, making it easier to compare players and make informed decisions)?

DG: So the Combine, after going to it, I see it as if any questions that they might have, they’re going to answer them. I say that’s physically, mentally, background – anything prior and what you know about football. I think that that just all encompasses you as a person. Then of course, it’s also about what you can do on the field because you’re going to compete as well. This is all taking place in a high stress environment so it’s also about how you are going to handle it. Who are you as a person when things aren’t exactly perfect. I think that the Combine has a unique way of doing that. They definitely got answers to all of their questions all day every day! They separated those questions as I mentioned before mentally and physically. So there were 40 yard dashes and throwing and competing on the field. There was more football work. Then you get in your formal meetings and you have those 15mins speed dating meetings where you’re talking football that whole entire time. How consistent are you – all day every day? How much do you love football? I’d say that that is the biggest thing – they get every question answered from every angle in their organization.

AM: That must have been exhilarating to be there and to be chosen, but also exhausting as well as that is intense and you are doing that across 4 days and across all those teams.

DG: 100%

AM: Obviously, the NFL Draft is Apr 24 – 26th. How are you preparing for that and what are you excited about?

DG: Honestly, I think that midway through this draft process, I think that I just let go and I just trusted what God has in store for me and for my future. He always has you know? I think it has been a unique way of knowing that you have to be right where your feet are. I say that because there is unknown and uncertainty. You’re in and out, your life is in a backpack. There is no home base or consistency in that way. You have to be comfortable with that uncomfortable. Midway through I realized I had no control other than how I work and what I do every single day. But at the end of the day, when the draft comes, all of my work is out in front of all 32 teams and one team will be the believer in what I do on the field and off the field, who I am as a person and what I bring to the table. I just have confidence in that and at the end of the day, all of that pageantry ends on that date and then you’re back to work!

AM: Right!

DG: So, the work that you have been putting in is going to show and I have confidence in my preparation as that is what I have pride in myself for the past 6 years of my college career. It’s going to continue on in the NFL.

AM: When you’re not playing the game or are thinking about the game, how do you take time for yourself?

DG: It’s hard because we love football and inevitably, we’re talking about it, but I think that that is when I go back to my passion. When you love it, it’s not so taxing and like anything, it can be a lot when it is encompassing your life the whole time, but being able to relax is just being around family. Being able to be around people where you can truly just be yourself. You don’t even have to have a conversation because their presence is all you need and you can understand one another through short conversation. I’m a big relaxing guy, I love to be around family and to try new things. I love food believe it or not and I’m from Hawaii so whenever we can go to a new food spot and try new things – that’s always great! I love being outdoors as well. Going on a walk and being out there with people you love is so nice. I think that for me, that’s always how I recharge. Even daily, if it’s a phone call or in person – that’s my thing.

IG @dillongabriel

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 43 + 44 University of Oregon | PG 47 @Thatsfye | PG 48 - 50 ESPN Honolulu

Read the APR ISSUE #113 of Athleisure Mag and see IT’S ALL ABOUT THE GAME | Dillon Gabriel in mag.

ATHLEISURE MAG #112 | CHEF MASAHARU MORIMOTO

In this month’s issue, our front and back cover story is with Restaurateur Master Chef Masaharu Morimoto who we first saw via Iron Chef Japan and then continued to Iron Chef America. Whether he is judging, participating in culinary competitions, opening more restaurants, or more - he is always focused on the power of food and how he can continue to entice us with flavors! On May 10th, he will be the Grand Marshal of the Japan Parade on Japan Day in Central Park West. We caught up with him to find out how he got into the industry, his passion for cooking, upcoming projects, and more!

Last month we had an incredible series of conversations with Co-Creator/Executive Producer, and writer Chris Brancato as well as cast members from MGM+’s Godfather of Harlem. We caught up with 2 additional cast members of this series, Elvis Nolasco and Erik LaRay Harvey.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Chef Esther Choi about her passion for Korean cuisine, her restaurants, and her upcoming season of Food Network’s 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing where she serves as co-host for this competition series. She also shared why she partnered with LISTERINE for a fun immersive culinary experience that we enjoyed as well.

This month, the NFL Draft took place and many people that we have enjoyed watching throughout their college career found out where they will be playing this season. We had the pleasure of connecting with QB Dillon Gabriel who played for the University of Oregon days before the draft to talk about his love for the game, how he trains, his partnership with Echelon Fitness, what the NFL Combine is, and what he is looking forward to in terms of the draft. We look forward to seeing him on the Cleveland Browns!

We caught up with noted designer Lele Sadoughi who collaborated with CHLOE Wines on a stunning bottle that we can enjoy. We talk about her line, creative process, and upcoming projects.

For over a decade, we have enjoyed seeing Titus Welliver playing Harry Bosch in Prime Video’s BOSCH and BOSCH: LEGACY! With BOSCH: LEGACY streaming its final season, we sat down with Titus to talk about how he came to this series, what it’s like to play this character, how he prepares, and the takeaways he learned from being in this series. We look forward to the spin-offs from this franchise.

We’ve been fans of Bachelor Nation from the first season and when we were first introduced to JoJo Fletcher in The Bachelor we knew that she was someone who we would continue to see - especially when she became The Bachelorette. Since then, she continues to share her entrepreneurial world with us. We talk with her about what it means to be part of Bachelor Nation, being an entrepreneur, and her latest project - Saint Spritz!

We’ve been a fan of WTA #2 doubles tennis star Taylor Townsend for years! When we caught up with her, we wanted to know more about what she loves about the game, how she trains, what it’s like playing singles vs. doubles and the legacy that she wants to leave!

We head to Singapore for this month's The Art of the Snack which takes us to 3 Michelin Star Zen. We chat with Chef TC and Chef Martin Ofner to find out about their culinary backgrounds, the ambiance of their restaurant, and what we can expect when we come in to dine there.

This month's Athleisure List comes from member’s only The Ra Ra Room located in Phoenix, Arizona - it’s definitely a culinary experience that you will want to know more about! We also talk about one of our favorite places to pop into after a day of running around - Tacombi. With multiple locations including a number here in NYC, it’s always an easy vibe.

This month we have our 9CH3F ROUTIN3S from our cover star, Chef Morimoto who talks about what he does Morning, Afternoon, and Night. This month's 9PLAYLIST MULTI comes Pro Surfer Brianna Cope who shares what she enjoys listening to, streaming, and reading. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes from Dillon Gabriel and from Team USA Olympic Volleyballer Kelly Cheng they share what they enjoy having, doing, and being Morning, Afternoon, and Night. This month’s THE 9LIST STORI3S comes from JoJo Fletcher as well as Taylor Townsend. This month's THE 9LIST 9M3NU comes from Chef Johnny Chan Boon of The Ra Ra Room in Phoenix Arizona, Restaurateur and TV Personality Chef Esther Choi of Mokbar and GAHM, and Restaurateur, TV Personality, Author, Master Chef Morimoto - who shares with us what they enjoy about the Spring, ingredients that they enjoy cooking with, and what dishes we should try when we are at their restaurants.

Of course, we have a number of roundups that you can also check out from our must-haves to yours!

Read the APR ISSUE #112 of Athleisure Mag.

OUR MUSIC OUR CULTURE | GREG HARRIS + ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME

Music has immense value, from enjoying the song, melody and instruments used, to the artists, performances and remixes there is a much larger scope in terms of what it means to the social fiber and how in many ways it serves as a mirror of who we are, where we want to be and how we are held accountable. It creates a series of feelings and memories that are enlightened and intertwined.

We had the pleasure of talking with the President and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Greg Harris. In addition to their noted Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony which honors a class of musicians across rock & roll, they are known for the museum which is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

We wanted to know more about the museum, how they connect with music enthusiasts around the world and how artists can become eligible for the honor. Greg also shares how he came to this role and how he continues to drive the importance of impact in music.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Before we delve into your work and role at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I’d love to know about your background because I know you were the owner, partner and operator of the Philadelphia Record Exchange. When did you fall in love with music and what was your focus behind opening this retail store?

GREG HARRIS: You know, I grew up, per your readers loving both sports and music! I was fortunate to be raised to play various sports depending on the season with two brothers. On the music side, it just always spoke to me. We always had music in the house and in Philadelphia, the area where I grew up, new music and old music mixed together. So oldies and FM radio were all the same. I got involved a little bit with one of the local public radio stations when I was in high school. Then we had a club near us called City Gardens and it had every live band and we went there as soon as we were old enough to get in! We were there all the time! Then, I went to college in Philadelphia, I went to Temple University and one of my off-campus jobs to help pay for school was the record department of a used bookstore. That’s where the idea came from that the other clerk and I were friends and we realized that the store owner was making a lot more money than we were as the hourly employees!

So we quit and rented out a storefront about a half a block away and we opened our own store. That business has been a great success! I was involved for a couple of years and sold my half to some other people, but my original partner still has it. The Philadelphia Record Exchange has been around for 30 years and it’s an iconic place in the city. Every musician knows it, everybody that is into music when they are in Philly, they find their way to the store and that includes current artists like Kurt Vile and other folks back in the day, like Ahmir Khalib Thompson – Questlove.

I think an important thing to note in terms of looking at my career is that I found out pretty early on that I couldn’t play very well. I could play some guitar, but I was never that great. But I was always better at helping other people market and grow. So the store became that place. We would put concerts on, we’d shut the streets down and do block parties and promotions with artists and other musicians. We just loved helping them succeed and helping our customers find excitement and joy.

AM: It’s so funny, I grew up my dad was a huge record collector and he would slap my hands every time I would try to go to the stereo to play with the records and at my campus at Indiana University, we had 3 record shops near my campus, Tracks was my favorite one. There is something about a record, I love them and when you hear the sound that comes out and the needle hitting the vinyl – it’s an experience. When I read that about you, I thought that’s really cool!

GH: Those stores back then, that was kind of the social network. It's where you met like-minded people that loved the same music or liked similar music. It’s where you learned! You couldn’t Google everything so sometimes the customers taught you and you taught them!

AM: Especially if you were able to come up with crazy imports. I think there’s something about that social fiber when you don’t have that independent local record store. The guy that I would get my music from knew so many things about various artists and had stories to tell and I appreciated it. I don’t remember if they had block parties but it would have been amazing!

GH: I really want to celebrate my original partner, who still has it Jacy Webster and he has given such a gift to Philadelphia music lovers for the last 30+ years, it’s an amazing place!

AM: Another part of your background that’s interesting is I love your focus on curation. To know that you were at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown where you focused on curation was really interesting. Can you tell us about what your role was there, what you did, and why curation was so important?

GH: My first significant museum position was at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I was originally hired to be there Broadcast Media Archivist. My job was to curate the broadcast collection and that was recordings of All-Star games, World Series games, home movies, radio pieces – all the things where that exciting history of baseball is. In museums, they have to take their collections and tell stories with them. You want to tell the stories where you have impact to your visitors and to make those connections and that’s what we did in Cooperstown. You know, it’s an amazing museum. I started in that area, I was fortunate to be able to curate some exhibits and much like the record store, I got involved in business development and fundraising and things like sponsorship and inductee relations. It really helped to grow the business and as I advanced from the collections side of the house, I got more involved in business development and the growth of the enterprise. I spent 14 terrific years there and it was really hard to leave. It’s a wonderful museum. Anyone that has ever played catch in the backyard or Little League, should go to Cooperstown to experience it.

AM: What do you think is the connective tissue between baseball and music and how were you able to move onto the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame where you’re the President and CEO currently?

GH: They’re 2 great places and they’re both so much part of our culture. People have a deep love for both subjects. They make these pilgrimages to Cooperstown or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. These music and sports evolve and they are the history of our culture – all the good and all the bad comes through and you can tell these stories. On some fronts, you can talk about exclusion and people not being included and you can tell about opportunity opening up. Sometimes it opens up in sport before it opens up to the wider society. These are really important pieces for all of us to learn from to think about and to grow from. Then on the other part from the business side, these museums operate in a very similar way. They each get hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

We have inductees that are the best of the best individuals, we have broadcast properties, we have important digital engagement with our visitors, we have retail operations and we are places that kind of mean a lot to a lot of people. So they’re very similar from a business sense and it’s just the subject that’s a little bit different. But they are magical places where people learn about their history, themselves and it helps them to better understand the present.

AM: Well can you tell us about the history of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in terms of who founded it and what it’s mission is? I know a lot of people think about it in terms of the amazing induction ceremony, but there are a lot of things that it does.

GH: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame started close to 40 years ago by a group of music industry professionals – the head of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun and the head of Rolling Stone Magazine, Jann Wenner and others. They conceived it as a special evening celebration for their industries’ best of the best. After doing that for a short period of time, the idea came up to want to build a museum. A bunch of cities looked at it New York, San Francisco, my hometown of Philadelphia – all made a play for it, but Cleveland really stepped up. Cleveland had a great story about rock & roll being important to the city and being an important place for artists who broke in – including David Bowie’s whose first shows in the US were in Cleveland, Jimi Hendrix when he came back from England – his first shows were there, Rush’s first shows were there. Also a DJ named Alan Freed was playing music in the early 50’s and inspiring young people – so they had this great story! But, they showed up and had a business plan. They said this is how we’re going to build it and how we’re going to fund it and this is what it is going to mean to the region. Long and short, 27 years ago we opened up in this I.M. Pei building on the shores of Lake Eerie in Ohio. Since opening our doors, over 13 million people have visited the museum and we’re at the height of our summer season now. We'll get thousands of people through everyday all summer long. Every one of those people who comes through the front door has a lifetime of memory connected to the subjects inside our museum. When they see it, they hear it or hear it through a band that plays on our stage, it inspires them and makes them think of the people they were with and the places that they were at, the greatest week of college, the time their heart was broken, the greatest road trip that they took and they might even hear a song that reminds them of their mom, dad or siblings.

AM: So when you say rock & roll, what genres comprise this very broad title?

GH: It’s a big title and quite frankly, our definition is a very big tent. Rock & roll is more about attitude and spirit then it is about a specific sound. We embrace in the 50’s Doo-Wop, Street Corner Harmony and RockabIlly; in the 60’s there’s Psychedelic, Soul music, Folk music; in the 70’s there’s Heavy Metal, Hip-Hop, Dance Music, Disco, Punk Rock – it’s all under the umbrella of rock & roll. Synth Pop and Industrial – we embrace it all! So for us, it’s all about attitude and spirit! There’s an attitude about Johnny Cash that he had to the music industry and when Ice Cube was inducted, a couple of years ago, In his induction speech, he said, “rock & roll is a spirit, rock & roll is an attitude.” You can find his full quote online. (Editor’s Note: When Ice Cube was inducted, he talked about whether a rap group was considered to be rock & roll. He said, “Now the question is, are we rock & roll? And I say you goddam right we rock & roll. Rock & roll is not an instrument, rock & roll is not even a style of music. Rock & roll is a spirit. It’s a spirit. It’s been going since the blues, jazz, bebop, soul R&B, rock & roll, heavy metal, punk rock and yes, hip-hop. And what connects us all is that spirit. That’s what connects us all, that spirit. Rock & roll is not conforming to the people who came before you, but creating your own path in music and in life. That is rock & roll, and that is us. So rock & roll is not conforming. Rock & roll is outside the box. And rock & roll is N.W.A. I want to thank everybody who helped induct us into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and I just want to tell the world – Damn, that shit was dope.”) That is what we embrace. It’s the voice of change, it’s always been the sound of young America and it continues to evolve and as a museum, we continue to evolve with it.

AM: So as music continues to evolve, you will always look for new forms and elements to add to what rock & roll is.

GH: We will and that’s kind of the wave right now. That’s why we have been inducting great Hip-Hop artists right alongside great Heavy Metal artists. In the last induction, it was LL Cool J, and it was Carole King, it was the Foo Fighters, Jay-Z and Tina Turner that were all inducted! To us, it’s a broad tent and everybody’s welcome!

AM: What are your 3 favorite rock genres that you love listening to?

GH: I look for stuff that’s a little harsher, a little stronger. I love old Blues, I love 60’s Soul like Memphis and I love Punk Rock! I like for it to have a little punch and a little attitude.

AM: I can see that!

GH: Yeah, that’s what I prefer.

AM: What is your day-to-day like in your role and what are the key projects that you’re focused on?

GH: My day-to-day role is 1 – to make sure that we have the greatest museum in the world, that every single visitor that comes through our doors leaves being transformed and impacted and that we have a great team that makes that happen. It’s about keeping our staff inspired and changing. We don’t believe in maintenance mode, we always want to be growing and reaching. To that end, we're working on an amazing expansion project at the museum. We’ll be breaking ground later on this year. We will be increasing the museum by about 50,000 sqft. It’s a great project and we’re very excited to be doing it. For that project, one of my biggest responsibilities is to work with a team and to raise the funds to be able to do that. We talked about how there have been 13 million visitors that have been through the museum for the past 27 years. We need to build something for the next 13 million visitors!

AM: What can guests expect when they do come to visit and then for those that aren't available to come in person, is there an online version where people can connect that way?

GH: Yeah, so I’ll back up a little bit to your question of what do we do. So, we have this great museum and then in addition to this great museum, we have this great digital outreach. So anybody in the world can connect with us and they can experience the Hall of Fame, but also if there are teachers out there, we have ready teaching materials that they can use for free. Pre COVID, we averaged 50 teachers a day using it, during COVID it was about 500 to 1,000 a day and we have reached over 1 million students last year with our online education programs. We would love it if teachers would use it and help spread the word! We’re not teaching kids how to play instruments or to write songs, we’re teaching them math, science, social justice all through the lens of rock & roll.

AM: That’s really cool! It’s a large job!

GH: Oh yeah. We have a really great team and we’re cranking through!

When someone walks onsite at the museum, the experience starts when you’re in the building. You’re going to hear music blasting from speakers, it might be a live band on stage outdoors or it might just be coming out of our PA speakers. In the museum, you can see the whole history of rock & roll – from Blues, gospel and country through the Beatles, Stones, Supremes, James Brown, Motown and all of that. On our 2nd floor, you can play on instruments and jam with your friends. If bands visit us and they want to jam with visitors – they can do that. On our 3rd floor, you can walk through our Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and see the greats of music where they are immortalized forever in our Hall of Fame and experience our immersive theater that has an amazing show that was edited with the great Jonathan Demme and it’s really the greatest moments from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductions. So really, that’s some of the things you do and throughout it all, you’re reminded of times in your life that you listened to certain music, the greatest road trip, your Freshman year in college, who you hung out with and we bring all of those memories back and that’s the real power of our place.

AM: Going back to the expansion, what will that involve?

GH: We are keeping the whole I.M. Pei pyramid as is and that’s 128,000 sqft and we’re going to add another 50,000 sqft. You know the Pei Pyramid, the only other pyramid that he has done was at the Louvre which is truly the center of Europe’s great art as it’s the home of Mona Lisa. His only other pyramid is here in America at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and we’re the home of America’s great art rock and roll.

AM: That expansion is going to be huge as that’s 175,000 sqft!

GH: Pretty close give or take!

AM: That’s a lot of space.

GH: Well it’s a big subject!

AM: What are 3 of your favorite exhibits that are at the museum?

GH: I love the Garage Exhibit where visitors can come in and jam with each other it’s amazing.

We finished an exhibit that I liked a lot that I think is particularly interesting to your readers. That was an exhibit that we did about the greatest Halftime Show Performances in Super Bowl history. We had it at the museum when we hosted the NFL Draft in Cleveland. Then we worked with the NFL and we took it out to the Super Bowl in LA this year and we’re working with them again to take out to Phoenix for the next Super Bowl.

It shows performances and great moments by Prince when he did Purple Rain in the rain, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé – it’s just these iconic moments in American cultural history that happened at the Super Bowl Halftime performance it’s just a really great exhibit.

We have an exhibit which really is the legends of rock and each band has a focus area. That focus area could be David Bowie, Elton John, Michael Jackson – they all have an area that highlights their career. And that’s an exciting area to walk through and to be reminded of these individuals and their wider impact on our culture.

AM: What’s the process for acquiring items for the museum?

GH: We work directly with the inductees and pretty much everything we have at the museum has been donated by an inductee, a family member or the artist directly. We make sure to partner with them. They donate to us and occasionally it’s a loaned item if they still need it! We’ve had artifacts that are on exhibit that an artist needs back because they're touring so a guitar goes out to them and a label says, “currently on tour.”

AM: For those that are in town, how many live shows do you have a year?

GH: We have live music probably about 100 shows a year at the museum. This summer, every Thurs and Fri, we’ll have live music and some of the bands that are still coming this summer – Guided By Voices, Adrian Belew is playing and people can go to RockHall.com to check out what we have going on. There’s all different genres and one of the things that’s important to us is that we just don’t put up a party band that plays cover songs. We want original artists playing original music and we want to mix it up between the different genres whether it’s bands that are heavy metal, classic rock sounding or if they’re Hip-Hop. We love having all of them at the museum and they will be playing outdoors on our plaza.

AM: Like many, I am a fan of music. My great uncle was Joe Henderson a tenor saxophonist, I love various genres of music and here at Athleisure Mag as well as outside projects I have styled a number of known artists or have interviewed them. I know that our readers would love to know more about what goes into the induction of artists for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. What are the eligibility requirements?

GH: Artists have had to have made a record 25 years ago to make them eligible for consideration. And then, it’s really impact and influence. You look at did they take the art form in a new direction, did they push the envelope and that’s what they’re recognized for more than chart placement and sales. The process is, there is a ballot made for all those that were nominated. It then goes out to our voters and the largest voting body is all the other inductees. This year, Jay-Z is going to get a ballot, Bono gets a ballot, Smokey Robinson gets a ballot, Madonna gets a ballot, Bruce Springsteen and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers – they all get ballots. So they vote and the top 5 vote getters are elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

AM: I like that the public is also allowed to join in the fun – why was this an element that has been added to the process?

GH: So the fan vote is interesting. During the year, we let fans in the museum voice who should be nominated. It’s always fun to hear that and to understand that. Then when the voting is underway with all of the inductees, we also do a public fan vote and part of it is engagement so that they can engage with us online and let us know who their favorites are. Then we take all the fan votes online and we aggregate them and they count as a composite ballot into the bigger vote. So what it is important for is to see who people are interested in and to understand what they are thinking about. Because the induction into the Hall of Fame is not a popularity contest, those that are in the industry and have made their living off of rock & roll, their votes are really what counts the most because they can judge the merits of their peers. If that wasn’t the case, whoever has the most social media followers would be elected and that doesn’t necessarily mean they they are the most impactful, it just means that they have great music and great followers. We need that impact.

AM: When the nominees are announced, I am sure there are a number of logistics to figure out from who will accept an award for the artist/group if they have passed away and who will perform if there are other artists that will do a tribute versus those that opt to play themselves. Can you tell us more about that?

GH: The show producers are amazing! It’s our Foundation President, Joel Peresman and our Foundation Chairman, John Sykes and they do an amazing job working to create a show that is dynamic and exciting and also appropriate for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They have done a super job working with the show, the production design team and sometimes at its greatest when it’s an artist from yesterday that is being honored by an artists of today and when they perform together – when you have Stevie Wonder inducting Bill Withers and then they sing together and then John Legend comes out and performs with them – it’s amazing! When LL Cool J was inducted, LL was joined by Eminem and by JLo. Just an incredible combination. It’s a desire to allow some artists to pay tribute to those that have influenced them and it’s a chance for other artists to combine that they have meant a lot to. So it’s kind of a neat looking back and looking forward and making something that is even better for that moment in time at that event.

AM: As we’re based in NY, it’s always fun when the ceremony is in our backyard, but for the upcoming 2022 induction ceremony, it will be in LA this fall. Why is it being held there and what is behind the decision of the city that you opt to do it in?

GH: Well there are rock & roll fans everywhere and let’s face it, NY is a big center for music and LA is the home of much of the industry. So those 2 cities make a ton of sense and we also do it in Cleveland which is the home of the museum and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We’re working on a sequence where it goes on between those cities and we’re really excited and honored that Cleveland is in that cadence and we’re looking at how that pans out in future years. We’re really excited and thrilled to be going to LA as it hasn’t been there since 2013!

AM: Looking at this year’s inductees, I was excited about all the names but especially pleased to see that Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eminem, Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton are in this year’s group – what are you looking forward to this year?

GH: You know, they’re all terrific and they’re all deserving! I’m looking forward to just being surprised. Every year there are super highlights and it’s amazing as this honor isn't about haing 1 hit record or having a great soundtrack song or something like that. This is a lifetime award that is emblematic of excellence and forever they will be celebrated and enshrined at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This is a really powerful moment for those artists and I can’t wait to hear their speeches and then to see them light up the room with their performances.

AM: I know we talked about the educational elements that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is involved in throughout the year. Are there other community programs that takes place throughout the year?

GH: We have a program called Toddler Rock where kids from First Start Programs come to the museum twice a week and we teach them for 15 weeks on rhyming, alliteration, and social skills with trained music therapists. It’s amazing. We have another program where anyone who lives in the city of Cleveland can come in for free admission all year long, everyday – whenever – just come on in! It’s a great community outreach for us and we love partnering with our conventions and business bureaus and other entities around town. When the city is bidding on and trying to attract the NBA All Star Game or the MLB All Star Game, we are in the mix. We are part of the hosting committee and we pledge to be a great partner and frequently they theme the event rock & roll because it is Cleveland. We love doing that and we think that if our reach can do well, then everyone can do well and we want to make that happen.

AM: In terms of the remainder of this year and looking forward to next year, what are you looking to do in terms of outreach and education on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

GH: One, we need to execute on an amazing summer season which is what we are doing. We want to keep going with all of our educational initiatives. We have a traveling exhibitions program where certain exhibits once they are in Cleveland will go out to cities around the country. We're actively working on this building expansion project which is a significant endeavor for the museum and we’re very excited. We have been ramping up our digital presence and we have been adding a lot of Spanish language to what we are doing in our digital outreach. There is a massive group of people that love rock & roll that don’t speak English and we’re very excited to reach out to those audiences as well who do speak English.

IG @rockhall

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Read the JUL ISSUE #79 of Athleisure Mag and see OUR MUSIC OUR CULTURE | Greg Harris + Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in mag.

HOW QUARTERBACK DREW LOCK MIGHT PLAY INTO NFL POWER RANKINGS

Drafting a franchise quarterback is what many underachieving teams hope for each season. In 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl with backup Nick Foles guiding them. However, for most of the regular season, it was their No. 2 pick from the 2016 NFL Draft Carson Wentz who led the way. His team ranked atop the NFL power rankings during the campaign and enters this latest season as No. 1 on a number of lists. It's no surprise that teams were seeking quarterbacks this past summer. They could do so again next draft and Missouri's Drew Lock is a potential top pick at the spot.

The Walter Football website gives the latest analysis of various NFL draft prospects through their college careers. In addition, the website gives scouting reports and mock drafts to help fans get an understanding of where prospects rank. Drew Lock is a player that scouts have their eyes on thanks to his SEC record of 44 touchdown passes in a season. Lock is a 6-foot-3, 226-pound star who has passed for 3,964 yards and 44 touchdowns during his collegiate career. However, Lock's personality brings a question mark.

The scouts have given positive marks to Lock in terms of his throwing arm calling it a "rifle." They've also said he's a good athlete with a skill set similar to former NFL QB Jay Cutler. His personality brings the questions as he's been compared to the New York Giants' Eli Manning. That's not a bad comparison, though, as Manning is a two-time Super Bowl winner. Still, some scouts feel Lock's personality may not fit what some NFL coaches and general managers want in their locker room.

It's noted that Lock is "quiet" and maybe "a little nerdy," so he may be lacking the commanding presence that other QBs have. However, he's got the football I.Q. needed to succeed on the field as he can learn fast and pick up new things. A lot of teams will value that sort of approach and may not mind his personality as long as he's helping them succeed.

On Charlie Campbell's latest Walter Football 2019 NFL mock draft, he has Lock going at No. 25 to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Campbell mentions that Blake Bortles isn't necessarily tied to the Jags for "many years to come" so they could be "looking for an upgrade." Lock could provide them with that upgrade if they're willing to gamble on him not necessarily being a vocal team leader. He's got a full college season to continue to show off his skills and impress scouts, but the personality aspect may still hamper his draft options.

Right now, Oregon's Justin Herbert is listed at No. 4 overall in Campbell's draft and would go to the Miami Dolphins as a replacement for Ryan Tannehill. Auburn's Jarrett Stidham is ranked No. 10 for the Giants to replace Eli Manning. The two-time Super Bowl champion will eventually be on the way out despite a great run with his team. It's likely that both Herbert and Stidham have stronger on-field or locker room leader type personalities when compared to Lock. That's not to say Lock isn't skilled, though.

Eli Manning and the Tennessee Titans' Marcus Mariota are considered quiet personalities, but both are highly-skilled QBs and valuable to their teams. In current NFL power rankings, these teams are just below the middle of the list, but should they surge this season, expect them to rise. That could make a decent case for taking a chance on a personality like Missouri's Drew Lock in next summer's NFL Draft.

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