NFL players are slowly crossing over into the entertainment industry
By Ron Thomas, IJ reporter
The tradition of football players who dabble in the fields of acting and modeling goes back almost as far as football itself. Now sports agent Steve Baker, a Mill Valley resident and Stars entertainment agency, which is owned by the Claxon family of Tiburon have teamed up, to try to continue that tradition with Oakland Raiders fullback Jon Ritchie and the San Francisco 49ers’ Jeff Garcia and Ray Brown.
One can go all the way back to the early 1900s to find former football players who made a mark in the entertainment world. From the 1910s, there was Paul Robeson, an All-American football star from Rutgers who became a famous singer and actor. Johnny Mack Brown, a 1920s stare at Alabama, later was a in the Western, Ira often forgotten that in 1925-26, actor John Wayne played tackle at Southern California under his real name, Marion Morrison, and Jim Brown shocked the sports world in 1966 when he retired as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher to begin his movie career.
Football players turned models haven’t been as memorable, although Now York Jets quarterback Joe Namath made a great impact in that field with his ground breaking commercial for Leggs pantyhose in the 1960s. After he got away with that, the commercial endorsement field exploded for athletes.
Baker’s clients don’t have such lofty aspirations, but while football remains their primary interest, the entertainment world also attracts them.
Ritchie, a third-year fullback from Stanford, is an accomplished guitar player and has a strong interest in acting. Garcia, who finished last season as the 49ers’starting quarterback, wants to get into modeling and developing projects for Latino youth that tie together football and education. Brown, a longtime star, guard for San Francisco, already utilizes his deep voice and-up beat personality on a twice- weekly football program on KGO radio during the season. Also, former Stanford star Kailee Wong, now a Minnesota Vikings linebacker, is writing a football fundamentals book with his mother that’s intended as a “Mom’s guide to football,” Baker said.
“It’s a different world of celebrity,” said Baker, an agent for 15 years who represents about 20 pro football players. “A lot of actors I’ve known want to be athletes, and a lot of athletes I know are really intrigued by what actors do. People, particularly high achievement people, frequently want to cross into worlds they haven’t conquered yet.
“A lot of athletes get hands-on training just by doing what they’re doing: interviews, TV appearances and the evolution that, comes from performing in front of 50,000 people.”
As an agent, Baker negotiates contracts and helps arrange the shoe contracts and commercial spots that athletes commonly get. But he likes to probe beyond the obvious, too. When he represented former Denver Broncos linebacker Mike Croal, Baker helped get Croel and his wife, Cassie, on the cover photo of a romance novel, Midnight Moon.
For the last 10 years, he’s introduced clients to people at Stars, which is owned by Scott Claxon, his sister Kris and their mother, Lynn. Now their relationship with Baker is tighter because he’s opened an office near Stars, which gives his players a window into the entertainment world.
“We decided to start this joint venture,” Scott Claxon said, “as a way to get them into voiceovers, appearances in episodics (local television shows produced in the Bay Area, such as Nash Bridges), feature film, special events and print work with Macy’s and Mervyn’s and fitness magazines.”