Michael Tillery.com

Track Icon: Super Agent

July 13th, 2006
by Michael Tillery

Renaldo Nehemiah's made his mark in two professional sports. He arguably is the best hurdler of all time--his specialty being the 110 meter hurdles. The sting of the America's 1980 Olympic boycott is evident in his voice as unfortunately, he didn't get to achieve every track star's dream of winning an Olympic gold medal. His pain is Track and Field's gain. He's become a successful agent through hard work and has a beneficial as well as a truly genuine concern for the sport. Through his firm Octagon, he oversees management and marketing of Octagon's clients, including contract negotiations, endorsements, media relations and licensing. His distinguished clients include both Olympic Gold Medalists and World Champions: Evelyn Ashford, Perdita Felicien, Allyson Felix, current co-world record holder Justin Gatlin, Michael Johnson, and Obadele Thompson. Not many athletes who competed on such a high level would have had the courage to make the transition into the NFL. He played four productive years for San Francisco—winning one ring—and probably would have been included in more of 49'er lore had he continued to play professional football. He successfully challenged tracks governing body, IAAF by helping to invoke the “Nehemiah Rule”. Which stated that track and field athletes could be pro athletes in other sports without jeopardizing their (at that time) amateur status. “Skeets”, as he was referred to during his athletic career, is a true giant of the sport who has what it takes to help make a new history for Track and Field.

Michael Tillery: After having so much success on the track, why and when did you decide to become an agent?

Renaldo: I had various experiences with agents myself. Most were pretty good, but I certainly had some hiccups along the way. I just felt that if it can happen to me (having problems with agents) and I had read about it happening to other former professional athletes, I needed to become more empowered in the business. I had to understand what was going on. I had a broadcast journalism degree. I started as an economics major and have always been fascinated in finance. I got licensed while I was still competing and started working for Lara Nehemiah & Associates as a broker and a financial planner. Started out managing professional athletes portfolios, high network individual portfolios and executive portfolios. In my travels of doing portfolio reviews, the athletes started saying that I needed to get into management because I knew what they went through, I knew how things worked. It's not like I didn't trust the current representatives—don't get me wrong—but I just felt that I could walk the walk, talk the talk and I had more street cred—if you will. So I started doing work with Brad Hunt—which is Gold Medal management, Michael Johnson and the likes of his people. I partnered up with Brad Hunt, and I started doing some management, but my focus was on the investment planning end. One thing led to another and because of supply and demand they wanted me to do that. I carried two hats for a while and traveled all over the country—as well as the world. I didn't want to be responsible of having to make a stock trade decision in another time zone. I became an agent in 1997 and carried both hats until 2003. It kinda took a life on it's own because after I left Gold Medal Management in 1998 and actually came on with Octagon. I actually came on to handle the high profile football players and was the conduit between USA Track and Field and Octagon. USA Track and Field was a new marketing client of Octagon and they didn't have that much expertise in track and field, so I totally had gotten away from it. Because of my history in the sport the athletes wanted to deal with me. We worked out a buyout with Gold Medal because of my non-compete and the rest is history.

Michael Tillery: Comment on Octagon and its goals for servicing athletes.

Renaldo: Octagon is a global full service athlete representation sports marketing firm. We do day to day management, marketing opportunities, media, financial planning etc. We have an independent SEC financial planning division that is independent of what we do, but it's a compliment of the services that are required as far as investment. Will planning, estate planning, tax planning—you name it. We have a music and entertainment department. It's a global company that pretty much offers all the services that every entertainment medium of the world would consist of. I work at the corporate headquarters in McLean, Virginia.

Michael Tillery: What are your aspirations concerning investment planning?

Renaldo: I'm the quarterback of this whole thing. All of the different departments and services that we offer, I participate. I'm like the rainmaker. I help create the value and the earning potential of the athlete. I advise them, and through my leadership along with the expertise of our other marketing experts, sales experts and pr experts. We put together strategic plans to put our athletes in the best position and coincide with their success on the field. From an investment standpoint, I have an investment background, but I don't make investment decisions anymore, because I'm no longer licensed. We have certified financial planners in the office and tax accountants so they put together those types of portfolios. I understand it, so I'm able to articulate it—but on a different level once they've met with our financial planners.

Michael Tillery: What is different about the sport now than when you were on top of the world?

Renaldo: There are a couple of variables. Number one, money wasn't an issue because we were amateur athletes. I think the difference between then and now is that track was far more popular back then because all we had was a nationalistic value of the sport. We represented the red, white and blue proudly every time we competed—not saying that the athletes of today don't. They just have so many other different distractions—one being money—so whatever they do, appearances, interviews, whatever, has a different value. It's far more complicated and definitely more challenging to help athletes stay focused and maintain their professionalism. They have far more opportunities today that we didn't have so I won't say that every track and field athlete can have a professional career—so at least there's a chance of that happening. Whereas, when I was competing no matter how good you were, there wasn't any pro track.

Michael Tillery: You were one of the first to challenge the way track and field athletes are classified pertaining to their pro or amateur standing. What are your thoughts on the Nehemiah Rule?

Renaldo: The Nehemiah Rule—1986—was named because of my fight with the International Amateur Athletic Federation concerning my amateur rights. Because track and football are entirely two different sports, they invoked the Nehemiah Rule stating that an athlete can be professional in one sport and still have his/her amateur rights in track. Today there is no such thing as amateur track—it's a pro sport. An athlete can play football, baseball or basketball and still compete in track without any issues like I faced when I played with the 49'ers and was banned from running competitively.

Michael Tillery: Why is there a difference here and abroad regarding the celebrity of the sport? There seems to be much more popularity overseas.

Renaldo: Yes there is. Part of that is that the rest of the global world does not have a collegiate system. Having that system over here is huge. We have scholastic sports here. They have soccer, track and field, basketball, cricket and some other fringe sports. The number of sports they have pales in comparison with ours and we have multiple levels of basketball, football, baseball, track and field and hockey. There are many slices of the pie here, but abroad their attention span is different because when they see athletes compete, they have an entirely different perception because it's not all over the tv or at your local high school. Unfortunately track and field is lumped into an Olympic sport and people don't think they have to join in until ever four years, so we don't get the exposure here. When we did have the “superstar”--I won't mention names—but they were more focused on protecting their global ranking instead of doing what I did and run against the Greg Fosters or having an Edwin Moses compete against the best the world had to offer. That's how you prove your greatness and captivate your audience and also cultivate global appeal. Today because of all the other things to do, an athlete’s paycheck is contingent on his/her ranking and global perception. Sponsors see this and it's not as cut and dry as it was when I ran.

Michael Tillery: Does 1980 still sting?

Renaldo: I'm not really into politics because I think it's about manipulation. 1980 served its purpose. There was pain for a lot of people and I was surely a recipient of some of that pain. Adversity makes you stronger. Most people think I won an Olympic gold medal and they have no clue that I didn't even compete in an Olympic stadium because of the boycott. I obviously had done enough compelling things while I was competing that people obviously thought I was the best therefore I won at the Olympic games. Which goes to my comment that “One race should never define you.” I didn't need the Olympic games to define my perceived greatness in the world of athletics.

Michael Tillery: Would you trade your Super Bowl ring for a Gold Medal?

Renaldo: Personally yes. But that Super Bowl ring as an American speaks volumes. As great as I was, I was fairly invisible in this country with the exception of people who followed track. Once I won a Super Bowl ring, I became somebody in this country because football is America's pastime. The direct opposite is true in Europe. In Europe, I was a superstar. I had the best of both worlds. I had the global appeal and the domestic appeal because of the 49'ers. That was kind of funny because my 49'er career was no way near as successful as my track and field career. But the fact that I played for the 49'ers was a major accomplishment in a lot of people's eyes.

Michael Tillery: Do you feel a connection between yourself and Jerry Rice?

Renaldo: Jerry and I are and were always cool with each other. His rookie year was my last year. We just had a 5 Super Bowl team reunion back in March. We've been buds forever—we hadn't seen each other in a while, but we always have respect for one another. Sometimes I think about all the long ball experiences with me helped Jerry become great because he was the benefactor of the 49'er brass seeing the potential of a wide receiver exploiting a defense. When I was there we were a five and ten yard team—a possession team. If I had been more patient as an athlete—I left when my four year contract was up—maybe things would have turned out differently. I just wanted to be a full time athlete. I didn't want to risk not knowing if I was going to be a starter as a football player as opposed to running track full time. I was twenty-six years old. I just wanted to run freely and I just thought that my freedom was being harnessed by the 49'ers. My time in football came just after graduating from the University of Maryland. I was the best hurdler in the world. I needed a job. Being the best in hurdling and getting my name in the paper was just not doing it financially for me. I was at a crossroads already. What was I going to do? There was no sign of track and field going pro. I just so happened to be at the right place at the right time when the 49'ers called. Football was a savior to me. In addition to that, I knew that I had mad talent so I didn't think I was going to embarrass myself. So although, I didn't know what my status would be concerning track and field, I most definitely was trying to become the best football player that I could be. Then I had the unfortunate happening of getting knocked out, and things slowly changed. I wasn't the biggest guy in the world, so my coach Bill Walsh didn't want to be the reason why I eventually couldn't run track again. They cut down on my routes, I had a certain number of plays and they just wouldn't let me go on the field to do the specific things that it took for a wide receiver to become successful. It was very frustrating to me because I would have sequences of catching four or five balls and then get pulled. They weren't pulling anybody else. Bill Walsh was very protective of me because he didn't want the extra aforementioned burden of destroying one of the greatest athletes to ever come out of this country. It was a different type of burden to endure, and in a way I am flattered and have mad respect for Bill Walsh thinking of me in such a way but still it was frustrating. I was the best hurdler the best had ever seen. It wasn't like a typical track guy playing football. Some people have the perception that I was a total failure in football, but one has to understand that there were many underlying story lines that made it again, very frustrating.

Michael Tillery: It's funny, most of the women I knew—were fans of the San Francisco 49'ers. So even though I followed your story, it was always coming up in conversation. Believe me when I tell you that most people were not disappointed in you, but just a little upset that you didn't make the transition into a great football player. We sincerely wanted to see you do it. It's a shame that the boycott took away from how you were perceived historically.

Renaldo: Thank you. I appreciate all the fan support that I did get during those times and still get today. Sometimes it surprised me how knowledgeable the average fan was and I'm truly grateful for whomever was in my corner, that support got me through some tough times. Like I said before, no man defined me as an athlete. I was able to exploit that on my own. I wanted to do my thing in football but I'm happy that at least the attempt was made. I didn't go to school on a football scholarship because I wasn't enamored with the politics of the game. Football was tough. I wasn't able to get into the flow of the game because of the number of balls thrown my way. If I had four balls thrown my way and caught three with a degree of difficulty that was considered a nice game. The sport was fast, strong and tough! It's funny, all I really had to do to get back into track was denounce my association with professional football (they could have said this four and a half years earlier). Instead I had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting a court for four and a half years, abused my body and not being able to use my God trained speed for four and a half years was tough. I had to go the headquarters of the IAAF and take pictures with the president of the IAAF who banned me. That was a bittersweet reunion. He wanted to look good and he wanted to say he was behind me all alone—which he wasn't.

Michael Tillery: What is the perception of the American athlete regarding the IAAF? Are we looked upon differently because we have so many other sports readily available? Is the perception different than the Africans, Asians and Europeans?

Renaldo: We are definitely looked upon as a superpower. You have over 300 million people here so our talent pool is pretty deep. We're looked upon as arrogant and with a lack of athletic discipline. I look at it this way. We are emulated by most and envied by many.

Michael Tillery: Who inspired you to run?

Renaldo: Being in the Cub Scouts and running against kids in my neighborhood, I thought I was pretty quick. I used to defy my father who didn't want me seeing a girlfriend who lived in the next town, so I used to run over there. When I saw a man run over what I thought was a fence, keep his balance and not fall down, I thought it was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. I used to run and jump over a split rail fence around my property. I was the only one on my high school team that wanted to try the hurdles. I felt special, so that's how I got caught up. I was a quitter before I was a hurdler because in junior high I thought I was the fastest on my block until I realized that there are many blocks and I wasn't the fastest guy on the team. The combination of having a sense of accomplishment and actually winning was a great thing.

Michael Tillery: You were inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame as well as the ACC Hall of Fame besides those great honors, what are you most proud of when it comes to what you accomplished in Track and Field?

Renaldo: I'm most proud of the respect that is still bestowed upon me—two fold—as a business man and as a person. The value and integrity that I maintained when I was an athlete. The value and integrity that I still maintained when I wasn't running. The same types of values that I try to impart on my clients. My top clients are Justin Gatlin and Allyson Felix. They all know that my name is more important than anything that they could ever accomplish. I worked very hard to bring pride to my family and my father. I won't let any of them for any reason tarnish that. I'd rather not have any of them as a client before I let them shame me and my father's name. My clients just get it. My clients, their families and people that I don't even know have positive things to say about me in the many years since I've competed when they don't have to cheer for me anymore. That's the greatest accomplishment when people don't have to cheer for you and still give you the respect that you've earned and deserve. They don't have to tolerate you. I guess that's a sign that you've done good. That warms my heart more than running fast and setting records. When people know that you are a positive person that's all it's about.

Michael Tillery: There's much anticipation of an Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell settling who is the fastest man in the world. When and where is race going to happen?

Renaldo: (Renaldo laughs) That's the many hundreds of thousands of dollars question. It's going to happen soon. As I tell all the critics out there, its not that I just have to manage my clients, but also the media and other individuals who are clamoring to get this race on. I have to make sure that Justin is in the best position to be successful and also that this race takes place when it's positive for our sport. Our sport needs to get the exposure it deserves to influence youth to get out on the track and make new history. I want it to happen sooner than later Michael because the longer it doesn't happen, the less anticipation and people won't believe it's ever going to happen. This is the first time this type of race will happen. There have been other races of this magnitude that were supposed to happen (Michael Johnson vs. Donovan Bailey for example), but they didn't because of injury or some other unfortunate event. There are many people who are trying to benefit at the expense of Justin as well as Asafa. It's not an issue of whether Justin or Asafa wants to race, it's an issue of both runners collective management making sure that neither runner is taken advantage of. I'm not trying fight this issue in the press. My job is to make sure my client benefits as much as possible period.

Michael Tillery: Clear up the IAAF ruling and your stance on why Justin's time was rounded from 9.76 to 9.77.

Renaldo: 9.760 is the only number that wouldn't have gotten rounded up. Justin ran a 9.766. Justin Gatlin's photo next to the time has been heavily scrutinized, but no one has seen Asafa Powell's. I'm not doubting Asafa's time—let me get that straight—I just want the same scrutiny placed on him. Especially when he ran a 9.78 and it was rounded down to 9.77. Tim Montgomery was the record holder and they wanted to get rid of that record as soon as they could because of Balco. A world record will never define Justin Gatlin, but this will be settled on the track. People still think I'm the world record holder because they've only improved the time by two one hundredths of a second in 20 plus years. I try to tell Justin that his time will come. Carl Lewis didn't own the record, but did it make him any less great? No.

Michael Tillery: Hypothetically, how do you think you would have stacked up against Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis or Michael Johnson?

Renaldo: I feel as though I was the best hurdler. I had good speed. I had better speed than I want to give myself credit for. Those aforementioned runners were they best at what they did. I know I was a better all around athlete, but I shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath with what these runners have done. Jesse was in a league of his own. Those guys were phenomenal.

Michael Tillery: Did you get to run against Edwin Moses?

Renaldo: I never did and that was a political decision. Everyone wanted us to run, but at that time we had the two best hurdlers in the world. America had two kings. If we would have raced, we could only claim one. My ego wasn't as such that I wanted to beat Edwin. I wasn't intrigued with running the 400m hurdles as I was running the 110m.

Michael Tillery: Did you reminisce at all when the Philadelphia Eagles contacted you about Justin?

Renaldo: I kind of chuckled to myself. I wasn't surprised at all. I was surprised that it happened so soon. I did reminisce because it reminded me of myself. They contacted other offices that we have as well as myself. By the third time I'd heard about the Eagles putting out feelers—either through our football office or our main headquarters, I figured it was pretty valid. When they left contact information I knew it was legitimate. I've never entertained the thought of calling them back. That's not out of disrespect for them of course, but at this point in time, it's not appropriate. I'm sure Justin is flattered and saying “wow I can play pro football”, but he's doing extremely well, so he doesn't need football right now. I would never encourage him to think about playing the game.

Michael Tillery: What type of client do you want to represent?

Renaldo: One of the main prerequisites for me is that everyone that I work with either have a college degree or are actively working on getting one because they turned pro early, ie Justin and Allyson. It wasn't always that way, but in the last three years I've learned that athletes with degrees are more willing to learn. As an African American you have to understand that you have to have a balance and understand that when you are an athlete your life is just starting and everyone is not going to be a multi millionaire. You have to be prepared when life calls you.

Michael Tillery: Your thoughts on Marion Jones and her comeback.

Renaldo: I've always been sympathetic to Marion. I don't know all the particulars. I can only react to what I had read. I was surprised. I feel a lot better about her this year than last because of all the distractions. I didn't think she was as fit as she should have been. This year she is ready. As I tell people that hypothetically, she's running for her life. Her name and credibility are on the line. The only way you silence your critics is through performance. Whether I agree with what was going on with her or not, I'm not a person who has any malice, so I'm going to always hope she does well on the track. I'm happy for her that she is performing well. We'll see where this success leads her that's for sure.

Michael Tillery: What is the future of the sport?

Renaldo: The sport is working to get the visibility—consistent visibility— respectability and creditability we've been wanting for a long time. Especially with the likes of Justin and Allyson. They understand that they are in a position to really make a difference in perception. American track athletes understand that even though they can make money overseas, they have to compete here for fans that want to see them compete and be successful. In past generations, some runners were all about money and cared less if they ran in the United States. Track athletes of today are really concerned about the welfare of their sport and the fans are being more receptive. For fans to be so excited about Gatlin and Powell racing in a non Olympic year, speaks volumes as to where the sport is heading.

Renaldo, thanks for the soul flow.