He already had New York sports stars Robinson Cano, Victor Cruz and Geno Smith. Now, Jay-Z's Roc Nation Sports could be on the verge of signing DeSean Jackson. Not bad when you consider that the sports management division of the hip hop mogul's entertainment management company is only in its first year of existence.
The NFLPA currently has no jurisdiction over Jay-Z himself, which also means he can't recruit and sign players or work with the league on contracts. But he can handle entertainment and non-sports deals and he employs a lady named Kim Miale, who is has NFL certification and is thus able to represent guys like Smith and Jackson (Cruz is leaving his football business to the veterans at CAA). The NFLPA is investigating Jay-Z's involvement in the recruitment of NFL players, but it'll be hard to prove much.
And eventually, it'll be hard to prevent the 43-year-old from becoming a competitive force in the sports management industry, certified or not.
Let's face it: A lot of these players can relate to Jay-Z to more of an extent than they can Tom Condon or Drew Rosenhaus. They idolize the man formerly known as Shawn Carter and migrating to his company will soon become something all of the cool kids are doing.
And once that happens, it'll be hard for the dinosaurs of the industry to stop that trend from snowballing. Eventually, he'll change this game, too.
