Protecting Your Athlete

The contracts, the money, and the people around your kid — and how to vet all three

Every parent of a serious athlete eventually encounters a contract, a financial decision, or an adult professional whose interests may not align with their child's. Protecting Your Athlete is a practical guide for parents navigating those moments: how to read the documents that get put in front of your family, how to evaluate the people who want access to your athlete's career and income, and how to build the financial habits and protections that prevent the most common and most damaging mistakes athletes and their families make in the years when the money first starts to arrive. The book covers the legal documents families encounter most often — representation agreements, NIL contracts, endorsement deals, and the booster-adjacent arrangements that exist in a grey area of college athletics — alongside the financial basics of managing an athlete's income in a way that protects both their eligibility and their long-term financial position. The vetting section covers agents, advisors, collectives, marketing agencies, and financial professionals, with a specific focus on the questions that reveal competence and the answers that should end the conversation. This is not a book about distrusting everyone in sports. It is a book about knowing what questions to ask before you trust anyone.

• How to read the representation agreements and NIL contracts your family will encounter
• How to vet agents, advisors, collectives, and financial professionals before you trust any of them
• The financial and eligibility mistakes most common in the early years of athlete income
• The red flags in contracts and sales tactics that have harmed athlete families most often
• How to talk with your athlete about money and contracts without taking the decision away from them