(670 The Score) On the morning of Aug. 9, first-year Bears general manager Ryan Poles wore the disappointment on his face as he walked through the bowels of Soldier Field to address the first great challenge of his tenure in Chicago.
As the Bears had arrived at Soldier Field hours earlier for practice, Poles read a statement from star linebacker Roquan Smith in which he wrote the team’s new regime “doesn’t value” him and had "refused to negotiate in good faith" on a potential long-term contract. Frustrated by the contract standoff, Smith formally requested a trade from the Bears.
The 25-year-old Smith had elected to represent himself in negotiations, bypassing the chance to hire an agent certified by the NFL Players’ Association.
“It’s difficult,” Poles said of Smith representing himself. “It’s difficult. There are emotions involved. And it’s tough. It’s a very unique situation that we’ve had to deal with.”
The negotiations proved to be bizarre because Smith wasn’t just working on his own. He sought the services of an advisor who goes by the name of Saint Omni, whom the NFL Management Council specified in an Aug. 15 memo was “prohibited” from contacting teams on Smith’s behalf, as Courtney Cronin of ESPN first reported. Such conversations violate the collectively bargained rules, which require that only a certified agent can contact teams on behalf of a client in such a situation.
Omni is the director of football at LifeLine Financial Group, which states on its LinkedIn page that it was founded to “provide financial wellness for our clients by delivering exceptional financial services that include daily bookkeeping, cash flow management, estate planning, risk management and tax planning.” But the company’s official website includes one dead-end page without further links or information. There’s little trace of Omni’s work, though his presence around high-profile clients has been noted for the last three years by those within the NFL.
“Shady as hell,” one league source said of Omni's practices.
On Saturday, after announcing he would halt contract extension discussions with the Bears and play out his final season under contract, Smith confirmed his professional relationship with Omni.
"Saint is someone I know, trust and has my best interests at heart,” Smith said.
The No. 8 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Smith entered the NFL represented by longtime agent Todd France, who at the time worked with the high-profile agency CAA. Smith was the last player of his draft class to sign his rookie contract after a dispute related to language that would’ve allowed voids in guaranteed money. He officially signed his rookie contract on Aug. 14, 2018 and joined the Bears in training camp.
Two years later in 2020, France was hired to the prominent agency Athletes First and no longer served as Smith’s representative. At that time, Smith began working without a certified agent. Powerful agents established contact with Smith and sought to represent him in the ensuing years, even offering to collect just a 1% fee – less than the 3% standard – for the chance to work with him. Multiple sources around the NFL believed Smith would choose to join super-agent Drew Rosenhaus' group, Rosenhaus Sports Representation, or follow France to Athletes First. But each time a suitor emerged, Smith declined and reaffirmed his intention to move forward without an agent.
Without a certified agent, Smith has had to directly negotiate with the Bears on his own, as advisors aren’t permitted to engage on his behalf. Such situations aren’t common but do occur in the NFL. Texans offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil negotiated a three-year, $66-million contract extension in 2020 with the help of Omni, who was quoted on the record in a 2021 feature by Complex. Cardinals star receiver DeAndre Hopkins worked out a two-year, $54.5-million deal on his own behalf in 2020, and Rams veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner, who has worked with LifeLine Financial Group, was the point man on the five-year, $50-million deal he reached with the team in April. Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson, the 2019 NFL MVP, is working without an agent as he looks to land a record-breaking deal.
By working without a certified representative, players are exposed to the brutal honesty that takes place in negotiations, and they often come to realize the ugly business side of the NFL. Agents have experience in those negotiations, whereas players can find the process "distasteful," as Smith said.
Multiple sources believe Smith lost out on a lucrative new deal by working without an agent.
Smith brought his contract demands to the forefront in late July when he began conducting a hold-in. He was present for team meetings and off-field activities but didn’t participate on the field in practice as he sought a contract extension. While Smith declined to discuss the specifics of his desired contract, he admitted the hope was to reset the market for an off-ball linebacker. That would’ve meant surpassing Colts star Shaquille Leonard’s five-year, $98.5-million deal, which he signed last August.
Poles also declined to discuss the details of the contracts the Bears offered to Smith, though he said on Aug. 9 that there were “record-setting pieces of this contract that I thought was going to show him the respect that he deserves, and obviously that hasn’t been the case.” Poles added the Bears didn’t intend to trade Smith as he had requested and hoped to continue working toward a contract extension.
Eleven days later, Smith announced his intention to halt negotiations and joined the Bears in practice. He’s due $9.735 million in 2022 under the fifth-year option in his rookie contract and could become an unrestricted free agent in March. Still, the Bears hold leverage. They own the right to tender the franchise tag in 2023, which would pay just shy of $18.3 million in fully guaranteed salary – a figure that’s shy of Leonard’s annual average. That’s a potential outcome that could push off contract negotiations between Smith and the Bears.
After bringing an end to the challenging and emotional contract negotiations with the Bears, Smith looked toward an uncertain future with his head held high.
“No, I don’t regret not having an agent,” Smith said. “Throughout this process, I think that’s just a bunch of excuses when people say that. Times are changing and I feel like players want to be at the table to have full transparency to know what’s actually going on, what’s being said. Hey, a lot of people say a lot of different things. When you’re there, you see it for your own eyes, you know for a fact what’s going on.
“It just shows you how the game is, how it goes.”
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.
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