After spending more than two decades championing for better NFL safety protocols, celebrity sports agent Leigh Steinberg is tackling the issue from a new angle – a $50 million angle.
Steinberg, who has represented top NFL quarterbacks, is famous for star-studded Super Bowl parties and inspired the movie Jerry Maguire, is partnering with Alpha Strategies to form a new venture capital arm dedicated to innovation in sports and entertainment. Steinberg Ventures is planning to raise a $50 million fund, and will focus in part on new tools to combat concussions suffered by players on the field, USA TODAY reports.
Sports-oriented financing deals continue to draw and capture the attention of investors, the new venture arm posted on its website. Steinberg Ventures is well positioned to counsel and guide entrepreneurs through the fertile and exciting, yet highly competitive, landscape that has now become mainstream. Our focus and goal is to return strong, long-term results for investors and provide new businesses with intimate support and assistance as they grow.
The site lists focus areas including apparel, team ownership, big data analytics, medical science, technology and tournaments. Steinberg is working with Alpha Strategies founder and president Jay Rogers.
We have been absolutely inundated with offers to invest, Steinberg told USA TODAY.
Steinberg spoke last week at the Moscone Center on the issue of NFL concussions, Carl Steward reported. He called the concussion a ticking time bomb and a largely undiagnosed health epidemic, and pushed for new helmet design, better diagnostic techniques on the sidelines, and an end to tackle football before high school. The league and other football entities have been slow to adopt measures that could bring about real change, Steinberg said. His presentation was timely, as it was recently revealed Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler, who died in 2015 of colon cancer complications, suffered from a generative brain disease thought to be the result of head trauma. A growing number of top athletes are showing signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which has led to a widespread push for better concussion protection. CTE can be diagnosed only after death.
Photo: In this Dec. 2, 2012, file photo, Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (23) blows a kiss to the crowd after scoring a touchdown on a 2-yard run against the Tennessee Titans in the second quarter of an NFL football game in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Joe Howell, File)
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