Killer Kim

When Saquon Barkley went #2 in the 2018 draft to the New York Giants, he became the highest player drafted to be represented by a woman.

The woman who represents him is Kim Miale. Kim works as an agent and general counsel for Roc Nation Sports and has represented an impressive list of NFL stars throughout her career. In addition to Barkley, her client list boasts names like Pittsburgh’s Juju Smith-Schuster, Dallas’ Dez Bryant, LA’s Todd Gurley, and Jacksonville’s Leonard Fournette and CJ Henderson, among many others.  

Becoming a top sports agent, emphasis on top, is no small feat. The agency world is notoriously hard to break into, with the top 10% of agents representing about 90% of players. Becoming a female sports agent is even more competitive. As of 2019, 800 agents were certified with the NFLPA (NFL Players Association) and only 34 of them were women. Of those 34 women, only 17 had active clients in the NFL. This means female agents make up only 4.3% of the NFL agent pool.

Kim had what it took to become part of that small percentage. She climbed her way to the top, after first being exposed to the idea of becoming a sports agent by her professor in the sports law class she took while at Suffolk University Law School. Her professor was Kristen Kuliga, a highly successful NFL agent. Kristen became a mentor to Kim and offered her an internship opportunity with her firm. Kim was able to learn negotiating tactics for player contracts and work on major endorsement agreements, such as Doug Flutie’s Reebok deal. While it took a clerking job and a few years as a litigation attorney after law school to realize that becoming a sports agent was her calling, Kim has been a trailblazer ever since.

After moonlighting as a local Boston area agent for several years, Kim landed a consulting job with Madison Avenue Sports and Entertainment. She was hired specifically to expand their football representation department. To do so, she spent her free time attending things like the NFL Combine and Pro Days to network and make connections. This eventually led to her being hired as Roc Nation Sports’ first in-house football agent where her first major client was Geno Smith. She successfully negotiated a $5 million rookie contract for Smith with the Jets and her career took off.  

While Kim’s success can be attributed to many things, three things stand out most:

1. Ability to Trust her Instincts. Having 4 top 10 draft picks in 5 years is no coincidence. After watching Saquon Barkley play, her instincts told her that he was someone she without a doubt needed to represent in the following years draft. Kim has said, “I was at the Rose Bowl on the brink of signing JuJu…And obviously, Barkley lit up the field that night. I had known of him anyway, but being at the Rose Bowl and watching that game I just thought, ‘my God, this is the player I need to focus on for next season because I’ve never seen anything like it…” And she was right. 

2. Keen Negotiating Skills. Michael Yormark, Roc Nation President and Chief of Branding Strategy, has said, “She’s relentless, I’ve been in this business a long time and I feel more confident with Kim Miale negotiating a deal that I am involved in than any attorney I’ve ever worked with, and that is a big statement.” Both Kim’s toughness and astute understanding of player contracts have helped her negotiate terms that have literally saved her clients millions of dollars. When the NFL introduced the new “Helmet to Helmet” rule (A rule that requires disciplining a player for illegal contact on the field), Kim was the first agent to recognize that this could lead to suspension and therefore forfeit of pay. Player contracts require forfeit of pay by any player who is suspended, but Kim knew that this contract provision was only intended for misconduct off the field. She wisely negotiated terms into her client’s contracts to specify that suspensions from the “Helmet to Helmet” rule did not apply. Many players, who were not her clients, followed suit and had their agents insist on the same for their contracts.

3. Genuine Care for Her Clients. Tom Condon, a colleague of Kim’s, has said, “Besides being intelligent and hardworking and quick on the uptake, she cares about the clients very much.” Kim checks in on each client after every game, develops relationships with her players’ family members, and finds the most satisfying part of her job to be when she sees her clients not only having success on the field but also off the field. Some of her proudest moments have been seeing the work Saquon has done for 22q, the rare disease his niece has, or seeing Juju Smith-Schuster’s dedication to Meals on Wheels. Kim recognizes that the players trust her with their livelihood and she does not take that lightly.

Both Kim’s talent and drive are undeniable and do not go unnoticed by her superstar clients. Each time Kim finalizes negotiations for a new client, she has the player sign a jersey for her office wall. Dez Bryant made his jersey out to “Killer Kim.” She has certainly made a name for herself amongst those 800 other NFL agents.