Catching Up with J.R. Carroll An Enlightening Experience (Opinion)

By now everybody knows the story of the tall, skinny Texarkana kid who turned out to be a quarterback.

But what about the boy from White Hall who represents him? The lone Arkansas fan in a family full of LSU grads?

“The good thing,” J.R. Carroll said, “is I’ve never had to get a Ryan Mallett autograph for anyone in my family.”

Carroll is the Fayetteville-based attorney at Kutak Rock LLP who was thrust into the spotlight during Mallett’s nightmare of an NFL Draft experience. In the days leading up to the draft – and through 73 picks – teams treated Mallett with the kind of hands-off approach usually reserved for lepers.

Everybody knows how that turned out, too. Mallett received what many perceive as a reprieve when he was drafted by the New England Patriots.

But what about Carroll? How did a 34-year-old partner at Kutak Rock who specializes in product liability and banking and lending defense cases, find himself repping a 22-year-old many view as part-Drew Bledsoe, part-Vanilla Ice?

To say it’s an unlikely story is an understatement. Carroll was an accounting major at Arkansas, for starters, and even after enrolling in law school assumed he’d end up using that education in some type of “transactional” capacity.

 Some valuable time with a federal judge, however, convinced Carroll all litigators don’t fit the loud, cartoon character-style mold. Only after Carroll was approached by Mallett’s parents, he said, did he decide to pursue his current status as a “registered NFL contract adviser.”

The Malletts wanted “someone to protect Ryan as a lawyer, not necessarily as a sports agent,” Carroll said.

Even so, Carroll thought it would be a good idea to go through the process of becoming an agent. It was different than he expected.

“Eight to 10 years ago, it used to be the Wild, Wild West,” Carroll said. “You sent in a half-page application and a check, and the next day you were an agent.”

Nowadays, applicants have to declare their intentions 16 months in advance. A seminar is given and a test administered in Washington, D.C., once a year.

Carroll said between 200 and 300 people took the test when he did, with about 60 percent earning a passing mark. After taking the preparations seriously, and armed with the experience of passing the bar exam, Carroll was surprised the success rate wasn’t higher.

Because Mallett was Carroll’s first – and to this point, only – client, the decision was made that he should share “co-representation” with David Dunn. Carroll called Dunn “a quarterback’s sports agent,” and a list of clients that includes Aaron Rodgers and Mark Sanchez supports that.

“David does the lion’s share of the NFL stuff ,” Carroll said, adding he handles marketing and endorsement deals.

What also fell to Carroll was handling the barrage of local media requests that came once the torturous pre-draft leaks concerning Mallett’s off-field behavior broke. Rebutting the anonymous sources proved frustrating for a litigator accustomed to sharing a courtroom with his opposition.

“There was no one for me to swing at,” Carroll said.

The anger and aggravation largely have subsided, though not to the extent Carroll is convinced he wants to expand his work as an agent.

“I haven’t decided, to be real honest,” he said.

Carroll is sure he won’t recruit clients. He’s open to helping kids with Arkansas ties, just as long as it doesn’t take up more than 20 percent of his business.

Perhaps the most important lesson Carroll learned is how to manage the amount of time it takes to deal with a high-profile prospect like Mallett.

“Next time my calendar will be set up accordingly,” Carroll said, adding his work with Mallett was similar to preparing for a complex court case.

“Eighty-hour weeks, no golf,” he said.

For anyone wondering, that didn’t include accompanying Mallett on his team visits. Family, friends and agents are prohibited from attending during a team’s 24-hour window, Carroll said.

Through it all, though, Carroll hasn’t lost his faith in Mallett. He said potential business partners haven’t, either, and cited “numerous” six-figure deals in the works.

Like a lot of Hog fans, though, Carroll’s faith seems to boil down to the notion that Mallett has grown up by going through the process. And then there’s the quote by the boy from White Hall, talking about the tall, skinny Texarkana kid who turned out to be a quarterback.

“Ryan’s strength is making the 55-yard handoff,” Carroll said.