The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the pinnacle of football greatness.  Entry into the Hall encapsulates the highest level of achievement ever accomplished in the National Football League.  To date, only a select 267 members in the game’s illustrious history have been enshrined as inductees, a gesture that puts the ultimate stamp on a career, branding him as one of the game’s greatest.  This year’s list of nominees, for the Class of 2012, are headlined by three client’s that Peter Schaffer represented over the past two decades:  Steve Atwater, Lomas Brown, and Willie Roaf.

Steve Atwater, a first-round pick of the Denver Broncos in the 1989 Draft, was an eight-time Pro Bowl Selection at safety and a two-time Super Bowl champion.  Atwater was also recognized as a member of the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade Team.  He finished his successful career with over 1,000 career tackles and 20 career interceptions.  In addition to his play, the versatile Atwater, nicknamed the “Smiling Assassin” was also a proven leader, as captain of the Broncos defense for both of the franchise’s championship in 1997 and 1998.

Lomas Brown, a durable offensive tackle, played eighteen seasons in the National Football League, spanning three decades.  He was drafted with the sixth overall pick of the Detroit Lions in the 1985 Draft.  During his stint with the Lions, he became one of the league’s premier offensive tackles, paving the way for Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders, another client that Peter Schaffer represented during his career.  His career accolades include seven Pro Bowl and three first team All-Pro Selections.  Further, he was a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl-winning team and his 251 career starts ranks among the most in NFL history.

Willie Roaf, nicknamed “Nasty” for his combination of blocking ability, speed, and size, was an eleven-time Pro Bowl Selection at offensive tackle and six-time first team All-Pro.  He was the eighth overall pick of the New Orleans Saints in the 1993 Draft, and went on to become a member of both the 1990s and 2000s NFL All-Decade teams, making him one of the most celebrated players in Saints history and one of the most decorated offensive linemen in the history of the game.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame will announce its newest class of inductees in January of 2012, and will culminate with an official welcoming of the Class of 2012 at the National Football League’s Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony in August.  Stay tuned

Listen in on The Dan Patrick Show as Dan discusses Authentic Athletix Agent Peter Schaffer with NFL Client Larry Johnson.

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By Rick Reilly
ESPN.com
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Getty Images Adam Jones, Derrick Mason and Russell Okung all heard from their agent, Peter Schaffer, yesterday as the NFL sprang back to life when the lockout was lifted.

Let’s say you’re Santa Claus and you’ve locked your elves out for four months in a bitter labor dispute. Suddenly, you settle. You turn to the calendar and notice — to your horror — that it’s Christmas Eve.

That was Tuesday in the NFL.

So when longtime NFL agent Peter Schaffer got set for a day when deals would be cooking on every burner, he decided to do it in the kitchen of his Denver home.

“Can’t go to the office on a day like this,” says Schaffer, who has repped everybody from Barry Sanders to Pacman Jones. “Too many distractions.”

He’ll have one, though — me, sitting on his bar stool. The whole day.

5:02 a.m. The 48-year-old Schaffer has a to-do list today longer than his driveway. He needs to find his stable of undrafted free agents jobs, get his draft picks signed and locate homes for his free-agent vets. Not only that, but he needs to negotiate a Hummer full of endorsement deals that have been on hold, handle an NFL player’s divorce, and see if he can keep his cell from overheating from panicky player texts.

Craziest day of your career?

“No, the best!” Schaffer says.

We’ll see about that.

5:15 a.m. Schaffer’s ring tone is Boston’s “More Than a Feeling.” He likes to stay positive about every call.

It’s going to be a bitch to stay positive today, though. Already, the Ravens have told one of his guys, WR Derrick Mason, that he’ll be cut. Same with the Cardinals and another of Schaffer’s clients, LB Gerald Hayes. His text box is filled with messages that good players are being guillotined purely so teams can make the new, tighter $120.4 million salary cap. Worse, rookie salaries have been getting a crew cut.

“So far,” Schaffer says without looking up from his two computers, “it’s a bloodbath.”

You can almost tell who Schaffer is talking to by what device he’s using. Players text. NFL execs call. Reporters email.

6:11 a.m. For cheap players, it’s like a half-off Bloomingdale’s purse sale right now. Every personnel guy needs them — and Schaffer has scads.

“What else you lookin’ for?” Schaffer asks the Saints’ personnel guy, Joey Laine. “I got some tight ends. I got some great linebackers. Got a helluva little special-teams guy. Whaddya need?” It’s like one of those “We-have-to-sell-all-our-cars-this-weekend!!!” deals.

Look, I don’t have an ’09 red Explorer for you, but I’ve got a sweet little ’08 Ford Focus the little woman will love!

7:05 a.m. Schaffer plants Southern Miss TE Johdrick Morris in Baltimore. When’s the last time he signed a guy before breakfast?

“Never?” he says.

8:33 a.m. He’s hot. He gets a three-year deal with the Saints for WR Michael Galatas from Millsaps College — $258,000, $288,000 and $555,000. Later, Galatas will call to thank him profusely.

“Glad to,” Schaffer says. “But do me a favor. When you get to camp, bust your butt, study like hell and remember what my dad always said: ‘Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut.’”

9:01 a.m. All day, Schaffer will be to and fro with the Cleveland Browns over his new prized client, 21st overall draft pick Phil Taylor, a 334-pound defensive lineman from Baylor. He’ll do it wearing Taylor’s combine shirt.

Now Taylor calls to tell him he’s driving, as he speaks, in his truck from Naples, Fla., to Cleveland, alone.

“No speeding tickets!” Schaffer screams. “Especially in West Virginia!”

9:44 a.m. Big crisis.

A prominent NFC player is freaking out. The NFL has dropped off a urine-testing kit at his house when he’s clearly not — how shall we say this? — ready.

Apparently, the end of the lockout came as a surprise to him. Schaffer talks him off the ledge.

“Hold on, hold on (blank). They can’t do that. They haven’t finished the language on drug testing yet in the CBA. They can’t test you if it’s not in the contract. This is still America, right?”

Schaffer calls the players’ union to check. A union lawyer gets on the line and Schaffer gets the player on the line.

“OK, listen carefully, (blank). We need you to have somebody videotape you putting the entire thing — the test tubes, the instructions, everything — into a clear, sealed bag. Then FedEx it to me immediately. Got it?”

“OK, OK,” the player says.

Then, just as a precaution, Schaffer says, “Read me the directions, will you?”

The directions are all about allowable levels of chlorine and bromine.

Turns out it was from the guy’s pool cleaner.

9:58 a.m. A GM is balking about how little money he has to sign free agents.

Schaffer: “Wait a minute. For 18 months, all you guys did was bitch about trying to get the cap down. Now you got it, and you’re all bitching about having such a low cap! I mean, look at the Cowboys. Jerry Jones wanted the low cap more than anybody. But now he’s got to get from 136 [million] to 120 [million]. You guys screwed yourselves!’”

10:10 a.m. Schaffer is funny and honest and constantly on the phone, so GMs call him for clandestine info. This particular GM wants to know what he thinks of a certain big-news player who is being offered in trade.

“I live by the Jagger principle,” he says to him.

“The Jagger principle?” the GM asks.

“Mick Jagger. You don’t always get what you want. You get what you need. You don’t need him.”

10:30 a.m. The bloodbath continues. The Cowboys plan to cut Marion Barber, Leonard Davis and Roy Williams, all of them stars.

10:41 a.m. Among all the other stuff that’s been in the “HOLD” pile for six months are guys hoping to get reinstated to the league after suspensions. Schaffer begins helping Tampa Bay safety Tanard Jackson draft his letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. It is contrite, polite and contains almost no language James Harrison would approve of.

11:03 a.m. The former Pacman Jones is on the phone.

“Gotta hit you back, Adam,” says Schaffer. “I’m swamped.”

On a day like this, if you already have a job, you aren’t getting any instant love. Later, he calls Jones, who reports that the doctor thinks he and his injured neck will be ready to start the season with the Bengals. Of course, considering he was just arrested for the seventh time, he may not have a season to start.

11:53 a.m. Earlier, Rams personnel czar Mike Williams told Schaffer he was interested in a fullback of Schaffer’s — Bryant Ward of Oklahoma State — but Schaffer has since heard from another GM that Williams is going after somebody else.

“You’re cheating on me, Mike! You’re cheating on me!”

12:12 p.m. I’m boiling hot dogs for Schaffer for lunch. NFL agent. Pure glamour.

1:03 p.m. One of Schaffer’s big stars, Russell Okung, Seattle Seahawks OT, is on the cell. He was the sixth pick in the draft last year and signed for $58 million for six years, $30 million of it guaranteed. This year, thanks to the new CBA, the sixth pick won’t make nearly as much.

“It was you, Big Russ. It was your deal last year that doomed all these poor rookies.”

Russell does not seem all that sad. Actually, neither does Schaffer.

1:14 p.m. Schaffer’s lissome blonde wife, Alison, comes home from running errands with their two kids — 7 and 11. He met her at Denver International Airport on the way to recruit Ohio State tackle Orlando Pace.

“He got me instead,” she says.

Definitely a first-rounder.

1:41 p.m. You can almost tell who Schaffer is talking to by what device he’s using. Players text. NFL execs call. Reporters email.

In the last couple hours, he’s gotten some texts from players saying they’ve gotten calls from the Raiders. But after the umpteenth house cleaning by 82-year-old owner Al Davis last season, Schaffer has no idea who to call with the Raiders. So he just calls the Raiders’ switchboard.

“Personnel department, please?”

And you wonder why the Raiders suck.

2:12 p.m. Alison is off to the pool with the kids. This means Schaffer can sneak in a dip of his own — of chewing tobacco, strictly forbidden in the house.

He’s just about to plug one in when he sees his 11-year-old daughter, Lilian, sitting quietly at the computer. No chew today.

You get what you need.

2:50 p.m. This is a weird one.

A major New York executive who does huge business with the NFL wants Schaffer to find a job for a very small, plucky safety from a tiny school in the East.

“He’s 5-9!” I mention.

“Only in the program,” says Schaffer.

Rick Reilly/ESPNNFL player agent Peter Schaffer taking one of the countless calls he got Tuesday, after the NFL lockout ended and the league was back in business.

He calls an AFC GM he’s close with and says, “You remember the line from ‘Saving Private Ryan?’ ‘This is a tough one but it comes from the very top.’ Well, this is that.”

The GM agrees to a tryout.

3:32 p.m. Schaffer has spent gobs of time working the lines on behalf of Seattle Seahawks DB Jordan Babineaux. Seems like every fifth call is about him. Seattle wants him back, but it has competition from Tennessee, the Jets, Dallas and Arizona.

Babineaux is favoring leaving, but Schaffer thinks maybe he should stay put.

“We’re only talking a million or two here,” Schaffer says. “You’d leave Seattle for a million or two more? Seattle? And, unless you go to Tennessee, you suddenly have to pay state income tax. You’d really leave Seattle for that?”

4:03 p.m. A certain name of a certain agent comes up during a phone conversation and it makes Alison’s lip curl.

“I don’t like him,” she grumbles. “I don’t like him at all. He recruits players with fancy apartments and Swedish hookers.”

Who knew?

4:28 p.m. Schaffer updates Saints WR Courtney Roby on where he may be living for the next four years.

“The Saints want you back,” he says. “The Vikes are interested, too. And maybe two other teams. But I have to warn you. There’s no cash out there. There’s only $440 million in cap room for the entire league.” (That’s $13.75 million per team.) “That’s nothing! This market isn’t as hot as people thought it was going to be.”

Who negotiated this deal for the players, Greece?

4:30 p.m. Schaffer has to leave to guest host a sports radio show for one of his clients. He promised months ago and Schaffer is honoring it, despite it being arguably the craziest day in league history.

He’ll work his phone during the show, but already it’s been a mega-day. He finished deals for four college free agents, made more headway on his draft picks in one day than he’s done in entire months, whipped up interest in a half dozen of his veteran free agents and pleased a very powerful network honcho — and all without the aid of Copenhagen.

A small part of me is not sorry to see him go.

You have no idea how old “More Than a Feeling” gets the 103rd time you hear it.

Love the column, hate the column, got a better idea? Go here.

Rick Reilly is the 11-time National Sportswriter of the Year. He contributes essays and commentary to “SportsCenter” and ESPN/ABC golf and tennis coverage. He’s also the host of “Homecoming,” ESPN’s unique, one-hour interview show set in the hometowns of legendary athletes. For more Rick, check out the archive.

Feel like taking a detour from sane sports? Try Rick’s latest book, “Sports from Hell.”

Posted: 07/19/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

Updated: 07/19/2011 08:30:45 AM MDT

NFL Players Association spokesman George Atallah, right, pauses as he speaks to media in Washington on Monday, as talks to end the NFL lockout continued. (Carolyn Kaster, The Associated Press)

Broncos kicker Matt Prater might as well place the ball on the tee.

It appears the business of the 2011 NFL season is about to start.

The decertified NFL Players Association is arranging to have its 32 union representatives gather Wednesday in Washington, where they are to be briefed on a collective bargaining proposal before voting on it, according to two NFL sources.

Veteran safety Brian Dawkins has the Broncos’ vote.

Considering the NFLPA spent the past five months negotiating with team owners on a new labor contract, approval is likely to be little more than a formality.

Team owners are expected to vote Thursday in Atlanta. If all goes well, the NFL lockout will be lifted Friday, the free agency and trading period will begin next week (possibly Monday) and the Broncos have tentatively set July 28 as the day of their first, open-to-the-public training camp workout at the team’s Dove Valley headquarters.

At that point, the Broncos can begin sweating off the hangover from the two-year Josh McDaniels era and begin fresh under coach John Fox.

“We have all the talent in the world,” Broncos punter Britton Colquitt said Monday at the Diamonds in the Rough Charity Golf Classic at Cherry Hills Country Club. “We just didn’t have all the X factors to put it all together. Now we’ve got the coaching, we’ve got the motivation. Everybody’s going to want to come in there and have a great camp.”

Also participating in the golf event were NFL agent Peter Schaffer, Broncos fullback Spencer Larsen, general manager Brian Xanders and scouting director Matt Russell, University of Colorado football coach Jon Embree and athletic director Mike Bohn.

Colquitt and Larsen have been working out with trainer Loren Landow of The Steadman Clinic. About 35 players on Denver’s roster worked out at least once with Landow during this unusual offseason, when NFL players were locked out from their team facilities. The lockout started March 12.

“I think we’ll be a lot more bonded this year,” Colquitt said. “Everybody knows each other a little more, because we all had to pull together and work out by ourselves and we all came together that way.”

Landow drew 45 local professional players for his workout Monday, including Broncos quarterback Brady Quinn , defensive end Robert Ayers, middle linebacker Joe Mays, tight ends Richard Quinn and Dan Gronkowski, running back Lance Ball, cornerback Cassius Vaughn, wide receiver Matt Willis and the regular group of offensive linemen led by Chris Kuper, Russ Hochstein, J.D. Walton and Zane Beadles (and free agent-to-be Ryan Harris).

The players sense the 2011 season is near.

“As players, we’re all excited,” Larsen said. “It’s getting to be that time when we all want to start playing football. It will be good to get the team together again. See the guys. We haven’t seen each other in a while. I’m looking forward to getting to meet the rookies. We haven’t had a chance to meet them yet. We don’t know yet exactly what’s going to happen, but hopefully we get started soon.”

Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com

Sports agent Peter Schaffer says he plays golf because it’s the “ultimate challenge sport.” Of his peers, Schaffer says super-agent Scott Boras represents his clients, but Drew Rosenhaus is “lying and cheating and stealing to get contracts and players.” (Andy Cross photos, The Denver Post )

The news that former Broncos running back Travis Henry had been arrested on cocaine distribution charges might have been a “there but for the grace of God” moment for most sports agents across the country. But the only scrambling Peter Schaffer was doing when the news broke was out of the rough at Vista Ridge Golf Club in Erie.

Schaffer, 46, isn’t immune to misfortune befalling the athletes he represents, but with a clientele that has included such NFL luminaries as Barry Sanders, Eddie George, Willie Roaf and Al Wilson, the odds might be in his favor.

One day last week, with one of his favorite foils, KCNC sports anchor Vic Lombardi, in tow, Schaffer dished on a number of aspects of the art of the deal, NFL-style. But before lining up his opening tee shot, the Denver resident addressed a simple question.

Why golf?

“I like challenges, and golf is the ultimate challenge sport. Every shot is different, every day is different, every hole is different. And you can play against someone, whether it’s an 18-handicapper against a 1-handicap. And it’s the competition. I just like competition.”

Rocky Mountain high

“I’d like to think what my role is for a player is to be someone who’ll help him manage his career. I think through the years we’ve established a track record of success, with a bevy of relationships through the NFL, PGA Tour, NHL, whatever. And so we tell potential clients that you don’t need to have your agent in New York or Los Angeles — you just need him to be dedicated. It’s only a disadvantage of perception; the reality takes care of itself. The players who come out here really love it — they think it’s going to be some snowy, weather-dominated town and players see this and realize how beautiful it is.”

The midnight hour

“I like trying to outwork everybody. It’s tough on the family — you work until whenever and you come home, and I’ve got two great kids, a 4-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter, and I get two hours with them before they go to bed. And then my poor wife probably wants some kind of conversation, but then the phone rings until midnight and you’re talking with players, teams, potential clients or reporters.

My wife asks me: ‘What are you going to do today?’ And I really have to say: ‘I don’t know.’ You have 70 clients, there are different issues, anything can happen — you just never know.”

Sales pitch

“I enjoy recruiting athletes because you get to meet kids from all walks of life from all over the country. I always take the attitude that if you’re honest with them, you’ll get a fair shot. The key to it, to use a popular term, is that you have to vet the client to find the players who are in sync with you — the same morals, ethics, the same goals. If you do that, then you’ll have a better chance of being successful. If he goes with me, fine. If he goes with someone else, I don’t take it personally.”

Fairy tales

“Recruiting Joe Thomas (an offensive tackle from Wisconsin, chosen third overall by Cleveland in the 2007 NFL draft) — he was recruited by about 150 agents. That’s how competitive it is. But what I think won out was being honest and forthright with him and his father. We tell them our track record and say, ‘Here’s what we do.’ When you make business decisions in a business where people shop on busy streets, look at who we’ve had, the character of the individuals.

“It’s always easy to lie and cheat to get to where you want to go, but it should be about doing it the right way.” – Peter Schaffer, on being a good sports agent

“A lot of people leave agents because they’re lied to. If you say this is what you can do and you do it, they stay with you. If you don’t, that’s usually when a player leaves. Sometimes I’ll lose someone because my honesty doesn’t match the level of someone else who is puffing the player up with false promises, but in the last three years, we’ve had 30 players come back to us because they didn’t get things they were promised by others.”

More learning

“You really have to educate the player about what an agent really can do. In a lot of other businesses, you’re dealing with sophisticated people who know what they’re looking for from a professional — in this situation, you’re dealing with 21-year-olds who’ve never been in this position. Sometimes they get their information from ‘Jerry Maguire.’

“We tell them what an agent legitimately can and can’t do and what they should expect. The biggest misconceptions about the business are created by other agents telling clients what can happen. Like in marketing, you can take an offensive lineman and tell him he’s going to get TV commercials and roles in Hollywood movies, but the reality is that’s probably not gonna happen. Yet someone will tell them that with a straight face and it gets hard to convince them otherwise.”

The dark side

“I don’t think Scott Boras is bad for business; he takes a very intellectual approach and he drives a hard bargain, but he represents his client.

“But Drew Rosenhaus and people like him stretch the level of credibility. That’s bad, because you’re in a business where you want to portray a sense of ethics, morality and honesty and he’s admitting that he’s lying and cheating and stealing to get contracts and players. That’s not good for any business.

“The morals and ethics of our society have to be driven by the professionals of our society. It’s always easy to lie and cheat to get to where you want to go, but it should be about doing it the right way. I don’t think the way he does things can be defined as successful — in any business. He makes it harder for us, but people like that will never affect how we do business.”

Business model

“Players get fired — that’s what it is. The NFL is unlike all the other sports because there are no guaranteed contracts, so everybody’s year to year and day to day. I was doing Jim Haslett’s contract with the Rams (Haslett recently replaced Scott Linehan as coach); they were saying he’s the ‘interim’ coach — well, to my mind, everybody’s interim. I told the owner, I’m an interim husband. That’s really what it is in this league.

“But you try to look at everything positively. You’re talking about a 21-year-old college senior who, as an undrafted free agent, will make $295,000 — very rarely does that happen for someone coming out of school. Life has a yin and yang to it — that’s the yin, making this incredible amount of money and setting yourself up for life, and all the fortune and fame. But the tradeoff is that it can all be taken away from you at any given moment, even if you’re doing everything right. Al Wilson is having a great career and he collides on a punt return and the next thing you know, it’s over.”

Sense of loss

“Injuries are a part of the game and they’re horrible, but the players know the risks. It’s interesting when you’re dealing with vital organs and body parts. There’s being cleared to play and then there’s getting the risks to an acceptable level.

“Those are two different things. With Al, the reality was that the risks never got to an acceptable level. It’s one thing if you’re (Hall of Fame defensive back) Ronnie Lott and you say you’re going to cut off the tip of your little finger to play football — that makes a great story, but it doesn’t affect your life. When you’re talking about a C4, C5 vertebra injury, with potentially catastrophic results, it puts everything into a different light.

“What sticks out to me wasn’t the night he was hurt, but after he was cleared by the Broncos. We had him traded to the Giants and were thinking that everything was OK, but then the doctors there told him his career was over. The phone call I got from him after that, after they told him he could be paralyzed if he played football again, was the most sobering call I’ve gotten. Nobody saw that coming. You walk into a room thinking everything’s good and you’re about to sign a five-year, $25 million contract, with an $8 million signing bonus, and the next thing you know, you’re being told you could be in a wheelchair or killed if you play. It was like an out- of-body experience for both of us.”

At the table

“Every contract has its own unique issues and challenges, whether it’s a seventh-round pick or a top-10 player. You have to treat everyone like it’s Barry Sanders because it’s their career, and you have to put their own individual stamp on their deal to put them in the best situation.

“It’s interesting on an intellectual level because there are so many moving parts: Is it a three-, four- or five-year deal? . . . What about incentives? . . . Can a player reach them? Do you want the player to stay with a team? If he’s a nickel back on a team, do you do a shorter deal so he can go to another team and be a starter? You want to look at a contract, not only as it being good today, but also it being good tomorrow or the next year, too.”

Roll call

“We’re not only looking for first-rounders, we’re looking for guys who can have long careers. Unless you’re a top-10 pick, it’s really the second contract that’s going to make or break the player’s career and set them up for life. That’s what we’re trying to do, set up as many players for life as possible, so you want the guys who will stay focused and stay out of trouble and keep their eyes on the prize.

“Through the years, we’ve established a great network of general managers and coaches who look, not just at the talent — the talent, a lot of people can see — but also the player’s character and background. We can talk to a scout about a player and he’ll say: ‘He’s a great player but he’s not your kind of guy.’ If that happens, we’ll back off that player.”

Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com

The basics

The Dream Team

My dream foursome would include Jim Thorpe, the greatest athlete of the 20th century; Muhammad Ali, the greatest athlete of the second half of the century; and Frank Sinatra — the coolest man who ever lived.

Most memorable shot

At City Park about 10 years ago, I was playing in one of Tom Woodard’s skins games. I was probably an 18-handicap then. On the 17th hole, I hit a halfway decent drive and was about 220 yards out. I hit a 3-wood that I thought was long. We looked for it and looked for it and looked for it — it was in the hole for a double eagle. And I won $200.

From the tips

My dad always told me, “Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut.”