Peter Schaffer (sports agent)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Peter Schaffer" sports agent – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article contains promotional content. Please help improve it by removing promotional language and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic text written from a neutral point of view. (February 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (February 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Peter Schaffer (born in 1962) is an American sports agent and lawyer who represents players in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, PGA Tour, the National Basketball Association, the Premier Lacrosse League, and the National Hockey League. He is the founder and owner of Authentic Athletix, a Colorado-based sports agency, and is known for representing highly drafted players and notable names.^[1] He also owns an athletic combine training facility in Denver.

Schaffer represents active and retired athletes and celebrities, including Pro Football Hall of Famers Barry Sanders, Steve Atwater, Jerome Bettis, Willie Roaf and Joe Thomas, as well as fellow NFL players Joe Mixon, Adam Jones, Randy Gregory, La'el Collins, Allen Lazard, Rayshawn Jenkins, Joshua Cribbs, C. J. Anderson, Mario Edwards Jr., and Hakeem Nicks.^[2] He also represents PGA golfers, including two-time PGA tour winner Jonathan Kaye and Shane Bertsch.^{[citation needed]}

Schaffer was born in upstate New York. He attended Cortland High School and then The Hill School, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania on an athletic and academic scholarship, graduating in 1980 with honors. Schaffer then attended Franklin and Marshall College, graduating in 1984 with honors while playing both varsity lacrosse and hockey. Schaffer would later be awarded The Alumni Citation from Franklin and Marshall College in 2019.^[3] In 1987, he graduated from Brooklyn Law School.

In 1988, he played professional lacrosse in the American Lacrosse League (1988) (ALL) for the Denver Rifles.

His first job out of law school was with the Denver-based law firm of Weller, Freidrich, Ward, and Andrews, a litigation firm. After law school in 1988, Schaffer became certified as a Contract Advisor ("Agent") by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), the NHLPA, and PGA Tour.^{[citation needed]}

Schaffer has represented five (5) players who have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. These include Joe Thomas, Barry Sanders, Jerome Bettis, Willie Roaf, and Steve Atwater

Schaffer represents Joe Mixon (running back), Randy Gregory, Allen Lazard, La'el Collins, Trevor Pryce. He also represents Hakeem Nicks (wide receiver, Tennessee Titans), Chad Brown (linebacker, Seattle Seahawks), Jason Gildon (linebacker, Pittsburgh Steelers), C. J. Anderson (Running Back, Denver Broncos), David Diehl (Pro Bowl Offensive Tackle, New York Giants and current Fox Sports Game analyst), Larry Johnson (running back, Kansas City Chiefs), Rudi Johnson (running back, Cincinnati Bengals), Derrick Mason, Wide Receiver, Titans and Ravens, Samari Rolle, Cornerback, Titans and Ravens, Tra Thomas Tackles, Eagles, Lito Sheppard, Cornerback. Eagles, and quarterback New York Giants and current ESPN and Jesse Palmer, Good Morning America studio host.^{[citation needed]}

Other football clients include C. J. Anderson (Running Back, Denver Broncos) and Adam Jones Cornerback, Cincinnati Bengals^{[citation needed]} and Joe Mixon.^[4]

In 2011, Schaffer started his own agency called Authentic Athletix, LLC, a sports and entertainment agency.^[2]

Schaffer appears on ABC Nightly News,^[5] Fox Sports,^[6] The Dan Patrick Show,^[7] HBO Real Sports and 60 Minutes.^[8] He has also co-hosted shows on KFFN (Denver) and Altitude Sports Network. His thoughts on the NFL can be read regularly in his national column for the Washington Post's "Inside the League." He has served as a Professor of Sports Law at the University of Denver and has lectured at Tulane University Law School, University of Colorado Business School, Johnson and Wales University, University of Colorado Law School and the University of New York-Cortland, among others. He has also served as chairman of the Denver Cable Commission and the Denver Professional Lacrosse Commission. He is a member of the Agent Advisory Board of the NFL Players Union and is a member of both the NFLPA and NHLPA.^{[citation needed]}

On August 11, 2015, the Esquire Network premiered a new docu-series titled The Agent, which follows Schaffer and three other NFL agents as they court potential clients in the months leading up to the NFL draft. Camera crews documented Schaffer's recruitment of Florida State star defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. and 2014 Thorpe Award winner Gerod Holliman of Louisville. The series includes footage of Schaffer playing golf with NFL star and client Adam Jones, a trip to a men's lacrosse tournament where Schaffer convinces his teammates to take the Wonderlic test with his new clients and even captures Schaffer watching former Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday suffer a broken leg shortly after contacting him as a potential client.^{[citation needed][9]}