The 2024 NFL season has begun, but there’s one person making noise off the field that is impacting the game. Sports agent David Mulugheta had reportedly made history as the first agent in the league to negotiate more than $1 billion in NFL contracts in one year, per his reps.
According to Forbes, the 41-year-old has 86 clients and $1.3 billion in contract deals under his portfolio. As the president of team sports at Athletes First, Mulugheta has cemented himself as one of the most sought-after agents in the industry. However, this wasn’t something he had anticipated in his life.
Based on a USA TODAY profile, Mulugheta never planned on becoming an NFL agent. As a kid, he didn’t play football and wasn’t even aware of what a sports agent did. His original goal was to become an entrepreneur or work in corporate law.
“When kids see someone who looks like them in these roles, they think, ‘OK, that’s something I might be able to do,’” Mulugheta said. “I never saw anybody that looked like me that was an agent.”
In 2007, the child of Eritrean immigrant parents visited his best friend and Texas running back, Jamaal Charles, leading up to the NFL draft. During the visit, he met Charles’ agent, Andrew Kessler, who was immediately impressed by Mulugheta’s charisma, intellect, and energy. Kessler offered Mulugheta an internship at Athletes First during the summer before his first year of law school. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Mulugheta joined the agency full-time.
“Any good adjective you could think of for an agent,” Kessler said about Mulugheta. “That really nice balance between someone who you really enjoy being around and also have a lot of respect for.”
The rest is history.
Of his clientele, the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity member represents high-profile athletes, including Micah Parsons, Budda Baker, Deshaun Watson, Michael Thomas, and Jalen Ramsey, who became the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history.
According to CBS Sports, Ramsey’s deal with the Miami Dolphins is valued at $72.3 million, with an average annual salary of $24.1 million. This contract extension marks the second time Ramsey has held the title of the league’s highest-paid defender. He had previously signed a five-year, $100 million extension with the Los Angeles Rams. The lucrative contract with Ramsey is also not the first time Mulugheta’s negotiation skills have landed his client in the history books.
In May 2024, Antoine Winfield Jr. became the highest-paid defensive back in league history. Entering his fifth NFL season, Mulugheta negotiated a four-year, $84.1 million contract extension with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, per Fox 9.
While Mulugheta’s accomplishments are noteworthy, a major part of his passion is ensuring that his work creates accessible pathways to success for other Black men and women entering and navigating the sports agency industry.
“A win for myself is a win for other African American agents,” Mulugheta said to the LA Times. “At one point, a lot of families may have felt like, ‘We need the old white guy, gray-haired gentleman doing our contracts.’”
He continued, “But for me, I think the biggest part of the outward praise is now when another young Black male or female agent sits down in front of families, they won’t automatically assume that this person doesn’t have the qualities that a white agent may have.”
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