Advertisement

Steinberg: Book tour is no vacation

Share

When I landed at Orange County airport Thursday night I wanted to kiss the ground. Six grueling days in New York on a book tour to promote my new book, “The Agent,” (St. Martin’s Press) was more than enough.

We live in a summer bubble here in Newport Beach and forget how much of the rest of the country lives. New York was in the midst of a “Polar Vortex,” the Wednesday temperature was eight degrees with fierce winds and snow. I had left a few weeks of 80-degree temps and was not prepared.

When one walks the streets of arctic Manhattan doing endless media, there is no need to prove your courage in any other way.

Advertisement

Much of “The Agent” is set in Newport Beach. There is no logical nexus to have a sports agency in our town.

UCLA and USC, most sports banquets, both NBA teams and So Cal media are centered in Los Angeles. I cannot think of a better place to live and raise children and a walk on Little Corona and a cruise around the Bay are not bad recruiting tools. And it is only fitting to do a book signing at the Barnes and Noble at Fashion Island Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. I am a bibliophile and spend much time there.

On Tuesday our office transfers to New York to participate in Super Bowl week. It has become a convention of Americana — big business, big politics, big entertainment and big sports all gather for the biggest week in sports.

I will speak at a Concussion Conference on Wednesday, trying to promote solution to this devastating health epidemic. I will talk to them about a new helmet, which actually reduces the energy wave which causes concussion, through a coil system which uses compression to dissipate the harmful force. Tate Technology, headed by Jenny Morgan, developed this remarkable breakthrough.

On Thursday, I head to one of the Eight Wonders of the Media World: Radio Row. Imagine a couple hundred talk-radio shows broadcasting from the same convention center, side-by-side, with celebrities promoting a variety of movies, businesses and causes.

One year I arrived at 10 in the morning and left at 7 in the evening, having done 34 shows. It is like surfing across America from Miami to Buffalo, from Dallas to Seattle.

Saturday, we throw the 26th Annual Leigh Steinberg Super Bowl Party for 3,000 of my closest friends. The venue is always evocative of the history, culture, food, music and ambience of the city itself.

Owners, executives and coaches of teams mingle with players and corporate CEO’s, political figures and celebrities from across the country.

It is not appropriate to throw a lavish party without recognizing real world conditions. In Miami, we shipped a water purification system capable of providing 140,000 people with safe drinking water to earthquake torn, cholera-plagued Haiti.

This year we are raising money for The Navy Seals Foundation and will have a live, big-screen television hookup with troops in the field in Afghanistan. I get to play Oprah Winfrey for an hour and invite athletes and other celebrities to interact with the soldiers.

So bundle up and let the week begin.

LEIGH STEINBERG is a renowned sports agent, author, advocate, speaker and humanitarian. Follow Leigh on Twitter @steinbergsports.

Advertisement