Shannon Vizniowski/CFL.ca
Two years into his CFL career, Kenny Stafford took stock of his situation and realized he needed a change.
The receiver worked with an agent to get his first CFL contract but the more he thought about it, there was no one more qualified than Kenny Stafford to sell Kenny Stafford’s services.
“I can sell myself better than anyone because I know myself,” Stafford said, on the phone from his home in Edmonton.
“I just thought that this also gives me some experience in the business world. I feel like I could be a good general manager of a team. I can spot talent, that’s something I might want to do with life after football. So why not get some practice at it?”
The 2020 season will mark Stafford’s eighth in the CFL. Aside from his first contract, he’s acted as his own agent the rest of the way. He’s negotiated deals with Jim Popp when he was the GM in Montreal, with Kyle Walters in Winnipeg and with Ed Hervey and Brock Sunderland through their respective times in Edmonton.
Stafford is one of a handful of players in the CFL that represent themselves.
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Kenny Stafford joined the Riders through a trade with Edmonton in August, 2019 (Shannon Vizniowski/CFL.ca)
The hardest part, he said, was understanding that the conversations he has with GMs about himself when he’s his agent are different than what they’d be as a player.
“The thing I had to take out of it was feeling, emotion,” Stafford said.
“If you were to take everything personal then you wouldn’t be able to get through a negotiation process. I like to get somewhere with a purpose. If a GM comes to me like, ‘Well, you know, Kenny, I see you as not a second tier receiver but a third tier receiver.’
“I go across the league and see all the third tier receivers and then I break it down to why I’m better than them or why either a two option or a No. 1 option. It’s all about getting the information that they’re giving to you and coming back with facts instead of hearsay.”
Since he acts as his own agent, Stafford has access through the CFLPA on what every receiver in the league makes.
“I break it down stat-wise compared to me, what they’re making. I take the top-five pay scales just to see what they’re making and then I try to find my pay scale in between that. Then I calculate stats. Catches, targets, to me being healthy, just comparing myself to others across the league and then what the (team’s) scheme has and what I bring to the table.
“Once you get there and get to a certain number that you think you’re worth, then it’s all a negotiation process from there.”
As he got past the emotion and was able to set his athlete instincts aside, Stafford began to enjoy the process of free agency. He says as his career has progressed, he’s gotten every contract that he’s wanted.
“It’s coming to terms with…you’re never going to get paid what you think you’re worth,” he said.
“My uncle (NFL hall of famer Cris Carter) told me that early in the game. Once you get over that and you don’t get in your feelings and you find a pay grade that lines up and works out for both sides, you move forward.”
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For Stafford, that’s been a contract that rewards him for taking advantage of opportunities when they come along with a team.
“When it comes to my career I haven’t had a lot of production but I’ve always been paid well,” he said.
“Once I get an opportunity I’m actually I’m a damn good receiver. So with me, I do my contract in three ways: signing bonus, housing and base. I don’t do any incentives because they’re tracking your incentives, you’re tracking your incentives. Feelings get involved with that. I’ve seen people lose money over incentives. I’ve seen the good and the bad of incentives and honestly, I’d rather just know that I’m getting all my hard money up front.”
Stafford is under contract through 2020, so he’ll sit back like the rest of us and watch free agency unfold when the market opens on Feb. 11 at noon ET. For those heading to market and the players that are perhaps where he was in the early stages of his career and wondering if they could represent themselves, he has some advice.
“Get your money up front,” he said, laughing.
“If you’re a young player, don’t sell yourself short. Get what you deserve. Be smart with your money, know what you’re doing with your money and also don’t try to oversell yourself. You put yourself in a hole when you’re the only player over there and you’ve got no help.”
