Who is Don Yee, the agent who could bring Jim Harbaugh to the Raiders?
To put into perspective the lengths NFL agent Don Yee will go to protect his clients, consider the case 30 years ago when he was working to negotiate the rookie contract of Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer.
Yee should be familiar to Raiders fans as the recently hired agent of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who is being connected to the team’s head coaching job.
It goes deeper than that. Yee also represents Tom Brady, the former NFL star quarterback who owns a minority share of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and is in the process of buying an ownership stake of the Raiders. Both franchises are owned by Mark Davis.
Brady and Harbaugh have been friends for years and share close ties as former Michigan quarterbacks. Their connection — and that of Yee — could play a role in Harbaugh potentially coming to the Raiders.
To add one more layer of connectivity, Yee is also the agent for Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Long before all those principles banded together, Yee was an understudy to Marvin Demoff, the first NFL super agent and long considered a standard-bearer in the business.
“The Godfather,” an NFL executive recently said of Demoff.
The Seattle Seahawks had selected Mirer with the No. 2 pick in the 1993 draft, just as the league was ushering in the salary cap era. Intent on making sure Mirer’s contract would remain guaranteed despite the unsettled nature of the cap, Demoff and Yee lifted a page from the banking industry by writing a protective stipulation into the contract that would make sure the agreement would “survive and remain effective from the date of execution of this contract up to and including the end of the world.”
The NFL and NFL Players Association eventually would forbid use of that contract wording. Still, despite initial protest from then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue, the stipulation remained in Mirer’s deal.
As the Seattle Times wrote in 1993, Mirer was speaking to reporters soon after the deal was consummated when teammate Jeff Graham quipped from nearby: “Now, you’re riding in a space shuttle, and while you’re in orbit, the world explodes. Do you still get paid?”
Mirer, without missing a beat, responded, “I keep the shuttle.”
So began a distinguished career in which Yee has argued for the rights of professional athletes and coaches for more than 30 years. He has done so in a way that earned him respect rather than contempt from his counterparts on the other side of the negotiating table.
“He’s been a good friend for 20 years,” one NFL executive said last week.
Said another: “He’s the only guy I vouch for. The rest …”
Yee, an agent since 1988, got his biggest professional break in 1999 when he signed a lanky, strong-armed quarterback from Michigan who became a seven-time Super Bowl champion and is considered the greatest to ever play the position.
It’s not that Yee or Brady could have known how things would unfold when they forged their relationship. Or, for that matter, anyone else in the NFL. That’s why Brady wasn’t drafted until the sixth round by the New England Patriots.
But Yee’s insistence on representing Brady was not happenstance. Yee’s business partner, Steve Dubin, is a Michigan alum, and that led Yee to take a deep dive into Brady by running back the tape of Brady’s career with the Wolverines.
As Yee told the AP Pro Football podcast: “I watched every single game start to finish, and it was just plainly obvious to me that everything you needed to be a successful NFL quarterback was right there in front of my eyes.”
The rest is history. And it’s worth noting that Yee is the only agent Brady has had during his illustrious career.
Yee, Brady and Harbaugh now intersect at the crossroads of one of the biggest decisions facing the Raiders in years.
How things play out remains to be seen. But based on Yee’s long career, he will be prepared for anything.
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.