No Backing Down by NFL agent Sean Stellato

Last year at a conference I met Sean Stellato, an NFL agent based in Massachusetts. Sean has over a dozen clients on the Patriots and other NFL teams. Sean has since become an insightful and candid mentor to my UNH Law students who are interested in becoming agents.

Sean is the author of a new book, No Backing Down, that raises sports law issues in a high school sports context. The book is about how a teachers' strike in Salem, Massachusetts back in 1994 resulted in Salem High School's head football coach Ken Perrone defying an order to cease and desist to coach his team to the state's Super Bowl. Perrone's decision attracted national attention and it quickly became a headline sports story in Massachusetts. I had recently been a student at nearby St. John's Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts when this controversy took place and remember it well.

Perrone and his coaching staff paid a steep price. They were sharply criticized by the town's school board and lost their jobs.

No Backing Down is about making difficult choices in the context of sports legal constraints and is a terrific read. Sean's book is also inspirational and interesting. I strongly suggest checking it out.  Here is a video about the book: