United Football Players Association-2

Rick Schaeffer

Advisor

In Rick’s wide-ranging career, he has been active in sports, entertainment, politics, business and international affairs.

One of his most recent adventures was conceiving and implementing a trip to Rome for Head Coach Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan football team.

Earlier, he served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business MBA Program. Additionally, he was appointed by Governor Bob Ehrlich as Managing Director of Film, Television and Sports for the state of Maryland.

Rick worked at the two leading sports management companies (Pro Serv and IMG) and was counsel to the NFL Players Association on a committee to fighting racism. Among the contracts he negotiated was Herschel Walker’s deal in the old USFL, which was, at the time, the largest contract in football history.

Among his voluntary activities, Rick was a member of a 1990 peace delegation that met with heads of state in the Middle East. He served as the lead clemency for Joe Giarratano, who was sentenced to death in Virginia. Thirty six hours prior to his execution, Joe became the first person to receive clemency since capital punishment was reinstituted (as set forth in “Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist”by Mike Farrell of MASH fame). He conceived and helped implement games between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban National Team (as retold in the book Back Channel To Cuba by William M. LeoGrande Peter Kornbluh).

He executive produced a movie, ”Rise and Walk, the Dennis Byrd Story” which was based on a book deal he had done with Rupert Murdoch’s Harper Collins publishing house, that included what was then the largest advance ever paid an athlete.

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