STEINBERG: Well, since Cameron Crowe spent all that time with me for over two years, it's obviously Jerry Maguire. (Laughs) And of course the close physical resemblance between the lead actor and myself...

SportsHollywood: What actor would you like to see portray you in a film?

STEINBERG: Well, when you've had Tom Cruise play you, anything else is a comedown. (Laughing; Thinks) You know, we don't look much alike, but Denzel Washington would make a great sports agent.

SportsHollywood: Okay, we're done asking about Jerry Maguire, we promise. Back to sports: What's your favorite sport?

The first Dodger games were at the Colliseum.

STEINBERG: Well, my favorite sport as a kid was clearly baseball. I grew up with Sandy Koufax and Maury Wills and the L.A. Dodgers. They were my first passion. You could hear Vin Scully's voice coming out of every transistor radio in Southern California. Then I went to UCLA -- so of course I became a huge Bruin basketball fan... and later came to football.

SportsHollywood: Which is your favorite baseball team -- the Dodgers or Angels?

STEINBERG: I loved them both. My grandpa took me to "Roy Campanella Night" in 1958 or nine. It was the Dodgers versus the Yankees and there were 93,000 fans in the Colliseum. I also saw the first game the Dodgers ever played in L.A. -- it was the Dodgers vs. the Giants. "Sad Sam" Jones pitched for the Giants, and Carl Erskine pitched for us. I remember my dad wrote "URGENT FAMILY NECESSITY" as my school absence excuse!

Read more about the Stars here.

But my first baseball experience was with the Hollywood Stars in the old Pacific Coast League. My grandfather was running Hillcrest Country Club, and that's where a whole group of Hollywood comedians hung out. He played gin rummy every day with George Burns, Groucho Marx, George Jessel and Jack Benny. So George Burns and my grandpa took me to my first baseball game.

Then the Angels came in 1961, and I fell in love with them. I remember the first player they drafted was Eli Grba, who was significant because he had three consonants with no vowels starting his name. And they had little Albie Pearson -- who Steve Bilko could pick up with one hand. They used to show that he was so small that he could fit in a chest of drawers... (Laughing) Team marketing has changed.

Now some alien force seems to have come and captured the Dodgers. I don't know what happened to my Dodgers. My partner represents Sean Green and Eric Karros, so I don't want to get him in too much trouble. But after they traded Mike Scoscia, I'm not sure what happened to them. Now it's close between the Dodgers and Angels for me.

SportsHollywood: Lakers or Clippers?

STEINBERG: Oh -- Lakers. (Although I could never understand how they kept their name after moving from Minneapolis. Unless you count an ocean, the largest lake we have out here is probably in my bathtub.) I go back to rooting for Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Hot Rod Hundley as a kid. Of course the voice of Chick Hearn. We were so lucky in California to have Chick, Vin Scully, and Dick Enberg to sort of narrate our childhood as we watched our favorite teams.

I have to say that it was a very strange experience when, later in life, I represented Byron Scott and was negotiating with West -- whose picture I used to have over my bed! That took some getting used to.

SportsHollywood: Kings or Mighty Ducks?

STEINBERG: The Ducks, because they're here in Orange County. But the truth is, growing up in California, we knew nothing about hockey. The closest we'd get to hockey is seeing a piece of ice in the fridge. I'm still not sure I've mastered all the rules. The Kings raised awareness of the sport here by bringing in Wayne Gretzky, but I have to go with the Ducks in Orange County -- even though they're better known for the Disney movies than for the actual pro team.

SportsHollywood: Do you think L.A. will ever have another NFL franchise? (And the XFL doesn't count.)

STEINBERG: Well, I won't bash the XFL too much -- but just remember that ESPN has proven that men would rather watch mediocre sports than great anything else. It bothered me when they attacked the NFL as being "sissified" and lacking true violence and contact. I defy Vince McMahon or any XFL executive to take one snap behind center in an NFL game. The NFL today has bigger, stronger, bodies than ever, moving faster than ever, hitting a stationary object harder than ever before -- so the physics of the hit have changed. But the equipment to protect the players hasn't developed along with that, so now you have more players out with worse injuries, for longer periods of time.

As for football in L.A., it's going to take a loooong time before another team comes here. When I was chairman of "Save the Rams" six years ago, everyone rationalized that the TV market was too big in Los Angeles for the league to ignore, and a team would be playing again in L.A. very soon... but look what happened! The league just negotiated a new TV deal for twice the money they got before, without a team in Los Angeles!

There is no political lobby fighting to get a team back in Los Angeles, as there was in Cleveland, Houston, Baltimore or St. Louis. We don't a Mayor doing it; we don't have a leader in the Board of Supervisors; We just have a huge geographical area made up of dozens of cities and a number of counties -- with no leadership to bring them all together. That's number one. Number two, you need a facility to attract a team. And there's no plan -- or more importantly taxpayer will -- to build that facility. Third, there are so many alternative recreation sources that there's no great human cry to get another football team. Now we're getting a whole generation of kids who have never had a football team in L.A., so they don't miss it and don't ask for it. It becomes self-perpetuating. They don't know what they're missing.

Steinberg's book, Winning With Integrity, provides readers with insight on how to improve their life through non-confrontational negotiating.

SportsHollywood: If Dennis Rodman came to you and said he wanted to rebuild his image, what would you tell him to do?

STEINBERG: Well, he does live here in Newport Beach, and I do run into him. All he would have to do is be an effective basketball player. The truth of the matter is if he played effective basketball, then he's no different than my generation was while rebelling in the Sixties. There's certainly a place for the rugged individualist in this society. His looks may not be everybody's cup of tea, but there's no reason that he shouldn't be popular as a productive athlete. If...

I represent Edgerrin James, who has led the NFL in rushing the last two years for the Indianapolis Colts. He wears dreads and has gold teeth -- which is not a look that is generally familiar to Middle America. But behind that he has an amazing work ethic, a totally disciplined lifestyle, is extremely intelligent, and has a value system that is completely consistent with Middle America's. People who spend time with him discover he is exactly the kind of person they would want their children to emulate. He's a fantastic role model!

Hey, our Founding Fathers wore long hair and powdered wigs -- I don't see anybody trying to look like them today, either... But we do look to them as role models.

SportsHollywood: If a guy drafts one of your clients in your rotisserie league do you step in and negotiate a higher price?

STEINBERG: (Laughing) They're not gonna be cheap.

SportsHollywood: We can't help it -- one more Jerry Maguire question: Do you think you're Jerry Maguire?

STEINBERG: Not really. Jerry Maguire is Cameron Crowe's creation. And he's a brilliant creation. He's just starting out and facing a series of ethical dilemmas about how to live his life -- He used to say that Jerry would aspire to be me. We do have a "mission statement," in the sense that I'll only take clients who are willing to give back and be true role models, by setting up programs in their high school, college and professional communities. Who understand that athletes have the ability to trigger imitative behavior.

Cameron was able to get an inside look at professional football from the standpoint of athletes and agents and general managers that few people have ever seen. He was able to sit where you're sitting and observe interactions with clients and negotiations with athletes and executives and myself in very unguarded moments. He probably has a fresher take and a truer insight into how our world really works than anybody from his business has ever seen. How much of that real life shows up on the screen only he could judge.

Now, there are parts of what went on that did show up in the movie. For example, in '93 we were at the Marriott Marquis, where the draft was being held, and I had the first player who was going to be drafted -- quarterback Drew Bledsoe ("Cush" in the movie). The draft was going to be held the next morning, and of course the chief anxiety in that situation is that you're surrounded by other agents promising him anything he wants, and you could lose that client the same day --and in the movie Jerry did lose him.

So there was a lot that Cameron saw, but those characters are his creations, and the wonderful lines that they speak are his creations. Those are his ideas, and it's his film. He's a great guy -- the nicest guy you'll ever meet.

SportsHollywood: As an agent, do you think it's good or it's bad that the media has so much more access to athletes now?

STEINBERG: I think the presence of the jurist's prudence columns in the sports sections presents a distorted picture of athletic behavior that just ends up depressing fans. It makes them feel worse about contemporary athletes. In the "good old days," athletic misbehavior wasn't reported, so that we simply didn't have any concept of domestic abuse, or drunk driving, or racism, or other forms of misconduct by athletes. Some fans view those times as the pristine days, and think that all athletes have become criminals today. In reality, we can prove that the incidents of drug, alcohol abuse and violence have dropped dramatically among professional athletes -- but the problem is it would be impossible to convince than fans, because of what they read on the AP wire. Forty years ago the chances of journalists reporting -- or the authorities even prosecuting -- a pro athlete were practically nil.

Steinberg with the rewards from a lot of successful negotiations.

SportsHollywood: Which do you love more: negotiating or sports?

STEINBERG: SPORTS!!! But I'd like to add that negotiating is not something to be avoided or feared -- it's an everyday part of life. We negotiate over who'll do the dishes; who'll pick up the kids. We're all negotiators. It's learning how to negotiate to keep both sides happy -- whether it's for a multi-million dollar contract or just which show to watch on TV, that determines the quality and enjoyment of our lives. We're all negotiators. As I write in my book, there is a misnomer that destroying another person's position is an effective and practical way to negotiate. In reality, even if the destroying another person's position and winning is possible, that scorched earth philosophy will lead to a broken relationship, so that one negotiation may be successful, but that likely will be the last time you can have an effective negotiation with that person... As for me, I just wish I didn't keep losing the "dishes" negotiation.

Interview by Phardoe and Jeff Hause

Leigh Steinberg was born and raised in Los Angeles where he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and then U.C. Berkeley. He subsequently attended Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California where he met his first client, Cal quarterback Steve Bartkowski. Leigh and the woman who completes him -- his wife, Lucy -- reside in Newport Beach along with their three children.