Player agent Leigh Steinberg talks about negotiating with Arizona Cardinals

For the better part of their time in Arizona, the Cardinals have not exactly been known as a free-spending organization.

In fact, pretty much from the time they moved to the state in 1988 until at least the time when University of Phoenix Stadium was constructed the Bidwills — who owned the team — were generally considered to be a tad bit frugal.

A guest of the Dan Bickley Show with Vince Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Friday from Radio Row in New York, super agent Leigh Steinberg said that wasn’t always the case.

“Two approaches,” he said of how the Bidwills ran things. “When they were in St. Louis, they were notoriously frugal, and when they came to Arizona, they changed.

“They realized that the whole concept of being in a small market was different.”

Steinberg talked about the “very successful negotiations” he had with the Cardinals involving quarterbacks Neil Lomax and Jake Plummer as examples of how money wasn’t always a sticking point.

The 64-year-old who is credited as the real life inspiration for the movie “Jerry Maguire” went on to tell a story about how he learned not to call out owners in public like he did once when negotiating a contract for Cardinals second-round pick Theodis Brown in 1979.

That experience helped shape how he approaches owners nowadays.

“So when I had Leonard Davis or Jake (Plummer) or Neil Lomax, I stayed inside the system,” Steinberg said. “They changed because their economics changed. They changed because of a new stadium. They changed because they’re in one of the biggest thriving markets going.”

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