Ravens Insider: The NFL’s first mother-daughter agent tandem is here, forging a path for women: ‘The scene is changing’

[ExtremeRavens]

Edy Lawson-Jackson was done waiting.

She had been pushing off her dreams of becoming a sports and entertainment lawyer for decades — since 1989, to be exact. That’s when she first started interning at a law firm with a sports entertainment attorney.

“I got a little view of what goes on behind the scenes and what’s involved,” Lawson-Jackson said. “And I just knew I couldn’t get into it at that time.”

An ambulance sat outside the building as a group of prospective lawyers took the Pennsylvania bar exam. It was July 1993. Jackson-Lawson had obtained her juris doctor degree from Howard University, and she was also in the final month of her pregnancy with her first child.

She was experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions during the two-day exam, but passing the bar was the first step in her journey of becoming a sports agent. So, she pushed through.

“Listen,” Mark Jackson, her ex-husband says, “it was impressive. I don’t know how else to describe it. That’s a commitment. In fact, they had an ambulance, because she could’ve delivered early … and they may have needed to take her to a hospital.

“It’s tenaciousness.”

And one of the many traits that Lawson-Jackson passed on to their daughter, Samira Jackson, who was born in August 1993.

Lawson-Jackson passed the bar exam on her first try, and Jackson did, too. Lawson-Jackson, a Baltimore native and a 1986 graduate of Baltimore City College, gained her NFL Players Association contract adviser certification in November 2010 on her first attempt.

Twelve years later, so did Jackson. When the Silver Spring native earned her certification in October 2022 and joined her mother at Affiliated Sports Advisors (ASA), the pair made history.

They became the first mother-daughter tandem to become sports agents in America — a dream both deferred and unexpected.

When Samira Jackson, left, earned her certification and joined her mother, Edy Lawson-Jackson, at Affiliated Sports Advisors, the pair made history. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)

“When I saw an opportunity … I said, ‘I’m going to get into the sports field. … I’ve been wanting to do something with sports all my life,’” Lawson-Jackson said. “I love watching sports. I love playing sports. I’ve got my daughter involved in sports. I was like, ‘I’m going to do this. I’m going to go ahead and take the exam to be a certified contract adviser for the NFL.’

“I said that I’ve waited long enough, and I’m gonna do it.”

Of the 994 certified NFL agents, 88 are women, the NFLPA said. That means women account for approximately 8.9% of the approved contract advisers.

Chineze Nwagbo, the NFLPA’s director of player programs and engagement, explained that while the number of women is still very limited, their impact is increasing.

The lifelong Ravens fans were just working at the AFC championship game between Baltimore and the Kansas City Chiefs in January.

“Edy is a great example, which means Samira will be two times better,” Nwagbo said. “We always hear of generational wealth, but in this case it’s generational opportunity, so I’m not surprised that they’re the first ever.”

Neither the lack of women, nor how few agents are successful, nor the money required to stay in the game deterred the mother and daughter.

Annual agent fees and insurance cost $3,000. The certification exam is another $1,200. For a player that will go undrafted, an agent spends a minimum of $20,000. That includes dinners, travel, lodging, training and more, the pair explain.

And for a first-round lock, agents are clearing upward of $250,000.

“We like guys like us who are gonna bust their [butt], work hard and get the job done,” Jackson said. “We want someone who’s going to be defiant, against the numbers.

“We want underdogs who were told, ‘You can’t do it.’ Who were told, ‘Maybe it’s not for you.’ Who were told, ‘At best, maybe you’ll get a shot.’ And then they go on, and they excel, and they stay humble and rooted in gratitude.”

Jackson, who joined Markham Law Firm as an associate attorney this month, has always known that she wanted to be a lawyer.

Malachi Fuller, a former classmate at the University of Maryland and CEO of a creative agency, said it was obvious since they met as sophomores in statistics class. He remembers how prepared Jackson was and just how closely she paid attention to the details.

Greg Linton, a mentor and fellow agent at ASA, said Jackson has always put her best foot forward.

“Anything that Samira puts her mind and heart to, it’s a matter of when, not if,” Linton said. “You’re Samira, was failure ever an option?”

While Jackson always knew she wanted to become a lawyer, her mother wasn’t so set in that regard.

Initially, Lawson-Jackson, who grew up on Baltimore’s east side, wanted to be a ballerina, then a gymnast and finally landed on becoming an acrobat in the circus, both she and her older sister, Celest Swann, recalled.

Lawson-Jackson used to sell parking spaces in her parents’ driveway for Baltimore Colts games and walk through the parking lot of Memorial Stadium to get to City. That’s where she fell in love with Latin and her classical studies, in addition to her extracurriculars as a member of the band, a part of the track and field team and ultimately, homecoming queen.

Soon, writing, language and history became Lawson-Jackson’s interests, and that eventually evolved into her deciding to be a lawyer. The 56-year-old started her solo practitioner family law practice — the law office of E.A. Lawson-Jackson, LLC — in July 1999.

Even though she dreamed of working in sports and entertainment law, those years working in family law proved invaluable.

Atlanta Falcons defensive end Demone Harris cosigned that sentiment. The 28-year-old former undrafted free agent signed a futures contract with the Falcons this January — one of five current contracts Lawson-Jackson has negotiated.

When Harris was going through his divorce, he turned to her. She found out what he needed to do and connected him with the right lawyer to represent him.

“I truly believe that she’ll be there for me when that time comes for me to take the next step in my career,” said Harris, a Super Bowl champion last season with the Chiefs. “She really does care.”

Defensive lineman Demone Harris’ deal with the Atlanta Falcons is one of five current contracts agent Edy Lawson-Jackson has negotiated. (Terrance Williams/AP)

Linton explained that, oftentimes, he defers to Lawson-Jackson, and she leads the conversations with players or their families.

They’ve been working together for eight years and joined forces when they realized how often they were exchanging ideas. The colleagues have known each other for more than a decade, after Linton offered to help Lawson-Jackson.

David Blackburn, who joined the Ravens as a scout in 2007 before becoming the team’s director of college scouting in 2022, introduced Lawson-Jackson to Linton, as well as Eric DeCosta, Baltimore’s general manager, when he was still an area scout.

Lawson-Jackson was connected with Blackburn thanks to former City classmate Darren Sanders — the Ravens’ longtime security director who died in 2021.

These relationships helped Lawson-Jackson begin her career, which continued to include a plethora of connections to her hometown.

Her first client, Justin Wells, who signed with the Carolina Panthers in 2012, attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Tight end Bruce Figgins was the first player Lawson-Jackson signed to the Ravens.

Shaquil Barrett, who briefly attended City, was one of her first clients to make an active roster, and she represented the two-time Super Bowl champion while he was with the Denver Broncos.

“[Blackburn and Sanders] made it possible for me to even be doing what I’m doing,” Lawson-Jackson said.

The people closest to Jackson and Lawson-Jackson believe they are the right pair to be the first. Both women have been through their respective shares of rejections and naysayers.

Mark Jackson specifically recalled a time during his daughter’s first year at St. Thomas University’s Benjamin L. Crump College of Law. Jackson was told by a female faculty member that she wasn’t cut out to be a lawyer.

“This is just outrageous, but in law school … after her first year, [she] suggested that Samira doesn’t have the stuff to be an attorney … she doesn’t have the capacity,” Mark Jackson said. “As you might imagine that was devastating to Samira … and we had to encourage her again, keep her on track, keep her focused, keep her remembering who she is and what her capabilities are.

“Don’t let anyone stand in the way of your vision, because they may see it differently than you see yourself.”

So, neither Lawson-Jackson nor Jackson have come off their respective or conjoined tracks. Even when they’ve been propositioned at the combine, not taken seriously or dismissed, they persevere.

And that perseverance has paid off. Where some might overlook or underestimate these women, it takes only one validation — someone seeing what they’re trying to do — that reminds them that pursuing this dream is the right decision.

“I just got a call from someone I had met at the combine years ago,” Jackson says, “He was a scout back then, and he left me a voicemail, and said, ‘Hey I’m no longer scouting, but I remember meeting you back at the combine over a decade ago. I remember that you were a young woman who meant business, and I’m back in the D.C. area. I’m looking to do X, Y, Z. … I always knew you were going to do great things and gonna make it.’

“That message meant a lot to me, because you get a lot of the opposite. … The scene is changing. And spaces where women were typically excluded, now we’re entering and excelling.

Said Lawson-Jackson: “And I would hope that men reading this article will say, ‘You know what? I want to contribute to this change, as well.’”

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