Success Quote by Leigh Steinberg

There is a whole era compressed into that casual-sounding “practically nil”: a time when fame functioned like diplomatic immunity and the gatekeepers mostly cooperated. Leigh Steinberg isn’t talking like a moral scold; he’s talking like an industry insider clocking a shift in the risk environment. As a super-agent, he’s fluent in the unwritten contract between teams, local media, law enforcement, and star talent. The quote’s bite is that it treats accountability not as a rising ethical standard, but as a change in probability.

The intent is quietly revisionist. Steinberg is puncturing nostalgia about “simpler times” in sports by naming what simplicity often meant: silence, deference, and institutional protection. “Journalists reporting” sits beside “authorities prosecuting” as parallel failures, implying a shared ecosystem of complicity. He’s also careful with phrasing: “chances” and “practically nil” frame this as structural, not anecdotal. It wasn’t a few bad actors; it was a system engineered to look away.

The subtext is about power: pro athletes were treated as economic assets first, citizens second. That logic didn’t just live in locker rooms; it traveled through police stations and newsrooms, where access journalism and civic boosterism discouraged scrutiny. The context is the modern reckoning that made those odds rise: cable news and the internet eroding local control, social media and smartphones creating receipts, and high-profile cases forcing institutions to act. Steinberg’s line isn’t just history. It’s a reminder that “accountability” is often less about virtue than about surveillance, incentives, and who gets protected when money is on the line.