`MAGUIRE' MAY ALTER INDUSTRY.

Byline: Angelo Bruscas Seattle Post-Intelligencer 

Ethics and sports agents are words that don't often get strung together in the cutthroat, multibillion-dollar world of professional sports.

But the movie ``Jerry Maguire'' could alter that image.

The latest Tom Cruise star vehicle, which opened last weekend as the nation's top-grossing movie ($17 million), is not only a modern love story about the balance between personal commitment and ambition. It's also the story of one man's quest to bring respect to the corporate business of sport.

``It's a romantic comedy, but it ought to be one of the first real sports movies that actually captures the flavor of modern sports in non-stereotypical fashion,'' says Leigh Steinberg, perhaps the most noted sports agent in the business.

Many of Steinberg's clients have bit parts in the movie, including NFL quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Warren Moon.

Steinberg, 47, served as a consultant for ``Jerry Maguire,'' letting writer/director Cameron Crowe follow him and his clients for research. Steinberg also worked with the actors to make sure they understood the role of sports agents and the business side to professional athletics.

``It's a little unnerving for me to see parts of the movie,'' Steinberg confesses. ``Jerry Maguire is Cameron's creation, but he's pretty honest about what the inspiration is.''

Cruise plays Maguire, an agent who is fired for writing a mission statement to the mighty Sports Management International (SMI) conglomerate that suggests the company should take fewer clients and treat professional athletes as real people, not cash cows.

Forced into exile, Maguire manages to salvage a relationship with one of SMI's second-tier clients, Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.), a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals. In the end, Cruise finds his redemption in business and in life.

Crowe, a former Rolling Stone writer-screenwriter-turned-director who now lives in Seattle, considered the character of a sports agent an intriguing way to explore the ``highly concentrated pursuit of pure money.''

``I wondered, what if love and honor attempted to flourish in that world? And so I embarked on a wild little journey of research, going around and talking to a lot of sports agents and athletes,'' Crowe said in an interview distributed by the movie's publicists.

Crowe accompanied Steinberg to the annual NFL owners meeting in Palm Desert in 1993. At the time, Steinberg was negotiating for Steve Young, Tim McDonald, Derrick Thomas and Thurman Thomas.

``He got to meet the owners and the players and sat at the periphery,'' Steinberg said.

Then Crowe followed him to the NFL draft, which featured Steinberg client Drew Bledsoe as the No. 1 pick.

Crowe was smitten by the world of pro sports business.

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