NFL Super Agent Tory Dandy Balances Billion Plus in Deals, Hometown Impact

Nearly two weeks after the Super Bowl, Tory Dandy attended an event for BRUH Mentor on Feb. 21, an organization that focuses on youth development in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The equity partner of Athletes First took time out of his busy winter schedule for the NFL to donate $7,500 to the organization located in the same county he grew up in.

Two days later, Dandy would be in the frigid temperatures of Indianapolis, Indiana, for the 2026 NFL scouting combine. The Super Bowl might have ended on Feb. 8, but the rest of February and March is a crucial time for Dandy, one of the most powerful agents in the NFL. But he finds time to give back to the community that raised him.

The NFL combine can be an insane week for participants, when many meetings happen with players, agents and teams before the start of free agency, which began on March 11 in 2026 for the current offseason.

One NFL assistant general manager told Newsweek he had 44 meetings in just three days at the combine, to give the reader an idea of how taxing the week can be for agents and executives operating business that will mostly determine the 2026 NFL season, all within a mile of Lucas Oil Stadium.

Dandy presides over $1.6 billion in active contracts in the NFL with a client list that includes Kansas City Chiefs offensive guard Trey Smith, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, and Denver Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II, among others.

Amid the opening of free agency (which included trade discussions on behalf of clients), Dandy has been present for pro days at South Carolina, Clemson, Miami, Missouri and Florida State in March.

All while running his foundation.

Florida State’s pro day occurred on March 27. Then Dandy had plans to visit Woodruff, South Carolina, to celebrate his mother’s birthday. While in town, he’d also go over the next steps for The Tory Dandy Foundation with board member and former Spartanburg County Clerk of Court, Hope Blackley.

Dandy established The Tory Dandy Foundation in 2013, the first year he became a certified sports agent. 2013 was also the first year he started "The Tory Dandy Educational Scholarship," which provides one to two scholarships per year to graduating seniors at Woodruff High School in South Carolina.

Dandy’s philanthropy predates 2013, but Tony Gaskins, a motivational speaker and life coach, convinced him to start the foundation to leave a legacy for his family. Since then, Dandy has self-funded The Tory Dandy Foundation.

At the center of Dandy’s giving is a heart for at-risk youth, something that means a lot to him because of his background.

“I grew up in a single-parent home,” Dandy said. “My mother raised me and my two older sisters. She worked 16-hour shifts (as a nursing assistant). And I’ve seen, like, for me growing up, I had some challenges.

“When I say at-risk youth, you know, I was very intellectual, very smart on the academic side, but also, I had some challenges as well, just trying to navigate being a young man without a father figure in place at that time.”

Dandy played wide receiver and cornerback at Woodruff High School, which was a football powerhouse in South Carolina during the 1970s and 1980s. Woodruff High School has won 10 state championships in football in its history, with its last coming in 1984.

Woodruff’s list of famous athletes includes Tony Rice, who won the 1988 national championship as the starting quarterback at Notre Dame, and Marcellas Dial, who plays cornerback for the New England Patriots.

Woodruff Mayor Kenneth Gist remembers Dandy as an exceptional athlete in high school. Sports are an important part of life in Woodruff.

“Sports help a lot of us get out of this community,” Gist said. “It got us out, but it’s also brought us back.”

Dandy used his opportunities from football to do both.

After graduating high school, Dandy went on to play Division II football for Tusculum College (now Tusculum University) in Tennessee. He transferred to South Carolina State University but ended his playing career after suffering multiple shoulder injuries. He returned to Tusculum College to finish his degree.

At Tusculum College, Dandy earned a Bachelor's degree in Business Management with a minor in Sports Management. He earned a Master's degree in Business Administration from Webster University in 2004.

Dandy joined his mentor in the sports agency business, legendary NFL agent Eugene Parker, in 2005 at Maximum Sports Management. Parker taught Dandy lessons in how to be patient and grow in his business. Parker also had a heart for philanthropy, giving back to organizations in his home state of Indiana.

Dandy says that the city of Woodruff and its county, Spartanburg, are central to his philanthropic efforts.

“I believe in giving back to my hometown,” Dandy said. “Where I was born and raised in the city that made me the man that I am today.”

(Dandy’s charity work is not exclusive to South Carolina. In 2018, he was named a Made Man of Charlotte Honoree.)

In the last five years, Dandy has pledged $100,000 to Woodruff and Spartanburg County in donations to youth initiative programs and various nonprofit organizations, including Project HOPE, Institute for Youth Justice, Woodruff Soup Kitchen, Beauty Marks for Girls and BASIC Babies.

The Tory Dandy Foundation follows up with a yearly report to make sure that organizations receiving funds are successful before cutting a new check.

Dandy’s professional career and philanthropic efforts have earned him celebrity status in Woodruff. Blackley noted that he holds the attention of local wait staff when he walks into a restaurant. Business owners recognize Dandy when he enters their establishment.

On Wikipedia, he’s one of seven “notable people” from the city. Woodruff and Spartanburg gave Dandy a key to the city in 2020.

“I just felt like that, we need to give back to him,” Gist said of giving Dandy a key to the city. “And we did. I think we kind of surprised him, but we did that, just something that he’s very deserving of. Anytime you do something to help people, to help us, help the city, and you know, you've got to give back some."

“It really didn’t probably mean a lot to a lot of people, but to him, I think it really did.”

Sometimes Dandy’s efforts to give back to Woodruff can overlap with his agent duties. Blackley remembers Dandy pulling up in a Rolls-Royce for a community cookout. A few teenage girls spotted the super agent on his phone and asked him what he was doing.

“I’m on the phone with the Dallas Cowboys,” Dandy responded.

Dandy was working on a contract extension for an All-Pro athlete with the Cowboys. After his call was over, Dandy did his speaking duties for the cookout, and even called an NFL player to FaceTime at the request of one of the young people in attendance.

“I saw one of the youth a couple of months ago, and they were just like, back that day with ‘Mr. Tory,’ as he called him, was just fabulous,” Blackley said. “That’ll be something they will always remember. But what I love about Tory and his family and the work that he does is he’s committed.

“It’s not a one-and-done deal. He’s been committed to giving back to the community financially and actually showing up. It’s one thing to give your money, it’s another thing to actually give your time and show up. And he’s committed to doing that, and that is why I love running and helping him on his foundation.”

Amid Dandy’s bustling career and benevolence, he’s found another solid home at Athletes First.

Brian Murphy, CEO of Athletes First, noted that the end of February and month of March have been a “pretty crazy four weeks.” The sports agency held the 2026 Athletes First Classic weekend on March 21-22, coming just after the NFL combine and first wave of free agency.

The colossus sports agency raises millions of dollars every year as a collective, primarily through the Athletes First Classic.

Murphy believes that giving back to the community is an important part of being an NFL agent.

“Our job is just not to negotiate contracts and get the market deals, but it’s also to add as much value as we possibly can to our clients' lives,” Murphy said of the responsibilities of agents at Athletes First. “And one way that Tory does that is by role modeling through his huge heart.

“He role models through his desire to give back to the community, and he role models by taking the time out of a very busy schedule to create charity events through which other people benefit.”

Those attributes made Dandy attractive to the most dominant sports agency in the NFL. He joined Athletes First in 2025.

“The reason that Tory Dandy was such a natural fit for Athletes First was one, the amazing reputation he has in our industry,” Murphy said. “Two, his client base is amazing. But three, everything he did as an agent, and the way he did it as an agent, exactly personified our approach at Athletes First.”

Woodruff has a population of 4,212 people, per the 2020 census. Dandy describes it as a tight-knit town where “everyone knows everyone.” But it’s changing, growing at what Dandy calls a “rapid” pace with companies investing near the Northwestern border of South Carolina.

Dandy kept The Tory Dandy Foundation small at first while he was building his career because the effort required to run the nonprofit can be time-consuming while he’s in an ultra-competitive business that requires him to be almost omnipresent for player and team needs.

As the bedrock of his career is more solid and Woodruff grows, Dandy wants to eventually expand the scope of the foundation and take it to a major scale.

Dandy would like to eventually get to a place where The Tory Dandy Foundation can hire staff, though he noted that might not come even in the near future. His ambition is to get to a point where he can do more than provide money for the organization. He wants to help prepare young people to be able to learn how to run a business or land a professional career.

“It’s one of those things where, you know, when you look at today’s society, man, and you look at the youth, I want to be more impactful in that regard, just giving them a platform to be able to learn more, grow more,” Dandy said.

“I would love to, at some point, have that platform to be able to take them on college field trips, but also provide the resources and the people around for them to shake the right hands, sit down with the right people as well, to help educate them on what it looks like to try to be a professional.”

Even before that day comes, Dandy’s life is an example for young people in Woodruff on how to be a successful professional and community member.

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This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 3:02 PM.