Neil Stratton stoked his love and respect for the game in his teen years, playing high school football in West Virginia, followed by a brief term as a walk-on outside linebacker at the U.S. Naval Academy. During this time, Stratton earned the distinction of being perhaps the worst player on the worst team in America during the late 80s.

Undaunted, Stratton helped start a small draft-oriented publication, Lone Star Football (LSF), in 1997. Stratton and his partner, Troy Brown, published four editions annually around the time the Internet was taking hold and draft information entered the fabric of American life. Though LSF lasted only until 2000, Stratton discovered that there was no information service solely for the football professional. The news market for the person who had dedicated his working life to the game as a contract negotiator, financial advisor, marketing pro, coach, team executive, or other such profession was underserved.

To reach this market, Stratton launched Inside the League (ITL) in 2002. In its original form, ITL published one report daily from Monday through Friday, September through the end of the NFL draft in April. The site toddled along, slowly growing in respect and impact, until 2007, when Stratton was hired to run the 2008 Hula Bowl, which turned out to be the final performance of a venerated game that once featured names like Marino, Montana and Dorsett. In order to fully put his focus on his duties as Executive Director of the game, Stratton shuttered the site in Fall 2007.

After returning home in January 2008, Stratton learned that the Hula Bowl would not return. Eager to continue his work in the game, Stratton launched a retooled ITL in Fall 2008. This time, the service would publish several times weekly with a 12-month news cycle. Inside the League clients responded, and slowly, the service grew.

Here are a few ways ITL works with and engages the football business community:

• Since 2010, ITL has held a symposium at the NFL Combine, and it’s grown to become the Oscars for the NFL scouting community. Check out this picture from the 2020 event when the 49ers accepted the Best Draft Award for their work in 2019. See if you can pick out all the current GMs and head coaches, including Kyle Shanahan (49ers head coach), John Lynch (49ers GM), Mike McDaniel (Dolphins head coach), Kofi Adofo-Mensah (Vikings GM), Ran Carthon (Titans GM), Adam Peters (Commanders GM), Martin Mayhew (Commanders AGM) and Ethan Waugh (Jaguars AGM). The 49ers have truly become the feeding system for NFL sidelines and front offices.  
• Here’s video from the 2023 event with one of the scouting award winners, Mike Derice of the Giants
• ITL's daily industry blog, Rep Rumblings, is read regularly by the biggest and smallest agencies in the industry. We can count among our clients at least one member of every agency that’s had a player drafted on Day 1 or Day 2 for the last 10 years. 
• Former Bears GM Jerry Angelo heads ITL's interview prep program, which is the leader in the industry. We typically work with 10-15 first-rounders in readying them for interviews with NFL scouts and executives during all-star and NFL Combine interviews. Previous members of the interview prep team include Saints AGM Jeff Ireland and Rams Senior Personnel Executive Ray Farmer.
• We’re the leaders in NFL agent exam prep, and we were the first with an online practice exam for aspiring agents. Today, we have two practice exams, a study guide and monthly Zoom sessions leading up to the July exam. This is a critical part of what we do as it helps us develop relationships with agents in their career infancy. Among alumni of our program are Tory Dandy (CAA), Malki Kawa (First Round Management), John Thornton (Roc Nation Sports) and Ron Butler (Agency1 Mgmt Group). All of them have represented first-rounders in the last 10 years. 
• We just completed our first round of the annual NFL Agent Basics Zoom sessions with about 40 new contract advisors. All of them worked with us during the 2024 pre-exam phase. Here’s a clip from our first session on money and budgeting from our guest Chris Turnage of UA Sports  (we also had sessions devoted to combine prep, recruiting and building a scouting network).. Here’s a clip from the second session on working with trainers from Shane Costa of Generation Sports Group. 
• Our weekly newsletter goes out to about 6,000 members of the NFL scouting, agent and wealth management communities. Here’s an example of an  issue, which is a weekly 2500-word overview of the week’s happenings in the football business. It’s free, and you can register here. 
• Our Twitter account (@insidetheleague) has become pretty popular with agents, media, NFL scouts and members of the college football personnel community, especially in hiring and firing season (May through August). 
• ITL's Neil Stratton has maintained a personal blog aimed at new and aspiring members of the football business community since June 2014. It's a candid weekly post about the issues facing the industry, the vagaries of getting hired and the cost of working in football. 
• The Inside the League YouTube channel has lots of videos from various presentations over the years. Here’s our team in 2019 addressing the Personnel Symposium held in Nashville for members of college recruiting and evaluation departments.
• Stratton sits on the board of one of the five major college all-star games, the College Gridiron Showcase in Fort Worth, TX. Organizers celebrated their 11th anniversary in January 2025. Stratton serve as an advisor and helps lead the popular scout school, CGSU. Here's the first-ever class from 2022, which today includes several NCAA and NFL evaluators. 
• Stratton co-hosts a podcast, Scouting the League, which has become very popular with the NFL business community. It’s a pretty deep dive into the topics that NFL scouts and executives face, and it's geared toward that segment of the industry. Among the top episodes were those with top agents like Mike McCartney of VaynerSports and David Canter of GSE Worldwide. 
• Stratton's third book is set to be published in Spring 2025, and will be a behind-the-scenes account of the 2016 NFL Draft and eight players who made it fascinating (Laremy Tunsil, Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Derrick Henry, Michael Thomas, Tyreek Hill and Jakeem Grant). Previous books include Scout Speak, a tribute to NFL player evaluation that's been well-received by scouts and those who aspire to be scouts. It’s also available on Audible.

Along the way, we’ve gained plaudits and recognition from several quarters, working with the parents of dozens of players such as Eagles All-Pro DE Connor Barwin; helped manage numerous all-star games and identified hundreds of players who’ve earned a place in the NFL; earned praise for our newsletter series from players such as Saints 2015 first-rounder LB Stephone Anthony; appearing in the pages of the New York Times; and appearing on the Esquire Network’s ‘The Agent,’a series that followed four contract advisors during the run-up to the 2015 draft.

Wherever you are in the football world, and whatever your budget, we have tools that can help you succeed. We hope we can work with you and help you make your dreams come true.