8/6/2025

Chris Cabott grew up on stone driveway in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, the son of a hair stylist and steelworker. He had the kind of big, bold dreams a lot of people would have laughed at and many did. But he had a loving family, people who believed in him, a resolute faith in God, an indefatigable drive, and a law school that saw promise in him – and gave him the opportunity he needed to become a professional sports agent.

Now 20 years after graduating from Delaware Law School – the one law school to offer him admittance – he serves as CEO of the West Hollywood, California-based Equity Sports. Cabott is the agent who negotiated the $450 million contract extension for Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in 2020, the largest extension in NFL history. His client list reads like a who’s who in professional sports and he has placed athlete clients into endorsement deals with brands like Nike, Adidas, Jordan Brand, Verizon, State Farm, Dr. Pepper, T-Mobile, Amazon and Visa.

“I can’t say enough how much I appreciate Widener. I had such an incredible experience. It was so much more to me than a law degree. It was a huge bridge in my life,” Cabott said. “I feel like I became a better person because I went to law school, but it wasn’t because I went to any law school.  It was because I went to Widener Law School. I stand behind that a zillion percent.”

Working and saving

Cabott, 46, grew up a Philadelphia sports fan and earned his undergraduate degree in political science at La Salle University, which offered him the most generous financial aid package of any college he applied to. A first-generation college student whose parents also raised a daughter that became a doctor, Cabott recalls growing up in a financially stricken household.  He tells a story about how the family never turned on the air conditioning until he was 16 years old to save money. His mother’s hair salon was attached to the house, because she wanted to raise the children at home. She still operates the shop today.

“My mom never said ‘that’s impossible’ when I would talk about dreams and goals and aspirations coming off that stone driveway,” he said. “It’s paved today.” 

Chris Cabott with his wife, Laura

After graduating from La Salle, Cabott spent a year working three jobs and saving every paycheck to put toward law school. He worked as a healthcare recruiter during the week, tended bar at night, and laid stone on the weekends for a construction company. 

“I’m not the guy whose parents practiced law. I’m the guy who had big dreams that seemed impossible. But through hard work and God’s grace, anything is possible.”

From lone wolf to CEO 

Cabott earned his juris doctor on a Saturday afternoon in May 2005. He was in the school law library the following Monday morning when it opened, studying for the bar exam, determined to pass on the first try. He did.

Cabott was president of the Student Bar Association in his final year at Widener Law School. And while he was still a student, he wrote to Lloyd Zane Remick, a Philadelphia-based sports agent in the 1980s and 1990s. Remick had 500 resumes for a summer internship; Cabott asked if he could send number 501. Remick picked him up as an unpaid clerk during Cabott’s last two years of law school. Today, he likens Remick to “Yoda,” calls him his “professional father,” and talks with reverence about the way Remick mentored him and taught him about the practice of law and road of life.

It is a practice he quickly adopted, and one he is suited to as a professional who draws inspiration from the hospitality industry: remember people, remember their needs and preferences, greet them warmly and open early or stay late to give them great, memorable service.

“As an agent, you have to pour into people,” he said.

After graduating, he spent nearly a decade founding his own sports agency. A lone wolf, Cabott scouted players and deeply studied their talents and stats at the college level. He cold called players and traveled to meet them. He reached out to their families and met them, too. He spotted Mahomes as a freshman at Texas Tech. He spotted Taylor Heinicke, now a client and quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers, at Old Dominion University.

As his agency and his players found success, Cabott expanded to California. It was then he received a call from legendary agent Leigh Steinberg, asking him to consult to his firm, Steinberg Sports. They built a strong relationship and by 2019, Cabott was president of the firm. He became CEO the following year after negotiating the Mahomes contract extension.  When Steinberg opted to explore new opportunities and exited the agency in 2021, Cabott and billionaire entrepreneur Ron Burkle became the owners of the agency and renamed it Equity Sports in 2023. Cabott serves as CEO. 

Cabott always envisioned running an agency that was the perfect hybrid of the time and attention of a small firm with the resources of a large firm.  Today, that is the DNA of Equity Sports.  He, and his core team of executive leaders and other agents in the firm, represent athletes in football, baseball, and basketball. The client roster includes James Harden of the Los Angeles Clippers, Ty France from the Toronto Blue Jays,  Jerry Jeudy of the Cleveland Browns, Ladd McConkey of the Los Angeles Chargers, and many more.

Chris Cabott, right, with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes

He leads a fast-paced life that involves a lot of airplanes. During football season, for example, he’ll fly to college games on Saturdays, often attend two NFL games on Sundays to watch clients play in person, and of course catch Monday night games, too. During the NFL draft in April, he was on eight flights over four days.

“The power of presence is so important,” he said.

It’s through that presence that Cabott has developed deep relationships with his clients. Like Mahomes, Cabott has also remained close with friends from his high school years. And it was Mahomes and his wife who introduced Cabott to his wife, Laura, a successful businesswoman and high-end stylist. The Cabotts primarily reside in Kansas City with their young daughter, while maintaining a home in West Los Angeles.  As their daughter grows into toddlerhood, Cabott is mindful of the power of presence as a father, too.

“My goal is to wake with my girls and go to bed with my girls. That’s my goal every day,” he said.

For now, he appreciates that Kansas City is in the center of the country – halfway to either coast. And he never stops to pat himself on the back.

“I’ve never had a day in my life where I’ve said, ‘I made it.’ If you think that way, you get humbled very quickly and easily. I’m thankful that a dream I had that seemed impossible became possible,” he said. “And all praise goes to God.”

As Delaware Law School marks the 50th anniversary of graduating its first class, Widener is celebrating the achievements of some of the school’s most distinguished alumni.