The 50 Most Influential People Behind The Scenes In Sports

So much of the way we watch and enjoy sports is determined by people who have never participated in a professional athletic event in their lives.

Casting a wide net, we searched the sports world for the 50 most influential people who operate behind the scenes. There are presidents, owners, managers, coaches, agents, doctors and reporters.

These are the coaches who change the way the games are played, the commentators who shape the national conversation about sports, the agents who decide which stars play where, the owners who build juggernauts from scratch, and executives who alter the trajectories of their leagues over a huge period of time.

In short, these are the behind-the-scenes people who are responsible for what we watch when we watch sports.

This list was compiled by Philip Johnson, Tony Manfred, Cork Gaines, and Leah Goldman.