Former Cardinals GM Steve Keim joins Klutch Sports Group

Former Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim is joining the sports agency Klutch Sports Group, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Keim will take on the role of “general manager” to “help run the agency the way he once helped run a football team, with some of the same responsibilities.”

“Steve gives us a tremendous amount of depth through the lens of knowledge, experience and expertise,”’ said Klutch CEO Rich Paul. “This is a game changer for us and I imagine the industry. His entire life has been loving the game of football, and we couldn’t be happier to have him join us.”

Keim has largely spent time away from football since exiting the organization in 2022, occasionally joining a podcast or NFL-related program to provide insight as an analyst.

Midway through the Cardinals’ 4-13 run that year, Keim stepped away halfway through the year to focus on his health before the team parted ways with him at the end of the season. Keim later revealed part of that was time in rehab due to sleep and anxiety drugs.

Arizona hired Keim as GM in January 2013 after he originally joined the organization in 1999 as a collegiate scout. Keim oversaw a successful Bruce Arians era followed by far less success for one-and-done head coach Steve Wilks and four years under Kliff Kingsbury. With Kingsbury, however, the Cardinals improved year-to-year in win total from three to five to eight and 11.

Even though the 11-win year ended with large warning signs because of the way it crashed and burned, Keim was given an extension off all that improvement before the 2022 season that ran through 2027.

Klutch Sports Group was founded in 2012 by Rich Paul, the business partner and agent for LeBron James. It has proven to become incredibly successful, now home to star athletes well beyond James such as Jalen Hurts, A’ja Wilson, Myles Garrett, Trae Young, JuJu Watkins and Tyrese Maxey.

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