Do Me a Favre
Okay fellas, this is a little off-topic, but it's bugging me and I feel like I have to get it off my chest. Jitter, as a retired athlete you may disagree with me here.
Am I the only person on the world who thinks that the Packers are actually vindicated by not renegotiating Javon Walker's contract? I am hearing so much crap about "Brett Favre owes Javon Walker $7 million" or "See why people should hold out?"
This is all foolishness for the following reasons:
I find it amusing that Brett Favre, usually a media darling for being a "regular guy" is getting such a bad rap for telling his receiver to get into camp. How is this inconsistent? Favre has always been loyal to the Packers and to Packer fans. He has always shown up to play. He has worked and earned his way into the NFL from dubious beginnings. It's hilarious that suddenly the sports media is bad-mouthing him for telling his receiver to get into camp. Where was the similar backlash against Donovan McNabb telling T.O. to get to camp? T.O. is a bastard, by the way, and he's taken some shots, but why is Donovan -- though he is one of my favorites -- immune from criticism by this example?
The upside of all this is watching Michael Irvin practically have a stroke on NFL Countdown when talking about it. He is so filled with rage that I think he may actually take up cocaine again.
Am I the only person on the world who thinks that the Packers are actually vindicated by not renegotiating Javon Walker's contract? I am hearing so much crap about "Brett Favre owes Javon Walker $7 million" or "See why people should hold out?"
This is all foolishness for the following reasons:
- Javon Walker is still getting the money he originally signed for. It's not as if he's losing the money he would have already had if he hadn't signed. Unless the Packers cut him (which they won't), he will still receive his paycheck, since his inability to play was due to an on-field injury.
- Walker is not quite a top-flight receiver. He is very good, and perhaps on the cusp of being a great player, but he's not there yet. Just because Drew Rosenhaus is your agent, don't start drinking the Kool-Aid that you are elite. I hardly think Walker, while a very steady stat-based receiver, is top ten.
- The team's number one focus should be on improving the team, not giving a player a huge contract. No player "deserves" a huge contract, period. If a player can get a team to pay a huge amount for his services, more power to him. But it is not the team's responsibility to make sure a player can live in a rich neighborhood.
- It ended up being a very smart business move on the Packers' part. Imagine if the Pack had resigned Walker and he was going to make $7 or so. This would have been a complete disaster. Walker would have a huge chunk of the Packers' salary cap, yet would be unavailable to play. Do you think Walker would have given that money back? Hmm, doubt it. Yet Green Bay is somehow looking like the bad guy in the sports media.
I find it amusing that Brett Favre, usually a media darling for being a "regular guy" is getting such a bad rap for telling his receiver to get into camp. How is this inconsistent? Favre has always been loyal to the Packers and to Packer fans. He has always shown up to play. He has worked and earned his way into the NFL from dubious beginnings. It's hilarious that suddenly the sports media is bad-mouthing him for telling his receiver to get into camp. Where was the similar backlash against Donovan McNabb telling T.O. to get to camp? T.O. is a bastard, by the way, and he's taken some shots, but why is Donovan -- though he is one of my favorites -- immune from criticism by this example?
The upside of all this is watching Michael Irvin practically have a stroke on NFL Countdown when talking about it. He is so filled with rage that I think he may actually take up cocaine again.
posted by Unknown at 3:13 PM
2 Comments:
All NFL contracts are a joke. I completely agree with Javon Walker, Terell Owens, Antonio Gates and any other player who holds out after a great season.
Billy, in your post you warn Javan Walker against drinking the Rosenhaus Kool-Aid and refer to Brett Favre's reputation as a "regular guy."
But I think that often times we as spectator's and true "regular guys" het tricked by the owner's and GM's into drinking their own special mix of Kool-Aid.
Owner's know the quickest way to get the public against a star athlete who wants more money is to play the greed card.
Not many people in this country make 1 million a year, or can even fathom what that would be like, so when we hear of these athletes who are making 2 or 3 million a year and holding out, we want to believe we're greedy. What we never hear is just how much money the owners are pocketing, especially in a sport like football where TV revenue is split equally. We think we can't fathom a man making 3 million a year saking for 4 million, but imagine if we try to fathom an owner like Jerry Jones who makes easily 5x that much off merchandise alone. (And, people aren't buying cowboys merchandise because they are Jerry Jones fans either.)
If the Cowboys have a bad year, nobody forces Jerry Jones to sell the team, and they don't renegotiate his TV rights based on the ratings the Cowboys get. Why? Because that money is guaranteed.
But yet, let a player like Terell Owens have a bad year, and the first thing that happens is the Eagles want to renegotiate his contract, or in the case of Peerless Price, they just cut him, and they take away the money he signed for.
So if a player like a Javon Walker or TO has a great year, why shouldn't they have the right to demand more money.
You say that what happened to Walkeris proof that the Pack was right for not paying him more. I can't argue with that.
However I would also assert that his injury is also proof that players should hold out and get as much as they can.
What's the average career of an NFL player? 6-years, maybe. Think about that. That means that these players have 6-years of destroying their bodies and being eun ragged by coaches desparate to win and to earn as much money as they possibly can. If your lucky you may play 10-years, but either way, most NFL players, if they are lucky, get one big payday in their entire careers, and the only money that is really guaranteed out of that contract is the signing bonus in the first year of the contract. After that, it's re-negotiate at the owner's whim, or get cut.
I love this idea that Terell Owens is greedy for wanting to re-negotitate his deal after one year, but nobody ever says anything about the owners and GMs "re-structuring" deals for players who they feel are earning too much.
I don't blame the owners for this. I think it's smart business. I blame Gene Upshaw and the player's union for caving in and allowing this to happen.
Guys like Gates, Owens and Walker are left with only one recourse at this point. The holdout, and you know what, it's lke walking into a war with a cork gun. Teams know that they can just sit there and do nothing and eventually the players will come crawling back to camp and play for whatever they say they should because where else are they going to go? (Antonio Gates is great example of this)
As for the idea of Farve taking a lot of heat for saying walker should get his ass into camp, I think he should be getting heat, but not for the reasons he's been getting it.
Brett Farve is set for life. Hes gotten his big contract. He's gotten his endorsements and he is at the end of his career. All he cares abot is winning one more championship.
In fact he cares so much about winning a championship, that he has not only demanded that walker give up his fight for financial security and show up to camp so Farve can try win another title, he has also refused to tutor Aaron Rogers and help him to develop as a QB.
I understand wanting to win, but when you put your desire to win a championship above the good of your team and your teammates,to me that's as greedy as anyone who is making about 500k (or whatever Walker was making)holding out for more money after a career year.
Furious,
While I agree with some of your points, I think that maybe my point was lost.
On a micro-scale, NFL contracts look bad. They are not guaranteed and can be terminated at the end of any year. However, these types of pitfalls are offset by things like the salary cap, signing bonuses and guarantees for injuries (which should be there, of course).
But on a macro-scale, it's actually the reason the league is so successful in the first place. With the cap in place, there is not a Yankees-Red Sox type arms race between teams. Non-guaranteed contracts mean you have to produce from year to year, so teams can dump a flop like Peerless Price or Hugh Douglas, and not be saddled with some kind of Bobby Bonilla-like situation where you're still paying a player who's not even on the roster anymore.
This arrangement may not be ideal for all players, but it has made the league the most competitive in sports, and therefore the most popular (right now anyway) and therefore the most successful, and ergo, ipso facto, the players ultimately are benefitting from all this.
Anyone has the right to demand more money, but that does not mean the have the right to have more money, if that makes any sense. A guy like Terrell Owens is very lucky there are collusion laws in the NFL, because he doesn't realize that he is an achilles injury away from working in a coal mine. Where else but pro football could a person of limited intelligence and with such personality flaws be able to make that much money. Even if he were making the league minimum, Owens better thank his lucky stars that his grandmama didn't pay him any attention when he was a young boy, forcing him to do "outrageous" touchdown celebrations so people would start saying his name. This guy is so non-creative that the best nickname he could come up with for himself is "T.O."
When these guys sign their contracts, teams sign them to have good years. Early round draft picks (half of which are busts) get big early contracts. It's a risk the team takes. Later round picks or free agents get less money, but again, it's a risk the team takes. I don't believe you can "outplay your contract." If a team signs you to a contract of any size, they expect you to play well. They don't expect you to not be good. So if you play well, you are holding up your end of the contract.
Now, if a player becomes a star, they have ever right in the world to go to another team looking for more money. Or by demanding the home team give them a raise. Every right in the world. I'm not saying no player has ever had a right to hold out, but generally I think it's a bunch of crap.
Oh, and Drew Rosenhaus, despite his recent wave of P.R. is a colossal, evil dick.
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