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Instead of waiting for Ty Law to shut up and accept things as the way they are, let's instead watch the marvelous things happening regarding Orlando Pace.
The behemoth left tackle for the Rams, and a former number one draft pick at that, is in the second year of being slapped with the franchise tag by the Rams. He wants a long-term deal and wishes to remain in St. Louis. But what is most intriguing about Pace is his recent remarks about what his agents are demanding versus what he's comfortable getting as a new deal.
At the epicenter of this whole thing are two agent brothers who are fast becoming persona non grata around the NFL. Carl and Kevin Poston, owners of Professional Sports Planning, Inc., have gained a notorious reputation for being tough and unreasonable negotiators over the years. But their shenanigans over the past two years involving six of their high profile clients may one day drive them out of the player agent business, as NFL clubs may become loath to doing business with these two men at all costs.
How bad is the work of the Postons? Law's outbursts are only the tip of the iceberg.
Pace, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is okay with a signing bonus in the $15-17 million range. But Carl Poston, Pace's agent, demanded that the Rams agree to a ludicrous deal worth $71 million over 7 years, with a $27 million signing bonus and $34 million in guaranteed money. Ram president Jay Zygmunt called this contract proposal 'ransom money'.
Pace wants to stay in St. Louis more than he wants the money Poston is demanding. He has come out and stated his comfort level in signing bonus. He has also stated that 'there will probably be some changes in the future', a possible hint that he may fire Poston as his agent.
In this case, we are talking about arguably the best left tackle in the business. Tackles make more money than guards and centers, and Pace is a house who deserves to be paid among the highest left tackles in the NFL. But when someone of Pace's stature comes out and proclaims less money and team loyalty over a ridiculous contract offer from his agent, it makes the agent look like a total and complete buffoon.
The case of Redskin linebacker LeVar Arrington is positively amazing. Arrington is claiming that he was cheated out of a $6.5 million roster bonus. The Redskins claim that no such roster bonus exists in his contract. The Postons came out and admitted that they hadn't read that part of Arrington's contract.
An anonymous NFL 'insider' used the word 'moron' in describing Arrington. How then would you describe the Postons for making this kind of error? Start with 'negligent' and 'derelict' and go on from there.
The adjective that person used to describe Arrington helps segue into an interesting analysis of Poston clients which came out recently. The article showed six of the high profile Poston clients currently involved in contract issues along with their Wonderlic test scores. The six players, Pace, Law, Arrington, Charles Woodson (Raiders), Ian Gold (Broncos) and Julian Peterson (49ers), all had an average Wonderlic score of a 15.5, which the Pro Football Talk article said placed the players "somewhere between 'mildly autistic donkey' and 'pile of cracked bricks' on the overall intelligence scale." To top it off, Lion receiver Charles Rogers, the third pick in the 2003 draft, had a Wonderlic score of 10, which the article states 'puts him in a position to outwit a handful of moist soil.'
Carl Poston, who operates out of Houston, and Kevin Poston, who hangs his hat in the affluent Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, validate all this with a 'creed' that Kevin wrote, a creed which does not state anything to do with sports. This 'PSP Creed', mentioned in a 2003 Detroit Free Press article, has three points which men should live their lives by; they work, they stand for something, and they are loyal. The creed goes on to state that men 'settle differences with words, not fists', 'respect women' and they 'cry not because they are babies but because they are warriors'with heart.'
But the situations involving their top clients, especially Pace and Arrington, as well as the revelation over the pattern of low Wonderlic scores amongst these same clients, make this creed a total sham which rings completely hollow. The prototypical Poston client is being portrayed as a greedy and idiotic hothead. The Postons are using these clients to make themselves wealthier than they deserve, under the guise of 'proud warriors who aren't afraid to stand up for what they believe in'.
Pace's stand on his contract issue will perhaps signal the beginning of the end of the wave of terror that is the Postons. If these duped clients can wake up and smell the coffee and figure out what these agents are really all about, they will join Pace and dump these guys on their ears. And if NFL executives can avoid panic and exercise restraint in capitulating to these outrageous demands these brothers make, the Postons will then attain blackball status from the NFL. This might then dissuade these sorts of clients from signing on with them. It would then help drive away the Postons from the NFL, and eventually out of the sports agent business.
It is the job of the sports agent to act in the best interest of his clients. It naturally follows that the agent wants to broker the best deal possible for his client. But when Pace comes out and states that he will take a lot less money to stay put with the Rams, and then obliquely states that he wants to fire his agent, Pace is stating that his agent did not properly serve himself the client, and the Postons have a ton of egg on their faces. And when Arrington is gypped out of $6.5 million because the Postons didn't read the whole contract, the Postons put a dunce cap right on top of all those yellow yolks.
Michael Holley of the Globe recently wondered aloud about why Law's friends don't step up and try to gag him. Maybe Law's only real buddy is telling Law to continue to blab and blab lots, because Law will be cut in September just like his buddy was in 2003 and he needs to try to get traded or released before that eventuality takes place. Is Lawyer Milloy advising Law to keep flapping his yap? There's no reason to think otherwise.
Sparing redundancy, this column did a piece recently on what top players in the league reveal themselves to be sooner or later. They are either rings-oriented or rewards-oriented. The Postons continue to try and extort obscene amounts of money for their clients, all the while ignoring that these obscene contracts make their clients rich but severely cripple their team in trying to acquire other talented players who will help that team vie for a Super Bowl championship. The Postons don't want players in their stable who are committed to winning. They want players in their stable who are committed to making the Postons obscenely rich, and are possibly too stupid to understand that the big money they are demanding is detrimental to the team as a whole.
The NFL looks like it is finally wising up to these two brothers and may begin shunning their clients unilaterally. While the complete eradication of these brothers is perhaps still a dream and, if it happens, would be a few years off in the distance, the statements by Pace and the dereliction of Arrington's contract are at least opening salvos in the eventual destruction of the Poston empire. To further illustrate this sort of thing, there is the chance that the Patriots might not pursue trading up for Oregon State running back Steven Jackson if he had retained the Postons as his agents (late word says that Jackson has rejected the Postons). If other teams follow suit, the Postons might actually have to stand up and take notice.
This piece was not meant as a plug for the Patriots and their way of doing things. It is simply about the advancement of good agents who will really do well by their clients, and for the cleansing of those agents who stand for the opposite. It might not put Law in his place, but in the long run it might mean that we never see the next Law again.
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