Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

Asante has, at times, been annoying or worse with his salary saga.

HOWEVER, he's the guy who was screaming "60 Minutes!!!" And he's the guy who ran madly across the field to ensure a replay challenge.

Grahambo was a bit disappointing last year in his happiness about changing teams. HOWEVER, he earned a captaincy midway through his last season, and he was leading postseason celebrations rising off the bench.

Even the guys who seem to want to separate from the team are great team members when they're here. Props to them. And props to the organization for eliciting that from them.

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

Isn't it funny that the "Stars" who leave NEVER come back to haunt this team? Adam included. Some never haunt ANY team. Meion, Givens, Graham, Willie, Drew, Ty, Lawyer (OK maybe for that one game, but he was nothing after that). That's quite a list...

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

It was never about "wanting to leave". It was about a difference of opinion in the business world.

Asante thought he was worth $X. The Patriots thought he was worth $Y. Y just happend to be so far below X that he did not want to take it. I understand as a fan it is hard to see the business aspect of the sport since all you want is your team to win. However, every game has the potential to destroy a players earning potential, which is why they want money sooner rather than later.

Let me ask you this: Would you take a 20% less pay than market value to work at your current job, if other companies were willing to pay you market value?

If you answered "No," then you know why Asante held out.

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

Who said Asante wants to seperate from the team? He just wants a big pay check. If they could afford to pay him I doubt he'd want to go anywhere else

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

Can't blame a guy for wanting a long term contract with gauranteed money. It could all end tomorrow for any of them.

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

End of the day you want what you think your worth. It's not all players, organisations can take advantage of players too and belive me, in sports they try. You got to stand up and aslong as guys aren't asking for insane amounts way over what their talent demands I'm all for players being firm over pay. It is, after all their living.

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

Not enough info in the question. If the choice was between $30,000 and $24,000 a year I would go with the $30,000 job in a heartbeat. Especially if it had good medical benefits.

If the choice was between $10 mil a year and $8 mil a year, I would have to think about it. Realistically, if I get a few million dollars, I can pretty much have every thing I need. After satisfying my wildest desires, say if I suddenly had an $8 mil a year job, then the only purpose of money was for me to enjoy myself. Having $9 million a year is not going to make any impact on my life more the the $8 mil a year did.

So I would have to ask myself, which place would enrich my life more? Where would I have the most fun?

I know there are people, including most athletes, who belief that leaving any money on the table is wrong. I think they are missing the point. The object of money is not to get every dollar you can. The object is to enrich your life, the lives of you loved ones, and pay back to others less fortunate.

Take the job that makes you most happy. What is the good of a six year, $50 million dollar contract if it doesn't maximize your enjoyment of life?

If I were Asante, I would go the the team I felt would be most likely to go to the Superbowl. I think if I were an NFL player, I would like to play in Superbowls and hold up the trophy. That would be more fun than reading accountants' figures of my net worth.

YMMV

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

That's fine, but I think that we as fans project our own feelings onto some of these athletes. Like with Branch or Asante, guys who have already won championships, what reasons would they really have to stay with a team if some other organization is offering more money. Loyalty? Please, teams don't show players loyalty and players shouldn't be loyal to teams by taking discounts. "It's a business" is really overused, but it's true.

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

QFT...

These guys live in a different world than the rest of us... stop trying to project ourselves into their lives, it doesn't work that way.

Re: Gotta love the money-grubbers
 

You are dead on. I am so sick of hearing justifications from the ball washers who say that athletes need to pursue every last penny. Like that jackass ARod for example. I mean really, WTF difference in his life is getting 30 million a year going to make over getting 25 million?

When you get to a certain amount of money its just gluttony and these justifications that we don't understand because we have never had that much money and don't understand the lifestyle are a bunch of BS.

It comes down to money grubbing agents playing on the egos of their clients.