Obviously you missed the litle bruhaha when last these two negotiated... They were disconnected sufficiently at that juncture in March of 2005 that Tom's actual people fed a pointed, message delivering story to Tom E. Curran. Seems the parameters of that deal, one Kraft publicly announced he hoped to get done while the confetti was still being cleaned up after 39 - PROVIDED Tom was not expecting Manning money, in which case they might not get one done... were agreed upon pdq but then the team tried to squeeze a little more out of the deal and split his bonus money into not 2 but 4 increments... I'm sure that would have worked better for them. But having already cooperated to the fullest hometown wise on the total deal value, Tom wasn't going to just lay down and be a doormat. The deal got finalized on his terms about a month later... The following March Tom traveled to Israel with the Krafts during the off season, so apparently there were no lingering hard feelings...
Tommy knows it's a business. He also knows the way this team runs it's business pays dividends. He also knows he can't be a total pushover and still expect his teamates to respect him enough to remotely emulate him. The whole thing is a complicated process under a functional CBA, let alone absent one. Had Upshaw not gotten greedy and made the money grab in 2006 that was doomed to be a CBA buster, he probably would have been extended incrementally back in 2008 or 2009. His deal was set up for that as opposed to backloaded for effect as Manning's was. It's now easier to expect Manning to play through his deal absent a cap because of his backloaded $15M salaries, whereas had the cap remained Indy would have been forced to redo Mannings deal by now because of it's $20M+ back end cap hits. No one ever expected Tom was going to actually have to play for 6 years at $60M or the last two years of his deal for $8M per...
I'm sure going forward with a cap the team would like to do a similar deal with Tom. That's probably a pipedream now because of how these last two seasons played out (including in the wake of a season ending and potentially career threatening ACL injury). So not only will they have to pony up the signing bonus money however they dole it out under the specter of a lockout, they probably aren't gonna get nearly as flexible a back end on this deal as he was willing to accept 5 years ago before he knew better - heading into an uncertain landscape when they may desire flexibility more than ever..
It is a bit of a conundrum, but one they both indicate they anticipate resolving because they both want to. I would not doubt it's frustrating for both sides, but if anything that represents common ground as opposed a growing disconnect. In large part because unlike many players and his union, Brady genuinely gets it - including the part about owners deserving to have a reasonable expectation of making money on their investments. He knows what Kraft does with his, from expanding the brand to committment to philanthropy.
I'm sure this team would have preferred to get a relatively frontloaded deal in place in the absence of a cap and ahead of another Manning deal, but there are obviously multiple roadblocks they have to contend with including retaining some other significant pieces of the puzzle while also positioning themselves to both withstand a potential work stoppage and validate the league's position that ownership as a whole can't simply maintain the status quo with 60% of revenue flowing to the players while owners grapple with the increasing burden of debt service tied to their efforts to continue to grow the product.
