Borges on Branch (for those of you who can't bear to read Borges any more)

[RayClay]

Here's the problem with the whole four year/five year thing:

1) If the original offer on the table was a four year deal, why didn't Chayut have Branch sign it? They could have avoided this whole mess.

2) Who put the gun to Branch's head and made him sign a five year deal? Guss Scott came in and negotiated a one-year deal. How'd that work out for him?

I just don't buy this "was a four, but unfairly turned into a five" b.s. That's a Poston excuse. You signed the contract, you agreed to its terms, and you reneged on it because it was no longer beneficial to you.

I always thought the solution would be to fire the agent who advised him to sign that contract.

What am I missing here?

 

[hwc]

Are there other disgruntled players who waiting their time to get on the first bus out of town??

Sure. All of them. Or, at least, we have to assume all of them.

If they aren't disgruntled now, they will be when their agents get done pumping them up. "Disgruntled" is the mindset that it takes to walk away from a championship team and go to the Detroit Lions or the Cleveland Browns for more money.

Believing that your team is screwing you is what it takes to pocket their offer sheet, no matter what, and shop it around the league to find a GM who will top it.

Disgruntled is a defense mechanism for a player who wants a Reggie Wayne contract when his championship team presents comparables showing that he is not Reggie Wayne. Think about it. You believe your house is worth $1 million. A real estate agent brings you a well-researched group of comparables from your neighborhood showing that you should list it at $799,000. You will be disgruntled with the real estate agent, particularly if your advisors are telling you the real estate agent is just trying to screw you.

We don't have to like the system. But, it is what it is. Until proven otherwise by signed contract extensions, we should -- for our own fan sanity -- assume that Graham, Koppen, and Samuel are disgruntled as hell.

Along with that, we should also understand that none of these players will be the last players at their positions available to the Pats through the draft, free agency, or trades. None of them are unique. They are widgets in a Pats jersey. The NFL is pretty simple, really. Can the widgets I have this year beat the widgets you have this year?

 

[RayClay]

Let's revisit this in 2 years. The #1, the receivers replacing Branch and the cap money saved.

Why do you think we're always recycling Borges quotes?

 

[marty]

It was always about the 5th year, the one Hutchinson showed up for in Seattle after 3 pro bowl nods but Deion began to chafe about the moment the media handed him the keys to Brady's third Escalade. Sadly also lost in the shuffle is the fact that the Patriots approached him right after that SB and tried to do an incremental contract just as they did with the kid QB after the first SB. Only Deion (I won't blame Chayut any more) was insulted by that offer, the details of which his agent chose not to leak to Borges beyond characterizing it as insulting.

Sometimes life is tough. Had we not taken Deion with the 65th pick in the 2002 draft he could have gone on to the Bucs or the Skins or the Rams in the third where we didn't pick and signed a 4 year deal and been a FA in 2006 OR SOONER after proving he could perform with any number of injured or aging or flash in the pan or flat out JAG QB's....

Well said Mo!

 

[dryheat44]

We don't have to like the system. But, it is what it is. Until proven otherwise by signed contract extensions, we should -- for our own fan sanity -- assume that Graham, Koppen, and Samuel are disgruntled as hell.

Well, now's a good time to get them gruntled.

 

[Miguel]

Here's the problem with the whole four year/five year thing:

1) If the original offer on the table was a four year deal, why didn't Chayut have Branch sign it? They could have avoided this whole mess.

I would never sign the 1st offer in any negotiations. It is not likely to be the best offer. Chayut did a lot of things wrong but not this, IMO.

 

[dryheat44]

I would never sign the 1st offer in any negotiations. It is not likely to be the best offer. Chayut did a lot of things wrong but not this, IMO.

I understand that. So they didn't sign the four year deal for whatever reason, signed the 5 year deal instead, and got pissed because the five year deal was originally supposed to be a four year deal. That's from Chayut's mouth.

 

[FloridaPatsFan]

At the end of the day, it really boils down to the money for Deion. He can claim that he needed to feed his family and how passionate he is about football, but that is all BS to me. The Patriots offered him a good deal. He could have taken it and would still have been rich for the rest of his life even if he invested conservatively.

This is a purely greed "Show me the Money" situation.

I have lived on this planet long enough to know that what comes around, goes around. Deion may be all smiles today, but he has just cashed in character for money and charma for greed.

He will not live happily ever after in Seattle. He will either injure himself or never see another championship. But that is what he earned by the way he handled THIS situation.

 

[TruthSeeker]

From my perspective, this article showed Deion to be a cold, calculating individualist who never had any intention of negotiating, much less signing, with the Patriots. He knew this for months, perhaps even years as he shows when he talks about his unhappiness with the 5 year deal he signed. Yet he still claimed earlier this year that he would honor his contract.

And why did he do this? Because he was greedy. The Patriots were willing to give him an 8 figure bonus that would have all been in his hands in less than a year. They were willing to pay him over 6 million a year (after he fulfilled his original contract). So he intentionally created a bad situation for himself, his agent, the Patriots and the NFL in order to maximize his own gain. I've lost a lot of respect for Deion Branch. He's condemned by his own words.

 

[Halifax_Pats_Fan]

I don't give a **** about the money Deion does or does not get. I like Deoin whether that upsets you all or not, it doesn't really bother me. What concerns me is that Brady likes being with the boys and building relationships. He is clearly getting depressed with how the patriots do business. Not only that, you can't put it all on Brady's shoulders. He is human. Come on guys. His organization should respect him and give him some tools he enjoys working with and has had success with. You can't just build SB type chemistry with any Joe Blow off the street.

This whole thing really pissed me off personally, it's too bad really...if the patriots continue to do business this way, they should expect some resentment from fans and players.....

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I don't give a **** about the money Deion does or does not get. I like Deoin whether that upsets you all or not, it doesn't really bother me. What concerns me is that Brady likes being with the boys and building relationships. He is clearly getting depressed with how the patriots do business. Not only that, you can't put it all on Brady's shoulders. He is human. Come on guys. His organization should respect him and give him some tools he enjoys working with and has had success with. You can't just build SB type chemistry with any Joe Blow off the street.

This whole thing really pissed me off personally, it's too bad really...if the patriots continue to do business this way, they should expect some resentment from fans and players.....

I think you and some of the media today who said his statement hinted some sort of character weakness totally misread Tommy. I think he finally saw that the guy he loved and tried to support and anguished over and always said really wanted to play here and would - was FOS. That was the lesson learned. He has no problem with the way this FO runs the system. He understands it isn't for everyone. He now knows Deion was not one of the chosen ones, he just BS'ed everyone into thinking he was.

And like hwc says, he won't be the last WR ever available to catch passes from a HOF QB. Tommy won superbowls before he ever heard of Deion Branch, and he will win them after figuring out just who Deion Branch was.

Now you'll have to excuse me as I go watch one of our 3 Three Games to Glory Superbowl Highlight tapes - or maybe 21- as I ponder the liklihood a real Pats fan could muster anything approaching resentment for this FO.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I don't give a **** about the money Deion does or does not get. I like Deoin whether that upsets you all or not, it doesn't really bother me. What concerns me is that Brady likes being with the boys and building relationships. He is clearly getting depressed with how the patriots do business. Not only that, you can't put it all on Brady's shoulders. He is human. Come on guys. His organization should respect him and give him some tools he enjoys working with and has had success with. You can't just build SB type chemistry with any Joe Blow off the street.

This whole thing really pissed me off personally, it's too bad really...if the patriots continue to do business this way, they should expect some resentment from fans and players.....

You don't get it, do you. Deion Branch had pre-determined that he was not coming back to play for the Patriots. Deion said as much in his own words. Everyone knows the Patriots are not going to significantly overpay for a player (i.e. pay utmost top dollar) and that's what Deion was going for. 5 years fo 31 million? Not enough; Deion wanted 6 years for 39 million - including ripping up the current year of his contract. Deion didn't care how much of a jerk this made him or how it impacted the rest of the team. He was going to get his no matter what. That saddens me.