The irony of it is that this type of contract structure was negotiated and AGREED to by the PLAYERS' ASSOCIATION. If anybody thinks that there was some kind of gun to Upshaw's head to agree to this contract structure, they haven't been paying attention.
Think about it - the PA didn't want any shorter contracts for the rookies because they wanted to reserve more of the pie for the veterans and superstars. It's that simple.
The whole bashing of the teams by the agents is brain-dead and truly reprehensible. With a fixed cap, if one agent gets his guy a bigger deal and quicker, some other player is going to get less. In other terminology, it's a zero sum game. And yet it is the teams that are villified and not the agents who are robbing Peter to pay Paul. Go figure.
Upshaw must laugh himself to sleep each night thinking about how the teams are getting tarred and feathered when the players and agents should be furious with him. What a con artist.
For the few posters who still feel that teams have an unfair upper hand, you really really need to remember two things. The PA negotiated it this way !! !! !! The teams are simply taking advantage of what the deal was that was negotiated. How is that unfair ?? !! ?? And the players take advantage of every single loophole or provision and almost all have no fan or team loyalty in the slightest. Actually, if anybody has an unfair upper hand, it's the PLAYERS !! They are the ones who are constantly putting pressure on the teams to let them out of their contracts - and many many succeed in doing so !! !! On the other hand, name me even JUST ONE player where the team didn't live up to the contract when it was all lopsided in the player's favor ?? You CAN'T name one. The past is littered with union grievances, arbitration, and law suits - and the teams have had to live up to every single contract term. The second thing that seems so hard for some folks to GET is that the contract structure AS NEGOTIATED BY THE PLAYERS' ASSOCIATION is predicated on up front bonus guaranteed money. The player gets that NO MATTER WHAT !! !! How fair is that when the player turns out to be a miserable lazy bum or just plain incapable of learning how to play at the NFL level but gets to keep every red cent of the bonus money ?? Think about it - the party with the unfair upper hand is not the teams - it's the players !! The very specific tradeoff as agreed to in negotiation by the PA was to trade up front guaranteed money for the teams' option to terminate the term of the contract - not only does that seem like a reasonably fair tradeoff, but it IS WHAT WAS NEGOTIATED AND AGREED TO BY THE PA. Period - end of story. I get so sick of people claiming the teams are being 'unfair' when they terminate a contract early !! That is exactly the structure of the NFL contract. You want to talk about another aspect of the players having wrenched an unfair advantage and breached contracts to their advantage ? How about the NEGOTIATED terms of how initial bonus money has to be returned to the team under certain contractual conditions - like busting yourself up riding a motorcycle or using dope. How many times can you cite where the teams actually got back the money they were contractually entited to ?? My guess is you can't name a single time where the team got back all of the bonus money it was due. How unfair is that on the player's side ?? Unfair advantage is when one side somehow or another gets away without living up to the terms of a contract. As I said before - I don't think you can come up with a single citation where any team did not have to live up to every single term of contracts. On the other hand, the landscape is littered with cases where players forced early renegotation of a contract, reneged on giving back forfeited bonus money, or won grievances where they were allowed to shaft the team with rotten behavior. So just which side has the unfair upper hand ?? It sure ain't the teams folks.
Let me make one thing as crystal clear as I can. I'm not a person who has a prejudice in the slightest one way or the other as to whether teams or players SHOULD have an upper hand. I am a person who thinks that the Collective Bargaining Agreement, however the terms are negotiated, is WHAT IS FAIR because it was what was signed off on by both parties. What is so hard about that ?? Not only that, but the PA just had another crack at negotation - you may have a different opinion, but I think the PA had the hammer hand. So how can any of what happens to players be "unfair" to the player ?? ?? ??
As you can undoubtedly tell, what I do get really irritated with are folks who want to ignore what was negotiated by the PA and decide that there is a 'fairer' set of groundrules. That is a proposition that I find totally without merit or deserving of the slightest respect - and that is about the kindest I can say it.
So from my standpoint - I haven't the slightest problem with players looking for bigger contracts elsewhere - more power to them, even though I may have a lot of regret in some cases. I haven't the slightest problem with players pressuring the team to get out of their current legitimate contract and get a new one more to their advantage - it's the good old American way. But I sure as heck also haven't the SLIGHTEST problem with the Patriots deciding to refuse the pressure and sticking to the current legitimate contract - that's the good old American way in the tradition of a hand shake and both parties living up to their end of a bargain truly struck with the full knowledge and willing agreement of both parties.
Now I feel better.
In this particular case, I think both Branch and the Patriots are proceeding in the good old American way, and I have no heartburn either way - it will be what it will be. As a hopeless fan, I would really like to see Branch be a Patriot for years to come. But, we'll just have to see what happens. I appreciate the 'high ground' that the Patriots take where they do not let any criticisms or even viewpoints get into the media, however irritating that apparently is to the likes of Borges types. Just my own personal viewpoint - but I get pretty disgusted and even angry at the bashing the players and agents do at times - I think it's pretty ugly and completely reprehensible.
Cheers.
:bricks:
