Oh, there are isolated examples of loyalty, usually from individual players, Bruschi being one of the biggest. And, consequently, Bruschi is one of the few players I really, really like beyond what he does on the football field. I'm a *huge* Tedy Bruschi fan. Matt Light was another one who showed some loyalty to the team, or region, or his teammates, or whatever it was he felt was worth signing a below-market contract. Just because I don't think players should be *obligated* to display loyalty to a team or region, doesn't mean I don't celebrated the exceptional ones who do. I like loyalty. It's a good thing in the world.
But it really doesn't work the other way from the teams too often (the Robert Edwards situation being an admirable exception). The reason the Patriots renegotiated early with Brady and Sey is because those two guys are two of the best players in the NFL, and the Patriots didn't want to take any chance that they'd lose them. And attempting to renegotiate a lower contract with McGinest after they cut him doesn't seem like loyalty as much as, well, negotiating a lower contract. In fact, Willie and Troy getting cut and signed to lower deals show perfectly what I'm talking about. Those guys are the epitome of loyal football players, doing everything asked, working hard for the team, and the team cut them loose rather than pay them the rest of their contract. Sure, sure, they weren't performing up to the money of those contracts, but ... well, there ya go. Performance, money, that's what it's about. Loyalty has nothing to do with it.
I'm not saying it's morally wrong or anything; no team can build consistent winners if they go around handing out contracts for reasons other than performance. It's the way things are set up. But it's just silly to go around calling players "greedy" or whatever when all they are doing is trying to run their side of the business transaction in a way that maximizes their return.
Do you think Bob Kraft should show loyalty to the fans by lowering ticket prices? Or making his teams' games available for free streaming and download on the Internet? I'd feel some "loyalty love" from the team there ...
