NE_PATS_FAN_54
Rotational Player and Threatening Starter's Job
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- Mar 13, 2006
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Joe Flacco, Tom Brady on opposite ends of quarterback contract spectrum - NFL - Peter King - SI.com
"I was just trying to stay ahead of the curve. If we were going to have to pay him elite-quarterback money and have elite-quarterback cap numbers, I just didn't think we would be able to build a team. We don't want to have a team where we're paying 18 to 20 percent to a player on the cap. I wanted to do something elegant that would work for everybody. I had been talking to him off and on for maybe 18 months, about how I wanted him to finish his career here, and about how we both have to be smart about it. I just really want him to end his career a Patriot.''
"This is a real deal," Kraft told King. "Look at our track record. We don't do fake deals. The contract we have with Tom Brady is a real contract we will both live by. ...
"I am glad we are able to take negotiations out of this relationship for the next five years," Kraft said. "Look, I don't know what's going to happen in the next five years. No one can know. But this move, strategically, helps us be in a position to win. We're going to spend to the cap. Tom knows that it's not like whatever we don't pay him we're putting in the Kraft family pocket. He gets it, and now he's rooting for us to make the right decisions in building the team. By the way, I have heard that it's been reported Tom made demands about who he wanted us to sign. Absolutely not. It never happened."