Kessler gave him nothing, maybe less than nothing. He's a pit bull when he's on your team, but he's played both sides of the road over the years. Sure he thinks they had a case, but he also understands that the NFL didn't believe he did. His only revelation was that the union is a little concerned about the fact that BB had been in touch with Branch over the course of the negotiations. So I guess what the trade boils down to is the team (and probably his significant teamates) always believed that the player was being misrepresented, but the filing of the grievances pretty much blew that last straw theory out the window. As Kessler said the greivances didn't cause the trade (as in traded to avoid the hearing process) but they facilitated the trade (as in Pats decided Branch was not salvagable apart from Chayut).
The first caller blew Mike out of the water. As he said, and disingenuous Mike immediately agreed, getting 4 years of cheap production out of a player and then flipping them for a #1 is a pretty good formula for an NFL team. Mike's caveat after the caller hung up was why not be more proactive - they screwed up by not doing this earlier. Why, did we miss out on the best WR prospect without an arrest record in the 2006 draft Mike? Sounds like we had a plan. We also tried to sign Givens before Tennessee made a ridiculous offer. But we weren't going to overpay him in advance either just because we realized sooner that Deion was not a reasonable or football first guy and was not going to be here unless he got overpaid. We just don't overpay, period. Guys we want to keep we give every opportunity to weigh their decision. But in the end they won't all stay.
Life goes on. For Deion it means he will get a few million more after taxes over the life of his deal, if things work out in Seattle soon enough and they retain him that long. He will be playing under a microscope in an all new system with a HC who may not be around too much longer and the QB he brought with him from GB and slowly developed on the road to a superbowl appearance who last year signed a below market deal to stay in Seattle. And then got to watch the Seahawks flumox the Hutchinson deal which led to Matt landing on his ass multiple times yesterday.
He will also be putting another three thousand miles between himself and his sons from his first relationship. But he'll be able to send them bigger checks in the short run anyway.
