Mods, feel free to merge this if you think it's appropriate. But I wanted to specifically address the no-win situation that Brady seems to have put himself in. Let's look at the facts:
(1) Brady just signed an extension that is well, well below market value for him.
(2) That extension just freed up a considerable amount of cap space for the Patriots, which means more money is available to spend on other players.
(3) Brady also got more long-term guaranteed money out of the deal than he had before he signed it.
Critics are lining up all over the place on this. There are those that say that he really isn't doing the Patriots any favors because all that's happening is an accounting trick to get Brady more guaranteed money. So he's a bad guy for pretending to take less but really taking more.
Then there are those that say that Brady taking less actually means that it'll be hard for other teammates to take more because he'll be giving the Patriots leverage. They can say, look Wes (or Sebastian or Aqib or whomever), Tom Frickin' Brady just took half of what he's worth on the open market so that this team can win. You should follow his example and take less than what you're worth to stay here. So it would put pressure on these guys to take less than they otherwise could get.
Then there are those that say that Brady should have taken an even *bigger* pay cut because he can afford it, and if he *REALLY* wanted the team to win, he'd have taken the league minimum to free up as much money as possible (and I'm not even sure this would be allowed by the NFLPA).
Then there are those that say that Brady taking less actually depresses salaries for other QBs like Flacco, so other QBs are going to be mad at Brady for doing that.
But then if Brady did what Peyton Manning did and took a huge contract, he would have been greedy and would have put the Patriots in a tough spot with the cap...less money to sign complementary players, so Brady would have been putting himself above the team.
So how, exactly, was Brady supposed to win here in the eyes of his critics?
What we know is that Brady is making more guaranteed money than he had before he signed this extension, but: (1) It's still less than what he almost certainly would have been making had he played this contract out and got a new one in a couple of years, and (2) it *did* free up money for the Patriots to use the next few years. A lot of money.
It's very difficult for me to see how anyone can look at Brady as a bad guy in this situation.
Haters gonna hate, I guess.
(1) Brady just signed an extension that is well, well below market value for him.
(2) That extension just freed up a considerable amount of cap space for the Patriots, which means more money is available to spend on other players.
(3) Brady also got more long-term guaranteed money out of the deal than he had before he signed it.
Critics are lining up all over the place on this. There are those that say that he really isn't doing the Patriots any favors because all that's happening is an accounting trick to get Brady more guaranteed money. So he's a bad guy for pretending to take less but really taking more.
Then there are those that say that Brady taking less actually means that it'll be hard for other teammates to take more because he'll be giving the Patriots leverage. They can say, look Wes (or Sebastian or Aqib or whomever), Tom Frickin' Brady just took half of what he's worth on the open market so that this team can win. You should follow his example and take less than what you're worth to stay here. So it would put pressure on these guys to take less than they otherwise could get.
Then there are those that say that Brady should have taken an even *bigger* pay cut because he can afford it, and if he *REALLY* wanted the team to win, he'd have taken the league minimum to free up as much money as possible (and I'm not even sure this would be allowed by the NFLPA).
Then there are those that say that Brady taking less actually depresses salaries for other QBs like Flacco, so other QBs are going to be mad at Brady for doing that.
But then if Brady did what Peyton Manning did and took a huge contract, he would have been greedy and would have put the Patriots in a tough spot with the cap...less money to sign complementary players, so Brady would have been putting himself above the team.
So how, exactly, was Brady supposed to win here in the eyes of his critics?
What we know is that Brady is making more guaranteed money than he had before he signed this extension, but: (1) It's still less than what he almost certainly would have been making had he played this contract out and got a new one in a couple of years, and (2) it *did* free up money for the Patriots to use the next few years. A lot of money.
It's very difficult for me to see how anyone can look at Brady as a bad guy in this situation.
Haters gonna hate, I guess.