Disclaimer - No, I'm not calling for an actual lawsuit, or anything. Rather, just take a moment to read and ask yourself just who Michael Felger really is...
Anyone listen to Felger yesterday? He was talking about how cheap Brady's contracts have been over the years & and rambled on with his usual shtick about how 'the cap is crap' and even went so far as to speculate that the only reason why Kraft does it is because he's is cheap, and Belichick goes along with it because he wants to keep money away from players since he makes $25 million per yr, and show everyone he that he doesn't need high-paid players to win, etc. Felger even went so far as to claim that
the owners across the league are intentionally trying to conspire to keep money away from players. So, he's pushing it. But it's just ignorant speculation, right?
But, Felger cited a very specific and curious benchmark when he discussed Brady's contracts with NE:
13% of the cap.
He said that the only year Brady's cap hit was above 13% of the overall cap was back in 2006. Now this is true. But, what made him specifically cite
13%? I mean, there is very little consistency in the % of Brady's yearly cap hit. One year its 9.9% the next its 6.7% (
See the percentages for yourself). So why use that specific percentage? Why use 13%? Oh, wait. I know why. Because, since the very beginning of the salary cap era,
the most that a QB has ever been paid, in a Super Bowl winning season, is just 13% of the salary cap. That happened back in 1994 w/ the 49ers & Steve Young. To put it in perspective,
13% of the 2020 cap is just above $25 million. Now I don't expect everyone to know this. But for those who follow the cap, you've probably read about this throughout the years; 13% is widely considered the benchmark among cap-gurus of when a QB is making too much money to field a legit SB winning team.
Google it. Go to sites like
overthecap.com. This is nothing new. It's been discussed again and again. In fact, it's getting a lot of recent traction due to
Dak Prescott & Dallas Cowboys negotiations.
So, back to Felger. I find it ridiculously curious that he specifically brings up 13% of the cap -- only in relation to Brady and NE -- but is seemingly unaware of the entire context in which that 13% benchmark comes from. I mean, does he genuinely not know? Is his use of "13%" a genuine coincidence? Well, remember he specifically, cited the one year when Brady's cap went
above 13%. Key word: "above." And again, there's little consistency in Brady's cap hits over the years. So, it's pretty clear he is aware that 13% is used as the line-in-the-sand for when a QB's salary is considered to be too high for a SB win. So, he must know about this. So, again, the data in which 13% comes from is not just a tiny little detail that he forgot to mention. It's the entire crux of the discussion; it's the entire reason why 13% is viewed as such a benchmark. So, there's no way he's citing this info and not aware of where it comes from. There's just no way.
Now, here's the ugly part. With this in mind, when Felger tries to speculate on just what the
motivation is as to why Kraft and Belichick keep the QB salary under 13%....how can he possibly jump to the conclusion that it's
straight up greed without even bothering to mention all the above? Really. There's no excuse for this. I mean, even if he thinks this 13% theory is a bunch of junk, that's fine, but at least tell us the context of it. But he's now commenting on another person's thought's, ignoring the obvious context of where it comes from, ignoring that this goes well beyond NE, and trying to telling his audience that Kraft and Belichick only do this out of greed. That's completely ridiculous.
Is this who Michael Felger really is as a person? We aren't even talking sports anymore. This crap goes well beyond "contrarian" sports talk. He's taking personal shots at Belichick and Kraft
when he knows the very info he's using supports their strategy. Again, if he wants to brings up that data, tell the story behind it, and then argue that he thinks its a bunch of non-sense & the Pats should just pay big names, that's fine. But he doesn't do that. He takes the info, completely ignores the history and context, makes it look like NE is the only team doing it, and then claims that it's just an excuse for the Pats to
keep money from players.....Why? I don't get this guy. He already has a successful show. He can speculate all day on Brady vs Belichick. But this is how he functions. This is who he is as a person. He lies to his listeners to make them think their team is lying to them.
This just reinforces how ridiculous it is for people to claim the Pats just couldn't afford to pay Tom 25m per year for 2 years.
