Re: Contracts
- From: "AllYou!" <Idaman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 11:29:56 -0400
Who ever said that?
"JD(eagles)" <JDeagles@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:y5WdnWy6FPCvQW3fRVn-oA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Gee, someone on here told me the Patriots don't do this....huh?
Seymour to report Wednesday with new dealAssociated Press
FOXBORO, Mass. -- Star defensive lineman Richard Seymour reached a deal for more money with the New England Patriots following a holdout from training camp.
Seymour, a three-time Pro Bowl player, is entering the fifth year of a six-year, $14.3 million contract he signed as a rookie in 2001. He has been on three Super Bowl championship teams with the Patriots.
"We are very pleased that this situation has been resolved and that our complete focus can move back to the field," according to a statement released Tuesday by the team and player. The Patriots did not disclose the terms of the deal.
Seymour was expected to report to camp Tuesday, coach Bill Belichick said. The lineman missed the June minicamp and did not report to the opening practices of camp, which began last Friday.
"We're happy with Richard coming back to camp and look forward to seeing him out there on the field," Belichick said at his daily briefing.
Seymour's teammates also looked forward to his return.
"You're getting a Pro Bowl player, a consistent player since day one," linebacker Mike Vrabel said. "The guy came in, he was a professional the day he got drafted and that's what Hall of Fame-type players do. They do that for 10 or 12 years."
Drafted sixth overall in 2001 by the Patriots out of Georgia, Seymour made the Pro Bowl in two of his first three seasons. He missed the last game of the regular season and the AFC playoffs last year with a knee injury, but returned for the Super Bowl. He had two tackles, including a sack of Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb.
The deal comes at a time when the core of the Patriots' defense has been eroded by the retirement of linebacker Ted Johnson and the absence of Tedy Bruschi.
Johnson unexpectedly announced his retirement last Thursday, citing a series of concussions and fear of long-term damage. Bruschi has decided to sit out the 2005 season while he recovers from a mild stroke.
"You just feel better when he's out there," tight end Christian Fauria said of Seymour. "He never really misses practices. He's never out of position. He's a force to be reckoned with. ... I think he deserves everything he gets."
"JD(eagles)" <JDeagles@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:O8GdnZNfceSxSXHfRVn-hw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxExcellent article in the Inqy about players contracts. At the end is a TO to comparison to other WR's. It's intersting that Moss and Harrison do have a lot more guranteed and more in the front end of their contracts than TO. I think that was TO's contention. That said, he signed it, he needs to honor it.
Phil Sheridan | T.O.'s agent is more talk than action
Rosenhaus' rants about the system ring hollow.
By Phil Sheridan
Inquirer Sports Columnist
If you're an agent determined to take a stand against the NFL contract system, league insiders suggest, here's the best way to proceed:
Find a client who is a highly coveted free agent. Solicit offers from a number of teams, getting them to bid against each other.
Use your leverage to negotiate a contract with guaranteed salaries, even if that means sacrificing on the signing bonus and the length of the contract.
A year ago, agent Drew Rosenhaus had the perfect opportunity to follow this blueprint. One of his clients, defensive end Jevon Kearse, was the best defensive player on the free-agent market. A reported 10 to 12 teams contacted Rosenhaus on the first day they were allowed to make offers.
Rosenhaus chose to negotiate a standard NFL contract for Kearse. The Eagles signed the former Tennessee Titans star to an eight-year, $58.6 million deal that included up-front bonuses worth $16 million.
A year later, in an attempt to sway public opinion in favor of new client Terrell Owens, Rosenhaus launched a media campaign against the NFL system, decrying the lack of guaranteed contracts. The Miami-based agent has spoken out against the system on ESPN, on national radio programs, and in a memorable segment of HBO's Real Sports in which he shouted at interviewer Bernard Goldberg.
"It's BS," Rosenhaus said. "I'm not standing for it. I don't care what system it is. I don't care who agreed to it. It's wrong. If you don't agree with it, too bad."
But Rosenhaus, who has declined to talk to The Inquirer for more than a month, has negotiated dozens of contracts with NFL teams. He has not made guaranteed salaries the key issue up until now, and his public campaign hasn't gained traction with other agents or the NFL Players Association (NFLPA).
With his words, Rosenhaus has questioned the system, but with his actions, he has worked very successfully within it. In the case of Owens, his words seem to be nothing more than a smoke screen that he is using as he scrambles to save face in a losing situation.
"I certainly don't think anything Drew is doing is going to change the manner in which contracts are negotiated," agent Frank Murtha told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "I don't see any one agent being able to turn what has been a historical trend."
That's because, according to the NFLPA, other agents and NFL executives, the current collectively bargained system has been working very well for players.
"About 50 percent of all the dollars earned by our players are guaranteed in the form of bonuses," said Richard Berthelsen, the general counsel for the players' union. "And there is nothing in our collective-bargaining agreement that addresses the issue of guaranteed contracts. That is a matter for individual negotiation between teams and players."
Ethan Lock, an Arizona-based agent, has negotiated a few contracts with guaranteed salaries. He acknowledged that teams are reluctant to do them and that the agent must trade off up-front bonus money.
"Obviously, their risk is hedged a little bit the higher [caliber] the player is," Lock said. "You have to give up a little bit if you want guarantees with the traditional structure. You can guarantee the back three years of the deal, for example, which effectively guarantees the whole thing. Or you can do a zero-signing-bonus deal."
Virtually all agents, including Rosenhaus, have chosen the other approach. The NFL system has evolved as agents have found new ways to write guaranteed money into contracts while creating mechanisms to force renegotiations before the full term of the deal is up.
Agents like bonuses, in the form of signing or roster or so-called "option" bonuses, for the same reasons players like them. Bonuses put guaranteed money into players' pockets before they play a single down. And agents, who generally get a standard 3 percent fee, get paid when the players do.
"It's always better to get money in your pocket right away," Berthelsen said. "That puts it in your control. You can invest it and make it grow."
The quest for larger signing bonuses has led to the most misunderstood aspect of NFL contracts - their length.
"Contracts, as a rule, are artificially long," Berthelsen said.
Take Kearse's deal. To make his $12 million signing bonus workable under the salary cap, the Eagles and Rosenhaus did an eight-year contract. Kearse's salaries for the first three years - $535,000 for last year, $890,000 for this year and $2.075 million for next year - are not explicitly guaranteed. However, because releasing Kearse in any of the three years would create such a huge salary-cap problem, those years are essentially guaranteed.
"The total value of the deal is just an illusion," Leigh Steinberg, a longtime NFL agent, said recently, "because the numbers are so inflated on the back end that the player will either have to renegotiate the deal or he'll be cut."
That's the whole point - to create an opportunity for a player to get "new money" from his current team or, if he is released, from a different team.
Teams like the Eagles will negotiate with a player before his contract is up, but only if there is a trade-off.
The Eagles gave a huge new contract to quarterback Donovan McNabb in 2002 - tearing up a deal with four years left - but in exchange, they locked up McNabb through the 2011 season and established cost certainty at the highest-paid position.
Owens' situation is different. He signed a seven-year deal 16 months ago, giving the Eagles his rights through 2010, when he will be 37. That gives the Eagles little incentive to do a new deal.
Under Owens' current deal, he received more than $9 million in bonus money last season and is due large salaries at the end, when his production is likely to decrease sharply.
Owens' contention - that he can be released at any time by the Eagles - is true. The same kind of thing is true for virtually all NFL players. But the point that gets missed, Berthelsen said, is that the salaries of released players don't disappear with them.
"The money goes back into the locker room," he said. "Teams spend up to the cap, so all of this money goes to someone else. What it comes down to is, NFL players receive a higher percentage of the revenue than the players in any other sports league."
Phil Sheridan | A Matter of Money: How T.O. Stacks Up
A look at how the contract of the Eagles' Terrell Owens compares to those of the other NFL receivers who rank in the top 10 in total receiving yards since the 2000 season:
Randy Moss, Oakland (a)
Year signed: 2001
Total years and value: 8 years, $75 million
Guaranteed money: $18 million
Other bonuses: $1.4 million over the life of the contract
Average annual value, first 3 years: $9 million
Marvin Harrison, Indianapolis
Year signed: 2004
Total years and value: 8 years, $72.5 million
Guaranteed money: $23 million
Roster bonuses: $7 million due in 2005, $10 million due in 2006
Average value, first 3 years: $10.2 million
Terrell Owens, Eagles
Year signed: 2004
Total years and value: 7 years, $49 million
Guaranteed money: $9.2 million
Roster bonus: $7.5 million due in 2006
Average value, first 3 years: $7 million
Jimmy Smith, Jacksonville
Year signed: 2002
Total years and value: 6 years, $28 million
Guaranteed money: $11.9 million
Other bonuses: $2.35 million over the life of the contract
Average value, first 3 years: $6.3 million
Eric Moulds, Buffalo (b)
Year signed: 2005
Total years and value: 3 years, $18 million
Guaranteed money: $5 million
Other bonuses: Not available
Average value, first 3 years: $6 million
Joe Horn, New Orleans
Year signed: 2004
Total years and value: 6 years, $41 million
Guaranteed signing bonus: $7 million
Roster bonuses: $11.9 million over the final five years of the contract
Average value, first 3 years: $5.4 million
Torry Holt, St. Louis (c)
Year signed: 2003
Total years and value: 7 years, $42 million
Guaranteed money: $12.5 million
Other bonuses: $5.5 million over the final five years of the contract
Average value, first 3 years: $5.4 million
Rod Smith, Denver
Year signed: 2002
Total years and value: 7 years, $40 million
Guaranteed money: $11 million
Roster bonuses: $3.3 million over the life of the contract
Average value, first 3 years: $5.1 million
Derrick Mason, Baltimore
Year signed: 2005
Total years and value: 5 years, $20 million
Guaranteed money: $8 million
Other bonuses: None
Average value, first 3 years: $4.7 million
Isaac Bruce, St. Louis
Year signed: 2000
Total years and value: 7 years, $41.5 million
Guaranteed money: $2.9 million
Other bonuses: $5.5 million over the final five years of the contact
Average value, first 3 years: $3.5 million
a-deal was signed with Minnesota and restructured during this off-season by Oakland.
b-deal reworked in 2005.
c-deal restructured in 2005.
SOURCE: NFLPA
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