Wow!
Ultimate team player.
Other players in the NFL should be like Tom Brady.
I read and heard those things and a few other effusive compliments after the story broke
the quarterback of the New England Patriots restructured his contract (again) that
allowed the franchise to free up $24 million to sign other potential free-agents. The fans
and media in New England fell all over themselves with mushy stories about the future
hall of famer.
Stop.
It may sound good and make for a great story, but Brady didn't give up a nickel to help the
Patriots out, in fact, he earned an extra three million dollars just so the team could
change the provision in his contract from "skill" to "injury", which allowed the Patriots
to free up the money they had in escrow for Brady's contract, per NFL rules.
In reality, the Patriots just found a legal way to circumvent the salary cap, which may not be
so legal down the line when the NFL figures out what the hell is going on.
This isn't the first time Brady has restructured his contract, is it? As memory recalls,
Brady did the same thing last year and the same thing happened: fans and the media got all
gushy. Brady restructured his contract and almost doubled the guarantee money
in the deal to $57 million. Whew! That's what you call taking one for the team!
Guaranteed money is the only thing that's important to players because NFL contracts,
unlike those in the other major sports, are not guaranteed. If they get hurt, they won't be
getting a dime outside of the guaranteed money they already received.
In the "restructuring" of his deal last year, Brady got a signing bonus of a whopping $30
million in which every nickel is guaranteed. He'll pick up the last of it sometime in 2015.
In this day of age where every stone is turned over and the fine line of each and every
contract is dissected, there hasn't been a single number-crunching analyst who has come
up with the amount of money Brady has "given back" to the Patriots through these
restructuring deals.
Why? Because Brady hasn't given anything back. Does any athlete or regular person for that
matter give the company they work for anything for free? Exactly.
Boston fans were mad at Jon Lester because he didn't take the Red Sox "hometown" discount.
Right, and you would've left an extra $30 million on the table just to please everyone else.
That's absurd and so is the notion Brady "sacrificed" so much for the good of the team.
Why do you think he keeps agreeing to restructure his deal so often? Because there is
something in it for him. It's how business and contract negotiations work. You want
something for me, you have to give me something in return. It's as simple as that.
Peyton Manning has a clause in his contract that he receives a $2.5 million bonus every time
he restructures his contract. Imagine that? Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers, and Andy Dalton
have similar clauses in their contracts. They all signed deals worth over $100 million.
It all looks great in the headlines and sounds impressive to the fools on sports radio, but
there is little chance any of these quarterbacks will ever see all that money in their bank
account. It's all about the guaranteed money and it never gets to be triple digits.
Contracts are restructured or a player gets released because he won't take a pay cut or
has much of a chance to stay around through the duration of the deal. It's how all those
contracts are set up.
Yes, Tom Brady is the ultimate team player, but it's because of what he does on the field
and in the locker room. It has nothing has to do with his restructuring of his contract. He
has been handsomely rewarded for doing so and hasn't lost a dime in the process.
And did you ever wonder why the Patriots, the most secretive organization in all of sports,
would turn in the restructured deal to the NFL as the playoffs are set to begin? What is the
rush? There is a method to their madness in every single thing they do. It could be
to take the pressure of the rest of the team or Robert Kraft just wanted to shine the light
on his golden boy.
Whatever the case, the Patriots golden boy has been well taken care of by the golden goose.
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