sandgk
Watson, Crick & A Twist
All rookies -- report to training camp now (or better yet when training camp started). Create a contract rating scheme based on the position and draft pick of the player and have the club guarantee that you will get that minimum. For the drafting team, make it worth the while for the rookie to get in and do the right thing by having the club offer incentives based on on-the-field performance -- in the first year. Make it worth the club's while to have drafted you in the first place by adding to that team, instead of holding out, often for BS reasons.
The current process for negotiation of a rookies contract is broken, plain and simple. The 1st round draft picks all hold out, the lower their pick, the longer they hold out.
Everyone wants to max their money -- that's OK -- its a business and for most of these young men its their best shot at setting themselves up for life. So you end up with a cascade of contracts, a trickle down negotiation if you will. You have a game, one in which agents or players create obstacles and controversy rather than reaching agreement so they may go and play the game so they so obviously enjoy.
All of which is played out against the following simple mathematics. Every agent has a pretty good idea of what their cleint is worth going in. That opinion is for the most part shared by the teams. The lower you were picked, the less you will get (unless you were picked by the Cardinals in which case you are screwed any which way you go). The agents know this, the players know this. Yet, instead of reaching agreement that allows them to learn a completely new and more complex playbook, we have this stupid drama each and every year. The net result of which is that most 1st rounders are truly worth shit in their first year -- precisely because they sat themselves on the couch.
Case in point, Pollack. 1st rounder taken number 17 by the Bengals. Pollack held out until the pick before him signed. {defensive end Travis Johnson ($10.2 million, $7.242 million guaranteed)} and has now sat out while the pick following him has signed {defensive end Erasmus James ($9.8 million, $7.03 million guaranteed) at No. 18}. So its not like Pollack has no clue about the money awaiting him -- it is going to be mid-way between 10.2 and 9.8 -- or in simple math 10.0 Million, with 7.1 Million guaranteed. If he truly beleives he's getting money above that reach he (or his agent) is out of his (their) mind. In keeping with the trend of agents fucking up negotiations, one of the reason stated by his agents for him not being in camp -- a dispute over the "loyalty clause," which is a standard piece of language in many Bengal contracts. The rest is about money, plain and simple - with his agents asking for more in incentives and escalators than the #16 or #18 pick received. Its BS pure and simple and I'm glad that Lewis is telling them to go take a fucking hike.
Oh yes, who are his agents -- IMG agents Condon and Kremer who have had the most first-round holdouts — 13 of 30 clients — since 1995.
(For fairness it must be reported that the Bengals have had the most first round hold-outs 7 of 11 since 1995 of any NFL team in the same period of time).
Oh yes, and as for that loyalty clause -- the IMG agent explanation for any delay as of 8/15 -- it exposes signing bonus money if a player criticizes teammates, coaches or management. It is affectionally known around the Bengal clubhouse as "The Pickens Clause."
The current process for negotiation of a rookies contract is broken, plain and simple. The 1st round draft picks all hold out, the lower their pick, the longer they hold out.
Everyone wants to max their money -- that's OK -- its a business and for most of these young men its their best shot at setting themselves up for life. So you end up with a cascade of contracts, a trickle down negotiation if you will. You have a game, one in which agents or players create obstacles and controversy rather than reaching agreement so they may go and play the game so they so obviously enjoy.
All of which is played out against the following simple mathematics. Every agent has a pretty good idea of what their cleint is worth going in. That opinion is for the most part shared by the teams. The lower you were picked, the less you will get (unless you were picked by the Cardinals in which case you are screwed any which way you go). The agents know this, the players know this. Yet, instead of reaching agreement that allows them to learn a completely new and more complex playbook, we have this stupid drama each and every year. The net result of which is that most 1st rounders are truly worth shit in their first year -- precisely because they sat themselves on the couch.
Case in point, Pollack. 1st rounder taken number 17 by the Bengals. Pollack held out until the pick before him signed. {defensive end Travis Johnson ($10.2 million, $7.242 million guaranteed)} and has now sat out while the pick following him has signed {defensive end Erasmus James ($9.8 million, $7.03 million guaranteed) at No. 18}. So its not like Pollack has no clue about the money awaiting him -- it is going to be mid-way between 10.2 and 9.8 -- or in simple math 10.0 Million, with 7.1 Million guaranteed. If he truly beleives he's getting money above that reach he (or his agent) is out of his (their) mind. In keeping with the trend of agents fucking up negotiations, one of the reason stated by his agents for him not being in camp -- a dispute over the "loyalty clause," which is a standard piece of language in many Bengal contracts. The rest is about money, plain and simple - with his agents asking for more in incentives and escalators than the #16 or #18 pick received. Its BS pure and simple and I'm glad that Lewis is telling them to go take a fucking hike.
Oh yes, who are his agents -- IMG agents Condon and Kremer who have had the most first-round holdouts — 13 of 30 clients — since 1995.
(For fairness it must be reported that the Bengals have had the most first round hold-outs 7 of 11 since 1995 of any NFL team in the same period of time).
Oh yes, and as for that loyalty clause -- the IMG agent explanation for any delay as of 8/15 -- it exposes signing bonus money if a player criticizes teammates, coaches or management. It is affectionally known around the Bengal clubhouse as "The Pickens Clause."
