"Under Contract"

[FishFreak]

With the TO fiasco last year, player holdouts and the Branch situation, I'm really tired of the media and other people dissing players by always saying such and such is "under contract". Contracts are constantly being restructured in the salary cap era to properly manage a teams best interest. Players who get injured, under perform or have high salaries are always asked to "restucture" deals usually back ending money they will never see or risk getting cut. However, when a player outperforms his current deal and wants to be compensated fairly by getting a better deal all of a sudden he's greedy. Remember, NFL players don't have guaranteed contracts and receive little flexibility with their deals. That's why they always try to get the biggest signing bonus, highest amount of guaranteed money and reasonable length contracts. So don't be fooled by those big 10 year 100 million dollar deals signed by megastars. Players rarely see all of that money. A good example of this was Steve McNair earlier this year. The Titans owed him a high salary they probably back ended in his deal he refused to restructure. All of a sudden the Titans realized they had to get rid of him to sign up rookie free agents and manage their cap. Keep in mind McNair was their franchise QB and face of that franchise for years. It's just a brutal meat market business for NFL players. Keep that in mind before you bash Branch for trying to get the money other franchises are willing to pay him.

[Randall]

NFL players don't have guaranteed contracts

 

Are you sure about that?

 

Don't be fooled. When was the last time you got $1 million a year to play a game you loved?

 

Or heard this "$15 Million is an insult. I can't feed my family on $5 miilion a year".

 

Branch can play out his contract and then become a FA. People do that all the time in the real world.

 

I'm on players side ssometimes, but take it one player at a time.

[NoSupe4You]

I think that it should be a players right to hold out under contract.... at a penalty of the portion of their contract guaranteed money prorated to the time they spent holding out.

[keggerz]

Contract is a loose term in the NFL

[Randall]

I think that it should be a players right to hold out under contract.... at a penalty of the portion of their contract guaranteed money prorated to the time they spent holding out.

 

 

 

Can the team hold out money if you under perform your contract. Shouldn't all this be negotiated under the league/players collective bargaining agreement? Or should we all get rid of the union?