Quote:
i always find it amusing when athletes want to "tear up" their contract and get more money because they are doing awesome on the field, yet when they are performing poorly or not playing at all, because of injury or other matters, they don't offer to renegotiate or diminish their contract.
i'm not saying that they should or that even i would, but it just strikes me as funny the way that athletes want to be rewarded, but not punished or downgraded in their money situation.
|
doesn't the fact that the team has the right to cut him at any time without compensation outweigh or at least balance the fact he can ask for more when he does well?
pan, you're right that players like this don't really put that many people in the stands, but it still happens indirectly IF the player is successful: the iggles win more, sell more tickets and jerseys (and parking and food), get bigger tv and radio contracts, more local endorsements, and more money. it's a little weird to figure where the individual player comes in, but given that teams have a fixed amount they can spend, productively using that money would conceivably pay dividends. a lot of the interest in the team shows up in presold tickets. your basketball and baseball comparisons, while true, are slightly different because you get 41 and 81 games a year. football has 8 regular season games. carlos beltran signs in new york, and not a whole lot of people will up and buy 81 baseball tickets for them and their family (corporate tickets could be another thing entirely). if a team signs a big free agent or gets a big draft pick in football, that might play out a little better.
Quote:
|
But again, he is the one who agreed to the contract
|
this is the hypocrisy i'm talking about. he's not the ONE that agreed to the contract. he's one of the two, the other being the team. if the team wasn't happy with the bargain they made, they could put him out on his ass without any additional cost to them. why shouldn't he have the right to ask for more then?
i think football is so different from other sports because of 1) non guaranteed contracts, 2) the cap, and 3) the increased physical nature of the game that probably leads to more career-risking injuries. in baseball, you sign for below mkt value, you play below mkt value. you sign above mkt value, you're the overpaid albatross of a contract that destroyed your team's financial flexibility. same in hoops. deals are guaranteed and don't get reworked except in rare cases (john smoltz, for example, lowered his salary for this year in exchange for two extra years being tacked onto his deal).