Do contracts matter anymore?

[TheGameHHH]

In the wake of today's NFL events I began to ponder this concept. Do contracts really matter? Let's face it, people hold out all the time. If I sign a 5 year $55 million dollar deal with team X and I play well, I might hold out in 2010 for a better deal. We see it with top names every single year. I am of the opinion that if you sign your name on a piece of paper and commit to a club, telling them i'll be here with you for X amount of years and you'll pay me X amount of dollars, then you should honor that agreement. What say you?

[underdog]

That's fine, but in a sport like the NFL, nothing is guaranteed. Why honor a contract that the company may not honor?

[cougarjake13]

this only seems to happen in the nfl


and its prob b/c of the non guaranteed contracts




i always wondered what kind of production we'd get from players if ther pay was based on their production and looked at after the season


so lets say they all get a base salary throughout the season so they can pay bills and what not and then once the season is over see what their numbers are and maybe have certain thresholds equal a raise in pay

[TheGameHHH]

That's fine, but in a sport like the NFL, nothing is guaranteed. Why honor a contract that the company may not honor?

yea, this topic is pretty much supposed to be NFL specific. Right then, so why not just all sign one year deals? if nobody is guarenteed anything why commit anywhere for more then a year?

[cougarjake13]

yea, this topic is pretty much supposed to be NFL specific. Right then, so why not just all sign one year deals? if nobody is guarenteed anything why commit anywhere for more then a year?



for the illusion of security i guess

[TheGameHHH]

for the illusion of security i guess

and thats so fucking silly to me

[west milly Tom]

Free agentry ruined football, which is the only sport that counts.

[underdog]

yea, this topic is pretty much supposed to be NFL specific. Right then, so why not just all sign one year deals? if nobody is guarenteed anything why commit anywhere for more then a year?

They basically are one year deals. The real money for most players is the signing bonus. The contract is secondary to what they can get up front.

[weekapaugjz]

its annoying as shit to me. with the bills, jason peters held out until week 2 or something to get a new contract even though he had just signed one the previous year. when he came back, he was playing like shit. false starts and holding calls in almost every year. then for some ungodly reason, he was voted into the pro bowl, giving him more of a reason to hold out again this season for more money and a new contract.

[cougarjake13]

and thats so fucking silly to me

it is but its neccessary


try to imagine being a gm where every year you have to resign all 53 players or make trades or new deals

[TheGameHHH]

it is but its neccessary


try to imagine being a gm where every year you have to resign all 53 players or make trades or new deals

i feel like we're moving closer to that as every season passes

[STC-Dub]

It is most prevalent in football because of the non-guaranteed contracts. A lot of the problem has to do with agents and the way the media reports contracts. A contract is reported for the full total and length when all that really matters is the bonus -- the guaranteed part, but it sounds more impressive if a player signs a 5 year $60,000 contract than the reality -- it is 5 years with a 12 million bonus with the 4t, 5th and 6th years with high salaries that will never be paid.

Now, I am of the opinion that if you sign a contract it should be honored but honestly the NFL teams don't honor contracts so why should the players? I do think the NFL keeps players more motivated than baseball and basketball where the players get paid no matter what -- I am looking at you Stephon Marbury.

[IMSlacker]

They basically are one year deals. The real money for most players is the signing bonus. The contract is secondary to what they can get up front.

I think the teams get to prorate the signing bonuses over the length the contract for salary cap purposes, so that's the reason for the multi-year contracts even though only the signing bonus is guaranteed. So, basically, when a player holds out, he's saying he wants another signing bonus to come back and play, which seems sort of shitty.

[STC-Dub]

The signing bonus is prorated across the length of the contract for salary cap purposes, but the deals are usually structured so the base salary for the first 2-3 years is low.

[STC-Dub]

Which is why you will usually see players/teams willingly renegotiate contracts after three years. It saves the teams money to give another bonus now in order to get out of the big salary cap number of the base salary on the old contract.