No, because in real life there are positions other than "take the first offer" and "hold out till you get what you want". If both sides engaged in good faith discussions on value and came to a compromise that would be ideal, but if they are close then it is the player who is taking a risk by not moving the last few yards to an agreement. The risk for the team comes after a deal is done.
I don't think anybody is saying that a player should take whatever is offered to him. That is up to the player depending on what his situation is. In Leon's case he screwed up by rejecting FOUR MILLION a year. He will not be making Four Million a Year anytime soon. The Leon situation is different from the Revis situation. Relle is bound by a contract to play. Darelle can sit around refusing to play all he likes, that just means he is in breach of his contract and doesn't get paid and that he incurs fines. He can not play this year, next year or the year after that - its his choice. Meanwhile - the world goes on w/o him.
I agree that Leon should have taken the deal offered, since it was reasonable one. What I DON'T know is whether the Jets have offered Revis a reasonable deal. And the fact that Leon didn't take the deal is not the lesson the players are talking about. The lesson they are talking about is that the Jets said they would deal with his situation after the season, he came to play without a new contract, he got hurt, was unprotected, and lost out. Now, OF COURSE if the Jets offered Revis an amount he should take since it was reasonable, by definition he should take it. But Revis seems to think he should get more than has been offered. Is he wrong? I really don't know. But if you are him, and you think you are right about what has been offered, Leon's case does offer a lesson - don't come to camp, to pre-season, to the regular season, play and risk injury, cause if that happens, you will be out of luck.
You are underselling him, he was a huge part of our offense and a weapon we missed last year when he was hurt and will miss this year. That is called negotiating, if you want $5 mil you don't ask for $5 mil, you ask for more. Have you followed the Jets and their good faith negotiating over the last 5-6 years? Can you blame a player for being a little skeptical? Again, the salary is almost meaningless. It's the guaranteed money. he could get $20 mil a year but if he gets hurt and they cut him he sees none of that where the guaranteed money he gets regardless. The Jets went to revis after the season and he has seen other players that were promised to be taken care of and have not been. He has 3 years left but the Jets created this mess.
Again, no doubt is there a cost to Revis if he sits. But it is more than that the world goes on without him if that happens. If he sits the Jets' odds of winning the SB take a big hit. Losing your best player and getting nothing in return is not good. It is not the same as the world going on (unchanged) without him. There would be a cost to the Jets, too. I understand how the fans just want this controversy to go away. I do, too. But I will not pretend that the team's best chance to really get somewhere that we have seen in a long time is not going to be affected if he sits, because it will be, and if the Jets fall short this year, come close but don't quite make it, I will not be happy.
The Jets don't have to offer Revis a deal - Revis already has a deal, he is just refusing to play and is breaching the contract that he signed. Leon chose not to agree to a new contract w/the Jets, he took his chances and he lost. He should have gotten the guaranteed money. But he chose to roll the dice and he lost. Leon's case offers no lessons for Revis. Revis has a contract and is refusing to play. He will not get paid. Leon at least got paid. Revis can sit out for the next 3 seasons and not get paid if he wants to. If he doesn't want to get paid, thats up to him.
Good post. I've been wondering exactly what the Revis offers have been. We keep hearing numbers in the $10 - 12 million range, but nothing firm. We even had that report of $100 million in total money, but no specifics. $12 million per seems reasonable to me, and if that's the number and Woody is balking on increasing the signing bonus, I think we'll see him move a bit soon. If Revis really is demanding $16 million per season, it will (and should) drag on. As far as Leon, the more that comes out, the more it feels like he was trying to get his money first because he KNEW that not everyone could be re-signed. He put himself in a position to either get an excessive payday and remain a Jet or look like he got screwed, and people are falling for it, players included. The truth is, he really shouldn't have been signed prior to dealing with the core four. He knew that, and asking for too much money was a great way to get out of town and slap this franchise in the face.
Someone made a good point on 1050 yesterday, I think it was Peter King. If you're the Jets ownership and you've built a new stadium, aggressively sold PSLs, priced out half your fanbase and jacked up the tickets for those who remained, how do you open your new stadium on MNF and say "oh by the way, we can't afford to pay our best player". Made sense to me, I think Revis has leverage from that standpoint and the fact that the Jets have loaded up to try and win this year.
If Revis sits for the whole year he'd incur about $2.4M in fines plus losing his salary for the year. That's a big cost for him. He also could very well cost the team a championship. I'm sure that'd cost him a lot of respect around the league if he sits the year.
We missed him last year because we didn't have that 3rd down / change of pace back. We didn't miss him on special teams. We have replaced him with McKnight for 2010. So, it's only negotiating on the player's side? The Jets offered him $4 mil but Leon was stubborn and stuck on getting paid $6 million / year.
Have you ever considered that taking the statements of players at face value can be just as misleading as taking the statements of the team at face value? You seem awfully certain that we have no idea whether reports of offer money are true, but you're immediately ready to believe that the Jets are making promises to players that they don't follow up on simply because a player's camp says so. Take Revis. Reports initially come out that he's looking for $16 million per season. He claims that's ridiculous. How do we know he's the one being honest?
Big cost but in the big picture not really. If he were to get injured that cost would be a spit in the ocean without a new contract. He's made 16 million not including endorsements, which Nike is about to launch a big Revis campaign. Which I also find interesting, will Nike want him if he's not playing?
Oh well. I guess the Jets will have to win a SB without Revis then. He refuses to play football. He refuses to honor his contract. If your happiness is contingent on the Jets winning the SB - I feel sorry for you. One player no matter how good he is - is not more important than the team. Relle is under contract and is in breach. Thats how he chooses to handle his business. Maybe he comes back, maybe he doesn't. If you think the Jets are supposed to roll over and make stupid financial decisions everytime one of these primma donnas holds out - that is your opinion.
No, he's not just refusing to play. He's using the only leverage he has in the NFL. You can fault him for seeking too much money if you believe reports about the offers, but it's awfully tough to fault him for thinking he's outplayed his contract. There's no guarantee that he'll be able to get a new one when this one is out. There are far too many factors involved to treat an athletic contract like a standard one.
If there's no football next year it's a big cost. Can Revis afford to to loose $3.5M (salary + fines) and not receive a salary next year as well? Can Revis afford to have a net loss of $2.5M in income for two years (of course endorsements can change that, but if he's not playing who'd want him to endorse their product?)? Either way, I'm sure he's bound to lose a lot of respect. Players may not care what the fans think of them, but they sure do care what their peers think of them. Players aren't too concerned with it right now, but if it has a negative effect on the team in the season or playoffs, you better bet the players will care.
Easily. You open the season and win the game. Revis can watch it on TV and whine about how we should feel sorry for him. The fact is that in this recession with millions of people unemployed, the spectre of a pampered millionaire refusing to play football and breaching his contract unless he is pd 16 million a yr is not going to garner alot of sympathy.
At the same time, it makes this fan feel used by Revis in this negotiation. He has three years and $21M left on his contract that has already made him $16M. He is leveraging my 40+ years of desire to win a super bowl to make him richer. I realize I'm probably in the minority on this point but I don't like being used in this way.
