Vincent Jackson wasn't traded by 4 PM today. Apparently the Vikings were all set to give a 2nd round pick and a conditional pick, and had agreed to a financial package with Jackson, but the Chargers wouldn't do it. For a team that seems to chronically underperform in the playoffs, the Chargers sure seem to be willing to tell players to stick it. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5604433
And the scum agents got off a good line, I think it was Feinsod who after complaining that the Chargers had multiple offers and scuttled them all said 'Archie Manning was right about this organization'.
You didn't finish the quote - he then said "There's a reason why AJ Smith is called the Lord of No Rings."
That's a good f'ing deal, too. a 2nd and a conditional from an 0-2 team with a QB that has looked like shit; how much more did he think he was going to get? now he'll get nothing.
lol, I didn't even hear that much - I forget whether it was PTI or SportsCenter that I heard the first part. Man those two deserve each other.
I'm guessing that two things happened here, first Smith didn't think he could construct a deal that guaranteed him much more than the 2nd. It's too easy on those conditional picks for the other club to do a wink-wink deal with the player, let him hit free agency for a millisecond and then re-sign him. I'm pretty sure this happened to us with Jonathan Vilma although my memory is a little bit hazy here. Secondly, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Smith and Spanos have decided to go all in against Schwartz and Feinsod to avoid having to deal with them in the future. The posture that Jackson took as a restricted free agent was really aggressive from the start, pushing the dollars much higher than they should have been and preventing the Chargers from getting either an offer sheet to match or the 1st and 3rd as compensation for losing Jackson. If Jackson had been a UFA he'd be signed right now and for a lot less than he was initially asking. The fact that he was an RFA masked the fact that he was just asking for way too much. Smith and Spanos have to have looked at this entire proceeding with a jaundiced eye, since it was virtually guaranteed to give them less in return for Jackson than they thought they were entitled to. I'm guessing they've decided to poke a finger in S&F's eye and drive them away from other Chargers they might target as clients. You know the entire Charger locker room is looking at Jackson right now and thinking that S&F screwed him.
If it didn't put the Chargers in a bad spot, I think what he did was awesome. I think its good for overbearing agents and a player who's too big for his britches to get f'd in the a once in a while. May not be good for the Chargers, but its good for the league.
I disagree, because Vincent Jackson has a good point. the Chargers tendered him at the lowest possible amount but then say he is more valuable than a second and a conditional. if that's the case, why won't they pay him more if he is worth that much in picks? Vincent Jackson is right in holding out, and I am confident that the players see that. The hypocrisy from the Chargers in how much they value him but how little they want to pay him only validates Jackson and makes the Chargers look bad.
The Chargers didn't tender Jackson at the lowest possible amount. They tendered him at the highest possible amount. Three months later they reduced the tender, as was their right, because Jackson neither signed it nor produced an offer sheet for them to deal with. He ignored the process from their point of view and they retaliated by making it impossible for him to ignore. All he had to do was go and get an offer sheet and all of this goes away, but due to his excessive demands and the fact that he was originally tendered at the highest possible amount nobody would bite on his tender. I completely understand him feeling screwed by the CBA opt-out and his resulting loss of unrestricted free agency. Everything bad that's happened to him since then is his fault though, and nobody else's. He'd be earning 3.286 million dollars this year if he'd just signed the tender. Many other players just signed their tenders when push came to shove. He'd be earning a lot more than that somewhere else if he'd just made a reasonable enough contract offer to somebody to make them not flinch at the 1st and 3rd compensation. Admittedly that would have been hard to do because any offer they made would come back to the Chargers who would match it, giving them Jackson's services at a reasonable rate. He's in hell right now because he and his team decided to play this like the CBA opt-out didn't happen. Earth to whomever is willing to step up and take responsibility for Vincent Jackson's future: it happened. Deal with it.
interesting. Did McNeil return for his original tender amount? Or did he return for the reduced tender I wonder? I would be very surprised if he returned for the reduced tender, but then again, I am surprised he was willing to suit up for either tender this season
Pretty sure he showed up for the reduced tender. Chargers played hardball and won. Screwed their own players over, sure, but they got him to sign for basically the minimum. Terrible holdout. Accomplished nothing and lost him money and 5 games of the season. Who's his agent? None other than Alvin Keels. Best known as Leon Washington's agent.
Terrible holdout, but I think if they signed him for the reduced tender they're making a mistake. If you were a player, would you ever consider going to this team? They seem to have absolutely no respect for their players, which seems to me isn't a very good way to do business.
