The New Orleans Saints have been one of the most talked about teams over the NFL offseason, and none of the talk has been good. The bounty scandal involving the team has left them without their head coach for the entire season, without their general manager and some assistants for portions of the season, and probably some players for parts of the season as well once those punishments are doled out by the NFL offices.
All of these are obviously no small matter and will no doubt hurt the Saints' chances to win this year. What I can't understand though, is why they have not yet re-signed Drew Brees. Brees is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, he has led the team to a Super Bowl championship after years and years of being a laughingstock franchise, and he is the unquestioned leader of not only the offense, but the entire team. Especially now, with all the uncertainty and controversy surrounding the team, their leader needs to step up and take the reins. Yet, for some reason unknown to seemingly everyone but the Saints front office, they are prepared to begin their offseason workouts without Brees.
Sure, we are still months away from Week 1, and there is still a long way to go before any games that matter will be played, but if there were ever a team and ever a time that leadership was needed, the team is the Saints, and the time is now.
NFL contracts are nothing like the contracts in other major sports. Albert Pujols just signed a 10 year, $254 million contract with the Anaheim Angels. No matter what, ten years from now, Pujols will still be making that money. If he gets hurt, he still gets paid. If his performance drops off, he still gets paid. Once he signed that dotted line, he was $254 million richer.
NFL contracts are nothing like that. First off, there is no way a team would sign any player to a ten year contract, no matter the position or the ability of the player, simply because the large majority of the players in the league do not play ten years, most don't even play half that many years. Second, NFL contracts are not guaranteed for the initial length the deal is signed for. If a player signed a 2 year contract, played 8 games the first season and the team decided they didn't want him, he would be released and that would be it. No more money for him no matter what his contract said he was supposed to be paid. The only money that NFL players can be sure they will receive is the guaranteed money that their contract says they will receive up front. When Michael Vick signed a 6 year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles worth $100 million before the start of last season, the general reaction was that of shock at the huge number. However, only $40 million of that money was guaranteed. Now granted, $40 million is still a ton of money, but it still left $60 million on the table that Vick might never have received.
Thus far, Vick has played out the first year of that contract, and earned the money that the contract stipulated he earn in the first year. However, he has another five years left to play in order to earn all of that money. The chances of that happening for any NFL player are not always good, and especially with Vick due to his style of play. So if Vick were to get hurt this year and not make it until next season healthy, then that's it. He keeps the money he had already earned, and the rest is lost.
This may not seem like a problem to most people, but the majority of the players in the league are not multi-million dollar star quarterbacks. The undrafted rookie that signs a contract for the league minimum ($355,000), goes to training camp, fights for a spot on the roster, suffers a serious injury and is unable to play, not only doesn't receive the money that was supposed to be alloted to him in his contract, but he has to go out and try to sign with another team or find another job with no guaranteed money, and what could be a serious injury to deal with as well. We don't hear about cases like these because those guys fighting for the last roster spot are unknowns compared to Brees and Vick, but there are far more cases like the anonymous undrafted rookie than there are like the superstar quarterback.
What I'm trying to say is, because Brees has done so much for the Saints organization, because he has been such a model citizen in New Orleans, because he brought the team its first ever Super Bowl championship, because he, as Pete Rose would say, "puts asses in the seats" every Sunday, he is one of the players that should be paid like the superstar that he is. No one outside of the Saints front office knows exactly how much money Brees has generated for the franchise, but it is unquestionably a number that contains the word "billion." The Saints are in a state of disarray right now, and more than any other team in the NFL, they need someone to lead the team through an unprecedented situation both on and off the field. The man for that job is Brees, and if they are so stubborn that they do not get a deal done, I will definitely not be the only one with no sympathy for the team, and the lack of "asses in the seats" will prove that point.
Daily Rangers Update: Leads of 1-0 and 2-1 didn't stand up, and a late goal in regulation led to overtime where Ottawa won. What I thought was a questionable game misconduct call on Brandon Dubinsky early in the first period sure didn't help matters. Carl Hagelin may also be facing a suspension for an elbowing call on Daniel Alfredsson. The series has already gotten heated, and now it's heading back to Ottawa tied 1-1. Game 3 is on Monday night in Ottawa. We need to win at least one of the next two games or else we are in big trouble. The situation is by no means dire yet, but a loss in Game 3 would not help matters. Let's Go Rangers!
Daily Diamondbacks Update: A wet, sloppy, twice rain-delayed mess of a game ended in heartbreak when Todd Helton hit a walk off homer in the bottom of the ninth. Josh Collmenter was bad, and the rain delay actually helped because he didn't come back out to pitch after that. Down 6-1, we came back to take a 7-6 lead, but sometimes great players just make great plays in big spots and that is what Helton did as the game ended 8-7. Trevor Cahill goes today against Drew Pomeranz, and hopefully we can get back in the win column before heading back home.
Daily Giants Update: Minicamp and the draft are around the corner, so aside from that, no news is good news for the defending champs.
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