What is happening in pro sports that players can now publicly berate their coaches and general managers for making personnel changes. I was under the impression that players play and coaches coach and the front office and ownership determined who comes and who goes and without having to get a prior "okay" from certain players on the team. Silly me, I must've fallen asleep and awakened in a different era of professional sports. If every team needed to get prior authorization from the players on the team whether or not to make a cut, execute a trade or acquire a player, it would be utter chaos with every team. It's no secret that the players on these teams have a certain camaraderie with some players and a less than cordial relationship with others, but that shouldn't be the determining factor when analyzing the team's personnel in building a winning club. This is the job of the general manager, with input from the coaching staff and ultimately the decision of the franchise owner. Sometimes, ownership decides to not get involved in football decisions, instead only managing the business as an investment. Not all NFL football owners understand how to recognize talent and how to manage rosters. There are some exceptions, Al Davis and Jerry Jones would be good examples of owners who are very "hands-on" with their football teams. Paul Allen of the Seattle Seahawks and Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots prefer to leave football decisions in the hands of the football experts. Even the influence that these owners do impart to their investment is done behind closed doors, in-house and not through the media. Just prior to the second preseason game, the Dolphins decided to release quirky, cocky, comedian wide receiver Chad Johnson. After several incidents that were unpopular with the Dolphins coach and front office, they had seen enough, on and off the field to determine that he was not going to fit in with the direction that Joe Philbin was taking the team. The Miami Dolphins are being chronicled by the popular HBO program "Hard Knocks" so we're getting an unusual look into team activities not usually exposed to the public. One of the ongoing sagas revolves around Chad Johnson, but not directly. Karlos Dansby decided to go on local radio in Miami and criticize the Dolphins front office for cutting Johnson without giving him the so-called "third strike" often used by authorities to determine whether a player should be given another chance or just give up. Joe Philbin and Jeff Ireland were particularly happy about the public nature in which this situation has been handled, and by one of his players choosing to appear in the media and criticizing his bosses for decision made for the team. When did it become the decision of the players? This is something that must be handled by the front office and no one else, otherwise risking a complete Civil War in the locker room and with the front office and ownership. This just can't happen, but apparently it is happening in this happening often. Jake Long, Karlos Dansby and Reggie Bush all requested a meeting with head coach Joe Philbin to discuss the Chad Johnson release. Philbin accepted the offer for a meeting between he and the three Dolphins players, and those players vented their frustration that they were not taken into consideration when Johnson was released. Unfortunately, Philbin doesn't carry the same reputation that Mike Holmgren, Mike Ditka, Bill Belichick or Bill Parcells, where these coaches make their decisions and that's that. There is no discussion, there is no uprising and there is no feeling that they can influence, or manipulate the coaching staff or anyone else in the front office. The way that things have evolved, players are now becoming more powerful because the money makes them so-called "legit" and for the elite players, if a coach goes up against the player of high stature, usually the coach goes, not a good player. I think this is bad for sports, it's bad for coaches and it's bad for the franchises to lose so much clout to primarily uneducated athletes that are paid inordinate amounts of money to play a game. Money = Power and Legitimacy, it's sad to say. That's how this society places people and organizations… If you bring the money, people will listen intently… I've already written about the unbalanced contract negotiation and leverage between players and teams, but all of this is just another symptom of the money making all the decisions.
Currently, there are two high profile NFL players choosing to hold out rather than play for the money they are currently signed under. Both players feel disrespected because of the number they are playing under, and believe they are not compensated for the talent and production that they bring to the stadium each week. Maurice Jones Drew is a running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is playing under a contract that has three more years remaining on it, but still wants his contract renegotiated because he feels he's underpaid for what he is doing for the team. Even though, he signed the three-year deal, he was the contract to reflect his contribution to the team, or in other words, "his production for the company has increased and now he wants to be compensated for his maturity and production level. What makes this a slippery slope is that, if MJD had a subpar season or maybe even a subpar performance throughout the entire four-year contract he signed a year ago, he was still demand to be paid as per the agreement he made with the team a year ago. This is a double standard and it seems like the players, through their managers, are calling all the shots and it is throwing the balance out of whack. Mike Wallace is a restricted free agent and was offered a franchise tender that would pay him an average salary of the five top wide receivers in the league, for one year. After that, Wallace would become an unrestricted free agent and could test the free-agent market for his value and then choose to stay with his current team or could take his talents on the road to another franchise that may choose to pay him more. It is a risk, either way, but what doesn't make sense for Mike Wallace is that he has been fined $30,000 per practice that he doesn't attend and he also waived a $100,000 bonus for reporting to training camp. If he decides to extend his holdout to the regular-season, he will be fine $30,000 per practice he misses, but in addition he will stop getting game checks, and that's where the big money starts. Maurice Jones Drew has less leverage than Wallace has. Because MJD has three more years remaining on his contract, if he decides to holdout through his contract, he will not only be three years older, but he will have lost millions and millions of dollars for games missed, training camp missed and other mandatory team activities. This is simply a pride move that can really be translated into a money issue. It always seems to boil down to the subject of money and it's an ugly part of the sport and one that I don't even like hearing about, nor do most of the fans. MJD has made disparaging remarks about Jaguars owner, Shawn Kohn and the owner has said things in the media that were probably best said in private with MJD, his agent and the rest of the Jaguars team members. I have to say that I respect what the Jaguars owner is doing. Jones signed a contract and that contract still has three years remaining on it. It might even be slightly more understandable if it was his final year of the contract and he was thinking about his near future, but what he is whining about now is that he signed a contract that wasn't equal with his talent. That's his fault, that's on him, it's not even on his agent. The agent can only negotiate a contract and helped his client get the best contract possible for his client. MJD obviously believed the contract was adequate or I presume he wouldn't have signed it. Well, you turn down a little better MJD, now it's time to play for your next contract, if that is possible. However, you will be three years older and there is no shorter NFL lifespan than running backs, without a doubt. Running backs simply do not have the leverage or the muscle to argue this one and win. However, what he doesn't understand is that he already won. He signed a four-year deal worth millions to play kids games at a high level, with countless opportunities of honor and the ability to set your family up financially for the rest of your lives if you do it smartly. He didn't start in very good running back, he was very average and worked his way to the player he was last year, however… The Jaguars only won in five games last year, so it's not like he's the difference between the playoffs and not. Quarterbacks make the difference, sometimes a dominant down lineman or a supreme corner or safety can demand more money and can make a huge difference in a game, but running backs are just not a hot commodity the way that the NFL has evolved into a passing league. The NFL franchises now that you must be able to move the football through the air, and running backs are simply not as important in that scheme as offensive lineman, wide receivers, tightends and of course quarterback. MJD simply needs to get better advice, and he is clearly not getting good advice from his agent. Either that, or he has a mentor that has advised him poorly and has left him out on a ledge with no one but his own pride. Now, he has held out throughout the preseason OTA's and mini-camps and nearly all of the preseason training camp. He has lost millions of dollars and will continue to lose money for the next three years unless he reports to camp or gets traded. Reportedly, the Jaguars are not interested in trading Jones. What they will get in compensation will probably not be worth losing a player like MJD. Even if there was a team interested, they probably wouldn't be able to work a deal for him any better than the Jaguars can. Every team has salary cap issues and theoretically if MJD did get traded, the team that acquired him would also acquire his contract that he is already unhappy about. They would have to redo his contract with three years remaining on the current one. This would likely create such a burden on any team willing to take him on, that it wouldn't be worth it. In addition to the contract implications and MJD's discontent with his current financial deal, the acquiring team would also have to give a very high draft pick to secure the best rushing running back in the NFL last year. This just doesn't look good for MJD, he doesn't appear to have any clout, no leverage and really zero juice to push the Jaguars owner around. Seemingly, Jaguars ownership says that they are not going to trade Jones and they simply will not redo his contract, absolutely not. He has three years remaining on his current contract, and any owner that would buckle down to players like MJD with so many years remaining on his deal, and the fact that he will be three years older at the end of the contract, it's just not worth it and he's not worth it. The sooner that MJD ends this, the sooner he will be able to save some of his pride. This is about saving face at this point, and MJD loses more and more the longer he digs his heels in. Now, MJD is just looking obstinate and the Jaguars are antagonizing the situation almost removing a way for MJD to come back to the team without being humiliated. Either way, they are creating a very tumultuous relationship with one another. Until one or both of these parties expends the olive branch, this could go deep into the regular season and that we… They both lose a lot.
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