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Rams43
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dzrams
There isn't really a boom to lower. Once the season starts, the period for fines is over.
They obviously won't pay him if he's not playing. That's it.
This comes down to, is AD willing to go the distance and not get a paycheck. At some point, he has to show up though so his contract isn't tolled.
The Rams don't have any cards to play on any of those issues though.
Here's what I meant by my lower the boom reference, dz.
If AD continues to hold out into the regular season, that is.
Enforce the fines 100%.
No renegotiation talks until next offseason. Period.
Pay him only for games he actually plays (minus fines).
Publicly seek trade talks. Execute one if it's advantageous.
"Leak" a few details of the contract offered to AD that he rejected.
Rinse and repeat next offseason, if necessary.
They should not, under any circumstances, even hint that they want to cave to this extortion.
The time for worrying about hurt feelings will be past. Teach AD and his danged agents a painful and expensive lesson about negotiation hardball when one side has all the leverage. A lesson so severe that few will be tempted to try something like this in the future.
Yeah, it will probably alienate AD to the point that he no longer wants to be a Ram. Oh, well... For all practical purposes, he isn't one currently, anyway.
Send him the message.
There are bigger issues at stake here than whether AD plays for this team this year, or not.
That's one way to go. If they think that they won't be able to work anything out with him, that's probably the way to go.
But if there is a chance they can work things out, it smacks of an emotional overreaction.
I've read reports from player agents that the reasons teams don't usually do this is because, when you have a great player, who is viewed as a leader, all of the other players are watching how the team treats him.
Why do you think the Rams are going out of their way to be respectful?
You mention bigger issues. That is absolutely right.
Probably the biggest from a business perspective is how it would hurt the Rams future team building efforts. Good luck on attracting free agents after such a play.
Other considerations. If you poison the well with you player, you sabotage his trade value. At some point, the relationship will become irreparably broken. When that happens, teams will circle the wagon like sharks. Good luck getting a 1st at that point.
Emotional strategies such as this usually backfire.
