There is no way that the Rams and Donald are in this together or on equal footing.
The Rams hold all the cards. Donald has nothing to do but withhold his services in defiance of his contract terms.
Donald belongs to the Rams until the final 2 years of his contract are fulfilled or he retires. So far, for Donald, that 2 year time period has yet to start. And the last I checked he's not retired from football.
This even handed idea is so wrong minded that it is difficult to state. Donald is refusing to honor a current contract that he and his agents signed. Why? He simply wants more money. And, if the speculation is correct, he wants it not only in the amount but in the structure that he wants it.
The contract only gives him the "right" to do what he's doing in the sense that we are not a slave nation so Donald can't be coerced to work. Rather, monetary damages are involved in the form of fines and withholding pay since he's refusing to fulfill his legal contract obligations.
Can you imagine hiring a contractor to paint your house and then he does such a great job that halfway through it he demands more money or he won't finish the job? His rationale? He's proven in his own eyes that he's the best painter on the planet; the house looks incredible. Therefore despite the contract that he and you signed, he just feels that in comparison to other painters, he's better and so wants to be paid better. So until you agree to pay him more to complete the job, he's just not going to show up. You have a half painted house but somehow the ethics of it all plays no role in the painter's mind.
Donald is fully in the wrong. The Rams are fully in the right.
But, apparently when it comes to sports, personal ethics and contract legalities take a back seat towards emotional feelings towards guys who play professional sports. Rather, some subjective terms like "outplayed his contract" are employed to rationalize why a guy refuses to honor his legal contract.
The idea of "outplaying" your contract is an oxymoron. There's no contract condition about how good you are supposed to play. You are to give your all and play to the best of your ability. In the lottery sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In the draft lottery the Rams won a guy who played really really well. He's supposed to if he can.
And there's nothing in the contract (unless specific performance incentives were included) that obligates the Rams to adjust his pay simply because he did his job very well. And, they also have no right to lower his pay if he doesn't. They can only cut him and depending on the language of guaranteed money and bonuses, eat the loss.
This is the deal. The equivalent unethical practice for the Rams compared to what Donald is doing would be to cut a player who was owed a good amount of guaranteed money and the Rams refuse to pay it because he just didn't play to their liking. Or they refuse to allow a player who is under contract to report to work, and then don't pay him for not working. All the while not cutting him loose to gain employment elsewhere.
But, such is the mental and moral state of too many folks today. A contract is only as good as the lawyers who fight over it and the money it takes to litigate it. A man's word means nothing; even a signed contract means nothing. If someone feels they're worth more, then certainly it is the greedy company that won't pay them as much as they want that is automatically at fault. I don't buy it and it's not like AD didn't have proper representation from the start. So he certainly wasn't taken in by the Rams.
Be a man Donald. Be an ETHICAL man. Show up for work. Continue to play hard. In 2 years you'll probably become an extremely wealthy athlete.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2017 02:45AM by RockRam.
