Quote
jemach
Why?
People keep talking about the accrued season.
Well, if you're Aaron Donald, who cares when he knows they have the franchise tag available another two seasons. The Rams can underpay him, including this season, for three more years. So...he comes in by 8/8...he still is underpaid...he still has the possibility of the tag on him for two more years.
AND, without a new deal, he risks getting no contract if he gets hurt being paid as without a doubt, the most underpaid player in pro football.
If I'm going to sit out a season, it's this season. And if he sits, and goes to another team via trade, he will easily make up the $6 million he is being paid this year.
And if the Rams decide to keep him from playing pro football and not trade him, I think the players would revolt for him...team mates and other league players.
If the difference is $4 million, there should be a resolution. Heck...increase the guarantee.
I agree with your general take on this. On the red bit: they don't even need a player revolt (though mismanaging the locker room is a possible bad outcome of this). In fact star players do tend to get traded when they demand trades this way. No team is so imperious and blind that they just spitefully sit on a player under those circumstances out of some misguided "must discipline labor" idea. The pressure is on them to trade---you miss the player on the field, and are getting nothing for him in return. That;s why no one can name examples of a star player demanding a trade who did NOT get traded. Not to my knowledge anyway (though maybe there's a rare exception out there somewhere but I doubt it). It sounds good (to some) from the stands to say "punish the player!" but once you're in the management seat that whole idea takes on the status of a fan fiction.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2018 04:09AM by zn.