Patriots Franchise Tag the New Scarlet Letter to Wilfork
“It’s decent money for most people out there, what I do, it’s okay. But I don’t look at myself as an okay player…It’s just basically a slap in my face and an insult to me to basically tell me I’m an okay player.” ~ Vince Wilfork
Welcome to the Wonderful World of whining all-stars and incessant PR nightmares that is the everyday life of an NFL General Manager. Your job is quite literally the envy of nearly every warm-blooded American man who falls-to-sleep dreaming of buying their home team and watching your new employees go all the way to the Super Bowl and bring home the Lombardi trophy for you, your father, and every single person you grew up with, with that same love of the world’s greatest game.
However, your reality is quite a bit different from this dream world. Your world is filled with headaches ranging from vendors in the stadium arguing over who gets to be placed in the location with the best view of the Patriots’ cheerleaders, all the way to having an entire fan-base enraged with you for sticking to your choice of offensive coordinator after a couple of highlight-friendly, disastrous calls doomed your team in last Sunday’s game against your hated rival. Life is hard.
And then, as if this were not enough to drive an entire nation’s government insane, you have the players. Ultra-talented athletes who, on paper at least, are your employees. However, when it comes to what their paychecks will read, they are employer, employee, agent, judge, jury, executioner, director, executive producer and overbearing stage mom. Their primary objective, after draining every possible dime out of your business through a pompous agent fluent in both cash-clauses and hyperbole, is to make you look positively despicable to the fans of your franchise. And, almost 100 percent of the time, they’re able to flip the good guy/bad guy question both on its head as well as in their favor so quickly and effectively you’re usually left wondering if that moment of pure joy that was shared between the team’s supporters and your co-workers when you made the final call to draft that player just a few years ago was completely imagined; How does this happen? How is it that these highly-paid, overly-muscular, needlessly-outspoken participants of a game are able to villain-ize you while painting themselves the victims with such flawless and ruthless precision? The answer is quite simple, but must be broken down into two parts.
GET PAID
Number One, first and foremost: “It’s all personal.” According to Asante Samuel, Philadelphia cornerback and former teammate of Wilfork’s: “I don’t think they care about you in my opinion. They didn’t care about me. So, do what’s best for you and your family.”
Those biting criticisms were tossed in the Patriots’ management’s direction because of New England’s use of the franchise tag on Samuel in 2007. Apparently, one of the ways to show how little you care about a player is to average the top five salaries in the NFL at his position, then pay him that new, exponentially higher amount for one-year’s service. ‘Sure sounds like a rotten deal to me; concocted by people who don’t like me.’ Ridiculous.
The most frustrating thing about the now-nearly-universally negative reaction to the team “franchise player,” is that the players and their union helped dream it up! The players wanted some avenue to pursue money in these situations where they reached the end of their contracts, and it was nice for their teams to be able to accomplish a no-nonsense one-year agreement when necessary. But, it is a very different story now.
The second, and most important part of the NFL players’ stranglehold on general fan approval is: “It’s all business; always.” Are you confused yet? Then let’s explore this further!
Now, I want you to think back to the last time a player you liked a great deal was a free agent. Maybe it was a long time ago, but I’m sure you can do it.
Remember Johnny Damon at his Yankees press conference, mere months after stating unequivocally that he would never, COULD never, sign with the Red Sox’ most hated rival.
Remember Brett Favre? A league-full of choices in front of him, but always knowing there was something that was going to be wrong about any helmet of his that wasn’t green and yellow.
Remember Jason Bay? His parents wanted him to be a Red Sox. He had said before that he was happy being in Boston. But, he left. Bound for the lesser of two Empire-State evils because the Mets made him an offer that was ultimately more essential than the warm-and-fuzzies that his family and he got from playing in ancient Fenway: the almighty, all-powerful, makes the world-go-round, championship-buying, morals-forsaking dollar.
Like these guys have been saying (half the time, anyway), it’s only business. “Don’t hate us, folks! While we play a game for a living, this is still a business.” So true. Well, that is, until it’s the players that are already under contract. In that case, the owners are expected to immediately revert back to “our company is a family” mode, where practical business is tossed aside in order to embrace a more whimsical approach to running an NFL team.
I, for one, refuse to buy it anymore. These greedy players are backtracking and stomping all over what was partially their own idea. Since owners are basically helpless in this ongoing argument, it’s up to the fans to stop treating it like rational thought. Players simply cannot be all for the company family in one breath, and 100% for their own bottom lines the next. Can’t have it both ways. Not anymore, at least.
I believe the Patriots have no choice but to “slap” Vince Wilfork with the franchise tag this season. Since there is certainly no way to get him to sign a contract that pays him SLIGHTLY out-of-control money (Wilfork will no doubt be looking for a contract that is in the top two or three defensive tackles in the game), then hit him with the extension that you are absolutely entitled to. If he really dislikes it, he can sit out the season and then have to do it all over again. Franchise him, and don’t look back. It’s all business, baby!
By the way, this has to be done not only to show that players’ whining won’t affect how ownership deals with players’ contracts, but also because the New England Patriots need Vince Wilfork in the worst kind of way to anchor a young and improving defense if they want anything resembling a realistic shot at a Super Bowl next season. Just, whatever you do, don’t let him know this…
2 Responses to “Patriots Franchise Tag the New Scarlet Letter to Wilfork”
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Great post. I get sick of hearing players complain about getting paid more for one season than 80% of people will make in a lifetime. However, the NFL owners and management are just as bad because they can cut a player at any time or when they do have a star player actually about to play out his back loaded contract they suddenly need to “rework” it so that it is “best for the team” (see Antrell Rolle in Arizona).
Wow Fatass Wilfork needs to stfu! None of these idiots would be anything if the team didn’t give them the chance and provide them the caliber of talent around them to win championships.
This is just like when Papelbon was bitching about his salary. Well lets go back 3-4 years and take to you back when you were in Triple A, offer you a 5-6 year deal and they take it…then cry about it? They would’ve killed for these deals a few years earlier.
I agree stop bitching about no one caring about you when you really only care about the $$.