It's not over 50%. The local marketing deals are exempt from any form of revenue sharing that reaches the players. The NFLPA has again allowed a weak national marketing deal that is shared to shield the far more lucrative private marketing deals from being included in player compensation. Baseball, by comparison, has 58%+ of ALL revenues guaranteed to the players although in practice in the last two years the percentage has reached close to 60%. If not for the luxury tax that the high spending teams pay to the low spending teams the number would have been above 60%. There's just no argument for the current system in the NFL. The league's success means nothing. Any time you give management largely unfettered control over the workforce businesses do better. The workforce does worse.
Look at the premise of his agrument. "So it's OK for me to take a pay cut with three years remaining on my deal, but it's not OK for me to get a raise with three years left?" That is why it is called a contract - Both parties agree to the terms. If you and your agent are too stupid to get it in writting then it is your fault.
The salary cap is based on Gross revenues of Ticket sales, merchandise sales and revenue from broadcasts. This is the Defined Gross revenues. In 03 the players got a maximum of 64.25% of that figure and the minimum a team could spend on salaries was 56% of that figure. The NFL has the largest broadcast revenue by far of any league. Unlike Baseball the NFL has a system of real parity or parady if you prefer. Weak teams are treated much the same as strong teams but the players are protected by a minimum and they are capped by a maximum spend. The argument for the current system is it works for the entire league and revnue continues to go up because the appeal across the nation remains high because every team has a reasonable shot to compete. It's not a perfect system, none of them are and many players, particularly mediocre, old and hurt players will get screwed, but that's the deal the players negiotated and while it may not be fair to some players and some owners, it's the deal they signed onto.
Bottom line here: Kendall signed the deal last year. Be a man, and uphold the bargain. It ain't like he's making vet minimum, either. No pay system is perfect, I think we can all agree. Kendall was hurt for at least two games last year, so we essentially didn't get his services. Did the Jets knock on his door asking for 1/8 of his 2006 salary back? No. Should they have. No. But did we get the value of Kendall for those two games? No. I think, too, Kendall needs to understand that just because some guards are now making a ton, he shouldn't necessarily think it's applicable to him. The reason Dockery or Steinbach broke the bank is because they are ~5-7 years younger than Kendall and their deals reflect the performance they will generate in 3-4 years. Kendall will be retired over the next 3-4 years. If he looked at what 34-year-old guards are making generally, his salary may be right in line. Especially in the context of what he made last year, as Biggs pointed out.
This is his strategy and it's totally classless. It's also stupid, because by going public with his bullshit, he puts the Jets in the difficult position of having to cave in publicly or else be held hostage to the public whining and derogatory HC remarks. Mike Tannenbaum is NOT about to go along with this and allow this to become an example of how to negotiate with management, especially since Kendall has now publicly attacked and dissed Mangini personally. So, to a large extent, everything that Kendall is now doing is counterproductive to what he wants to accomplish. Tanny doesn't want to set a precedent with this, so I can almost guarantee you now that Kendall has signed his own walking papers. I hope he doesn't show up for TC... nobody's gonna want to see his sorry ass out there on the field. The Jets need to remain positive, not have this guy whining to the reporters out in front of the chow hall about how he's been screwed.
Everything you say is right but the problem is he does not want to be with the team bc he knows he is not going to get his $$$ here. He is going to try to be as big as a distraction as possible so he can get cut as soon as possible. He obviously feels he can get more $$ elsewhere. However he has to walk a tight rope...too much shennanegans may get him less on the open market.
There have got to be ways for the Jets to deal with this kind of nonsense. It becomes nothing short of extortion after awhile... "Pay me more money or I'll embarrass the coaching staff, the FO and the entire organization." That's not the mesage you want to send to the other players. If the Jets have already reached a decision and the answer is "no" to renegotiations, then Tannenbaum or somebody else other than Mangini, who will have to see him on a daily basis pretty soon, needs to call Kendall into the office and lay the law down with him. "Hi Pete. Nice to see you. Have a seat. Here's the deal Pete. The answer is no. You're going to report to TC and practice with everyone else or lose money. Then you're going to play for us this season or we'll bench you and you won't get paid. Furthermore, keep running to the press and we'll consider you in breach of your contract under provisions so-and-so and articles such-and-such, which state you cannot be a disruptive influence to the organization on or off the field and/or cause or be a party to behavior that's deliberate and detrimental to the NY Jets organization or anyone in it. Thanks for stopping by, Pete, and I'm glad we had this little talk. See you in August. You're dismissed."
That would work for me. A few other secnarios could be, if we really wanted to do him dirty we could say: "All right Pete, you win. As long as you are a good boy in TC we will give you a little boost at the begining of the season." Then, after all the rosters are complete and all the playeres know their schemes, release him just prior to the first game to be snatched up at Vet minimum. Unless we can otherwise get something in return for him, of course. Honestly, I would not have a problem paying him and making him sit out as second string just to devalue him. If he is still a distraction couldn't we put him on practice squad, or claim he is not in good shape since skipping workouts and black list him like we did to McCariens last year? Whatever we do (unless we can get value), they should make an example of him. He is dumb bc he does not have as much leverage as he thinks. If the Jets want to be creative they can make things pretty miserable for him.
Yes they can, but the practice squad is not an option. There are eligibility requirements for such that he has long since lost. But as you said, if they want to be vindictive they could certainly make his life miserable. The question then becomes how would other players view the Jets FO for taking such a tact....
My opinion is that it would set the tone for the organization in that players should think three times before they try to play hardball with the Jets. On the flip side, players may be less willing to make concessions to give the team relief.
Maybe Mangini learned a thing or two from Tony Soprano while he was on the set. For now, kiss Kendall's ass and make him feel like we're working on it and everything is cool. Then "clip" him right before the season starts.
I'm so tired of reading about his whining: "WAAAAAHHH! I'M ONLY MAKING ONE MILLION DOLLARS PLAYING A FOOTBALL GAME INSTEAD OF TWO MILLION! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" It's not the end of the world... just cut him already.
My only viewpoint on this is as follows: If this were the corporate world, with people making salaries like this, and someone tried a stunt like this, 1) Others would laugh at him, and 2) No one would ever do business with him again. Some NFL players forget that they are in fact employed at the whim of the businesses that employ them, exactly the same way that others are employed in other businesses. They agree to contracts that have penalties built in if they should opt to not perform to the pre agreed standards. If money was his concern last year, then he should not have agreed to the terms in his contract. Yeah, it's not a 'nice' thing to do, holding up money that a team needs, but guess what? It's work. It's a job where you're getting paid to perform at a high level, where you're making CEO level money every year, and you are expected to be a professional. If you're 34 and still too stupid to understand this, then you should be eternally grateful that you even had 12 years in the NFL to pick up such huge paychecks, because you're demonstrating the technical skills of a layman. Kendell is a smart man. He probably knows all this, and doesn't care. Why not take what the media will sensationalize and run with it if it nets you an extra $1.3 million? For him, it is not an earnest puppy dog sad face over his situation, but more than likely a smooth ploy to make the world sympathize with his 'terrible' situation. Mr. Kendall, kindly leave the grounds. You were my favorite lineman until this stunt. I'd rather go 4-12 than 12-4 if it means we have to put up with these silly antics, and draft a classy guard next year.
cant really argue on the first part. teams ask players to help reduce cap hits by redoing contracts in order to help the team.....and guys that want to be around with that team do it. the fact that we have more cap space now and (i think) its argreed that he is underpaid, he should get rewarded for helping the team.... but the loyalty line? come on man.....everbody and their mother knows that theres no loyalties in the No Friggin Loyalty league.
Most times when the player restructures they get a signing bonus so he actually got more $$$ last year than he was scheduled to get.
You know the more I hear from Kendall, the more I think that it was him who threw Chad under the bus a few years back and not Mawae. Did they ever find out who actually made the "he's like an egg back there" comments? I'd be interested to know
