Blowing It Scenario #49-NFL Players Negotiating Their Own Contracts.

A Failure To Recognize And Value Their Worth To the Fullest Potential.

Their are two sides to this equation. One side is with the player. It’s noble that they have taken full ownership of their body and their business. They have shirked the middle man agent and produced results on their own terms. It’s a real life lesson in self reliance, it’s bold and respectable. On the other side of the equation you have players who sole focus is just the on sport the were meant to play, and they want no other distractions from the talent that was bestowed upon them. So they leave the business side to the professionals, who have trained in this arena for years and who’s talent is to know how to best maximize a players abilities and to seek the highest value for them.

It was recently reported that Richard Sherman formerly of the Seattle Seahawks. Who was recently released from the team because he refused to take less money in a renegotiated contract. Even though he is a bit older and is coming off a season ending injury and a surgery that he is not yet fully healed from. He then went to rival San Francisco 49ers and proceeded to negotiate his own contract, without the assistance of an agent, for way less money. It’s a phenomenal deal for the 49ers and one of only pure potential for Sherman. He has the potential to reach 39 million in three years. Which would be fantastic and it’s a scale he’s accustomed too. However only about 3 million is guaranteed. The rest is performance based.

Now for Sherman this may seem like a win win. He has all the confidence in the world that he will hit every performance target. He is a great player and will probably hit those targets. In the instance he doesn’t though. Taking into account he is an older player who’s body is starting to break down. He completely failed to value into the contracts his most valuable asset to a team in the event of an injury. And that is his ability to read the other team and to coach others on how to best attack the play. Essentially Niners received a free secondary coach with this pick up. One that is coming over from their biggest rivals, who they play at least twice a season. And they got him for pennies should he not be able to perform to the highest of league standards. It’s shrewd negotiating and in my opinion the Niners won big on this.

I think all teams would love to negotiate this kind of performance based contract, if you don’t perform, you don’t get paid. Especially with this caliber of player. The premise seems pretty logical, in a way it’s good for the player too. They never get to let themselves get comfortable and they always stay hungry. But it’s also highly unfair to the player, they are the ones who are sacrificing their body, never fully knowing if the next game or practice will be their last. And if that worst case scenario should happen they should have a safety net in place. Since they will be having to deal with the lingering health issues long after the game has left them. They should be able to maximize their earnings while on any team. Sometimes the best way to do that is to just hire an agent and get paid what you’re actual worth, not just your potential worth.



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