Wow, thank you for the lengthy, and detailed response. That makes more sense. So it's not like the team saved 24 million in cap space for the next year. That's kind of what the article I read tried to make it seem like.
No worries, been reading up on this for almost 24 hours now, lol... Most of the news agencies are reporting this with a sort of inaccurate slant, making Brady out to be a little more saintly than they should. He's not giving up money here. He's actually getting a raise. It's just his concessions on the guarantees that gives them more flexibility. If there's anything he deserves credit for it's playing for an under-market contract (consider that Jay Cutler made $20M+ this season) but he's not giving anything up here, really. Yet the media seems to be spinning it that way.
I wish we could make things work as well here, so since we haven',t and can't seem to do so, I tend not to spend a lot of energy knocking the Patriots. I Don't like them, never will. Just wish we had an owner who knew how to really run a professional football team.
No I understand it's a great move for NE but didn't we get a similar restructure from Brady recently and then a follow up saying he was annoyed at the moves NE made? I thought I remeber that being a story. I think it's a win/win move for NE and Brady. Makes perfect sense.
I don't see Kraft as a genius owner. Belichick started regretting signing on as the Jets' HC right away, worried I think that there'd be a new owner and Parcells would possibly be running the team in some unofficial way. He wanted to run his own team, and reached out to the Patriots, who were interested, and then the trade was made. There was no way for Kraft to have known just how well that would turn out. Belichick also had no idea how good Tom Brady was, or he would not have waited so late in the draft. Where Kraft gets credit is for trading for Belichick, and for not meddling afterwards. It's not like Robert Kraft is helping Belichick with the draft, motivating players, drawing up plays- his job is to collect the money, and that's it. I could do that. So could you. Nothing "genius" or special about that whatsoever. The biggest piece of the Patriots' success was lucking into Tom Brady. Does anyone really think the Patriots wouldn't win the division anymore if Belichick had retired three years ago and one of his coordinators had taken over? They'd still comfortably win the division every year. And they will continue to do so until Tom Brady becomes ineffective due to age or injuries. The biggest element in success is having a good QB. The biggest element in getting a good QB... is luck. And Woody Johnson can get lucky just like any other owner.
Brady agreed to less money for a fully guaranteed contract but a great deal for the Patriots. Now this. But don't worry like all NFL players he's always injured and could easily flunk any physical they give him. So it's a phony ploy by them again and I hope the league looks into it. And if not the Jets file a complaint. Where's Mangini when you need him.
What would the league look into? That Brady's wife makes too much money and it's not fair that he can afford to give his team a huge discount? That's not against the rules, and neither is restructuring.
That they are misusing a cap hit exclusion. Why would Brady give away a guaranteed deal for only a semi-guaranteed deal.
Hmm, well the Patriots would say that they gave him a $1m raise in exchange for dropping the level of guarantee. Each side gains something of significant value. Actually... I think the Patriots lose out on the deal; they give up $1m in cap space just so the owner doesn't have to put money in escrow.
It's not a cap manuever, I was wrong about that. But even with my feeble knowledge of NFL accounting practices it seems again like they are skirting around the intent of the rule. As usual.
They aren't skirting around anything, trying to make this into a conspiracy is really grasping at straws and pretty sad. Brady gets a slight raise and the team gets more control over him instead of him controlling the team, the team also gets the added benefit of being able to use previously set aside money in signing bonuses now. It only seems weird because you never really read about it happening in the NFL. Brady has always been a "special case" when it comes to the contracts he's accepted, he's only ever spent maybe 3 or 4 seasons accepting the maximum value. And that's not me calling him generous, his non-market value contracts have usually been extremely Brady friendly like his massive signing bonus in 2013. His NFL contract in reality though is probably half of what he makes in a year due to his deals with Audi, Ugg Australia, and whatever else he represents these days. He's a smart business man and set himself up well, in addition to marrying won of the richest women in the world, that he can accept these "top tier backup/average starter" deals to let the team be more flexible. Not generosity, just business, and winning is more valuable than a few million more that his grandkids probably won't even live long enough to spend doesn't really matter.
There should be a minimum when it comes to contracts as well. This smells like more cheating ... The patriot way /sarcasm off
His wife earns about $47m per year - that has more to do with his financial security than setting himself up well or whatever. She makes much more money than him, even if he had a $22m contract and did as many commercials as Peyton and Rodgers. That would still only be maybe $35m, tops. He's giving up a very non-trivial amount of money, tens of millions of dollars per year. But I suppose it's not as important to him, since he already has basically all the trappings of wealth one could ever want. He can have enough money that even his grandkids will be set for life, just living off of interest from trusts. (Rule number one of being mega-rich is not letting your kids have full access to the money; they'll tend to squander it.)
My entire point was that he's extremely comfortable, his kids will eventually get both mommy and daddy's money in one way or another, and he values winning, seemingly above everything else, which requires taking less. Unless he turns into a complete idiot, owning every expensive car and every million dollar piece of jewelry he can find then he's set for life. As far as I know he doesn't pay for his cars (Audi gives them to him as part of the deal) and I never see him wearing earrings or rings like TO does. I don't see him going broke even if he never makes another dollar in his life. May have misread your point but I got the hint you were saying taking less doesn't mean anything in the long run, may be completely off base there.
There is no way he isn't going to get that salary which as you said is way below his market value. He can claim injury for everything.
My point was that most of his money is from his wife's earnings. He will be rich either way, but it's weird that he doesn't do more ads. It's not just that he takes less salary- he avoids doing prominent ads, which doesn't free up any extra cap space, it's just leaving money on the table without helping him win at all. That's what I find so strange.
If you were Tom Brady and your earnings were tied to supporting someone name J.E.T. Moynahan, you'd look to earn less too.
