Hire an agent folks, it's worth the 3% commission. At first people were raving over this deal and suggesting that more athletes may start self negotiating deals. When they realized that he didn't get a single dollar guaranteed the popular opinion changed. 1) I know you want to bet on yourself, but cmon man. You can't predict injuries. 2) I know the Broncos are gonna pounce on the opportunity to get a good deal on a player without an agent, but they didn't think against completely fucking over a guy that's gonna play for them? They couldn't guarantee ANY of it? http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...latest-contract-details-comments-and-reaction
Okung entered in the 2010 draft, so his initial contract was more than $8M a year. He may have decided that this is his last contract and that if things go sour he wants out without a lot of hassles in the process, like recapture of bonus money, etc. If he has a great season next year he'll probably collect at least a couple of very high salary years after that. He's only completely unguaranteed next year if he's IR'd in camp. If he's on the week 1 roster he gets a $5M guarantee and will probably collect the full $8M. It wasn't a good deal from his perspective, however he wouldn't have gotten more total compensation on a contract from anybody else. He'd just have gotten more of it upfront, making it less appealing to cut him in 2017 if he doesn't have a star-caliber season.
Broncos got one sweet deal. Wasn't for signing him but didn't realize he was self-negotiating and was going to rip himself off.
If you're stupid it is. Martin Brodeur of the Devils negotiated all his contracts from like age 25-40 with only a lawyer, no agent. Of course it helped he only wanted to play for one team and was negotiating with one GM who didn't generally screw him over.
