LACK OF LEVERAGE
Antonio Brown may just be sending a signal he is unhappy with his deal, because team won’t budge
Antonio Brown is reported to be trying something that hasn’t worked in many decades — he wants to renegotiate his contract with the Steelers that still has three years to run. He is in the middle of a six-year, $43 million deal he signed in summer 2012.
He may be the first to try it, but he won’t be the first to accomplish it.
Yes, Brown is not among the top 10 paid wide receivers in the NFL, even though he led the NFL with 129 receptions and 1,698 yards last season, both by far Steelers records. But at the time they signed him to that $43 million contract with its $8.5 million signing bonus, Brown had started just three games in his first two seasons, although he caught 69 passes for 1,108 yards in his second season.
The Steelers were taking a chance then. In his third season, Brown’s stats went down as a starter. In 2012, the first year of his new contract, he caught 66 passes for 787 yards. If he has outplayed his contract now, did he under-play it in 2012, when he received more than $9 million from the Steelers that year?
Andrew McCutchen, the 2013 National League MVP with the Pirates, also has outplayed his contract. He did not skip spring training and neither he nor his agent have uttered a word about wanting more money.
MLB contracts are guaranteed and football contracts are not. Many times, we see teams take advantage of that. Troy Polamalu had two years left on his contract when he was virtually forced to retire from the Steelers. Brett Keisel had a year left when he was cut by them. Hines Ward was still under contract when the Steelers cut him.
But players know the deal. They know those contracts can be one-way streets, which is why there are big signing bonuses in football. It is part of their collective bargaining agreement that unless the money is guaranteed, they can be cut and owed nothing at any time for any reason.
Perhaps the Steelers would love to tear up Brown’s contract and give him one that would better reflect his standing among the league’s wide receivers. But they cannot. If they did it for Brown with three years left, who might be next to want a new deal?
Le’Veon Bell, with two years to go on his rookie deal, certainly is a bargain at a salary of $779,600 this year. He will have to wait until 2016, though, before they’ll consider a new contract.
The Steelers hold nearly all the leverage in this one, including the financial setbacks Brown could suffer if he holds out beyond the voluntary workouts and OTAs this spring. They include hefty fines, signing bonus give-backs and lost wages.
Drew Rosenhaus, Brown’s agent, has dealt with the Steelers for more than 20 years. He knows how they work. Rosenhaus was Brown’s agent when he signed that $43 million contract in 2012. Last year, Brown reportedly switched agents, signing with Jay Z’s Roc Nation. It did not take long for him to leave them and return to Rosenhaus.
Perhaps there were promises made in both switches and now Rosenhaus has to try to fulfill them. As the cliche goes, good luck with that. There are many failed attempts of players trying to force new contracts on the Steelers and failing. Some of them are in the Hall of Fame.
Kicker Gary Anderson and defensive back Rod Woodson held separate news conferences in the 1990s to complain about the Steelers not willing to give either a better contract. Those did not work. Franco Harris was cut. Pro Bowl linebacker Mike Merriweather was allowed to sit out an entire season, then was traded. Ward, who did not like the pace of negotiations on a new deal in 2005, held out and those negotiations ended until he returned. Alan Faneca never did get a new contract after his spring holdout in 2007.
Even coach Bill Cowher did not succeed. I am not quite sure what led to Cowher calling it quits with the Steelers, but I was told by his agent that it did not need to happen. We can only assume it had to do with his inability to get the kind of contract he wanted from them before the 2006 season. He was signed through 2007 and quit with that last year left.
The Steelers have a history of winning these things, but there really is nothing to win in Brown’s case. They simply will not entertain the idea of giving him a new deal with three years left on his current one. They made Ben Roethlisberger wait a year longer than normal and despite all of Brown’s accomplishments, Roethlisberger is much more valuable to the team and perhaps a reason why Brown’s stats have been so gaudy.
Brown has always been one of the hardest-working players and most serious about his sport, perhaps tops among them. Asking for a new deal does not change that, even if he skips the spring conditioning and OTAs. It could be regarded as merely a signal by him that he is not happy. Missing minicamp also would not become a major issue. However, if he holds out in training camp, then things would escalate to a point where they could get ugly.
At the moment, he is merely following the traditional workout path of Polamalu in the spring, deciding to work out elsewhere. The required minicamp does not take place for nearly two months.
Since the stories broke that he intended to hold out, Brown wrote on Twitter, “I’ll be there” and “Just enjoying my new born Ali can not wait to get back with my teammates!”
After that, maybe it’s all ado about little.