QB’s weekly film review clause a terrible idea
PHOENIX – Unlike millions of other Americans, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray apparently is not a fan of working from home. At least during football season.
The contract extension Murray and Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill officially signed Monday proves that. It not only guarantees Murray $160 million or so, but it also requires Murray to spend at least four hours a week during the season in “independent study,” according to the NFL’s Ian Rapoport, who tweeted a photo of the contract addendum.
Failure to comply could cause Murray to default, costing him some of the above-mentioned millions.
For various reasons, that’s not likely to happen, of course.
Who among us couldn’t find four hours a week for “independent study,” especially if it meant accumulating generational wealth? And how would the Cardinals ever prove that Murray spent the required time studying football on his tablet, phone or television and not watching television, playing video games or browsing the internet? And that he studied diligently?
Pop quizzes? Hidden cameras in Murray’s home? Covert operatives?
The clause is bizarre, seemingly unenforceable and something the NFL Players Association might challenge. (A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message.) But it’s not insignificant.
It proves the Cardinals have concerns about Murray’s study habits, but what value is there in a clause that requires four hours of homework a week? It’s not worth embarrassing your quarterback when news of the clause breaks.
Last year, Murray violated a tenet of quarterbacking by admitting he doesn’t watch a lot of video pertaining to football. He told The New York Times “I’m not one of those guys that’s going to sit there and kill myself watching film. I don’t sit there for 24 hours and break down this team and that team and watch every game because, in my head, I see so much.”
The Cardinals were willing to settle for four hours a week of breaking down this team and that team. Who knows what they received in return? Because it had to be something.
Generally, if an owner and general manager are concerned about their quarterback putting in time outside team headquarters, they don’t make the quarterback the highest-paid
player in franchise history. They wait until he alleviates that concern. Or doesn’t.
More difficult to explain is why Murray and his agent, Erik Burkhardt, agreed to it.
The contracts of players leaguewide are available to teams and agents, so it’s not as if the addendum was going to go unnoticed, especially given that Murray is now the second-highest-paid player in the NFL, based on yearly average ($46.1 million).
Even if the addendum doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, the damage to Murray’s reputation is done. And, for the second time this year, it was inflicted by Murray and his agent.
In February, Murray scrubbed his Instagram account of most references to the Cardinals, and Burkhardt tweeted a statement, in all caps, challenging the Cardinals to pay Murray as soon as possible.
The Cardinals did, but on their own schedule, not Burkhardt’s. In a news conference last Friday, Murray said he gives Burkhardt “a little crap” for that. “He put a lot on me.”
The addendum places even more on Murray at a time that should be joyous. For the quarterback. For his family. For the Cardinals.
Instead, on the day Murray officially signed his contract, the football world was talking about a ridiculous addendum that requires him to work from home four hours a week every fall.
That news isn’t going away anytime soon. Murray and coach Kliff Kingsbury will be asked about it in his next meeting with reporters. Broadcasters are sure to bring it up during games. One interception, one bad game will prompt Murray’s detractors, and there are more than a few, to bring up the homework clause in his contract.
It was a terrible idea for the Cardinals to propose such a thing, assuming they did, and a colossal mistake by Burkhardt and Murray for accepting it.
This much is clear: Neither side did its homework.