Joel Glazer Is Pretty Smart

Joel Glazer took the time to answer a few questions at the owners meetings today and he pretty much said everything you'd want your favorite team's owner to say. His opinion on free agency and player retention was especially refreshing.

I think Bruce Allen has done an excellent job. You can get in big, big trouble under the salary cap system by committing to players that don't equal value. We've taken an extremely prudent approach on how we want to build this team. We have a core philosophy - draft, keep your players and then add with talent on top of that once your team has gotten to a certain point. We've got a lot of young players and you want to put yourself in a position where you can keep your young players. Reward your own players, build from within and don't get yourself caught in the corner. You've got to stay disciplined, that's the key, and resist temptations that can get some sexy headlines.

This is exactly the way it should be run, and I'm happy to see that the owners support this philosophy. I know I was hard on the team for not signing any marquee players at the beginning of free agency, but that's only because it's what we were told would happen. When you promise someone pizza and then give them a salad, there's going to be some bitching. Of course the salad is cheaper and better for you in the long run, but you're not really thinking about that when you've been anticipating a pizza for a couple months. That's all.

Now it will be interesting to see which players are up for their rewards and how much they'll get.