Take It Slow And Things Will Be Just Fine

I have to apologize to my readers who are sick of reading diatribes on the Tampa media's treatment of Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen. I'm sick of writing them, too. I just feel like if these things go unchallenged at all, it's only a matter of time before one of these hate-mongering cretins finally gets the balls to write something really damaging.

Roy Cummings of the Tribune wrote an article over the weekend about how the Bucs need to pony up to the players who are demanding a raise and an extension: Jeff Garcia, Earnest Graham, Greg White and Jovan Haye.

Jeff Garcia, who stabilized the quarterback position and energized the entire team with his grit, is one of them. Earnest Graham, who came off special teams to run for nearly 1,000 yards and salvage the rushing attack, is another.

All those things are true. Good for you, Roy.

Greg White, who came from obscurity in the Arena Football League to lead the Bucs in sacks, is on that list, too. So is Jovan Haye, a previously unknown under tackle who has conjured memories of Warren Sapp.

Whoa whoa whoa. Haye did well. He was good. But not every player who makes a sack from the under tackle position gets to get compared to Sapp. That statement is only meant to tie Haye's name to Sapp in your mind so his argument later on makes more sense.

These men didn't just help resurrect a team. They saved jobs. In particular, they saved Gruden's job and Allen's job. The Bucs might be under new management if it were not for them.

Does that mean that Michael Clayton and Jermaine Phillips and Bruce Gradkowski all nearly cost Allen and Gruden their jobs two years ago and should have returned some of their signing bonus money as recompense? Maybe all the guys that want raises this year should seek them out from the guys who played so poorly in 2006.

Something about this line of thinking bothers me. Not because it's coming from Cummings, but because it's probably shared by a lot of players. I think what some players think is that they are given a contract to perform at an average level. Nothing too great, nothing too bad... just do your job, show up for meetings, get paid. And as soon as they perform better than expected (or "outperform" their contract, as is the vernacular of the greedy,) they want a new deal. Never mind that most contracts have certain performance-based incentives already in them which are supposed to cover such a scenario. Never mind the workout bonuses that pay players to simply show up the the facility in the offseason and stay in shape. A player is given a contract to do a job to the best of his ability. Some years he performs better than expected, some years he does worse, but either way he gets paid. Show some pride.

And stop with this shit that the team can break the contract but the player can't. That's part of the contract itself! Players know that going in, which is why they should push for as much money as possible up front before they sign. They should take into account that they may completely tank after a couple years and get cut, and should ask for the signing bonus that adequately compensates them for that risk. Once the deal is signed and they know the team can cut them for a bad performance, it's too late to bitch.

The only guy who I can see that really has a case is Earnest Graham. He will go into training camp (if he decided to show up) as the starter, which is not the position he held when he signed his contract. He was a third stringer and a special teams guy and was paid like one. If he's going to play a more active role in the offense, he should be paid more. But it still doesn't give him the right to hold out when the OTAs turn mandatory. The funny thing is that the longer he stays away from the team, the more likely it is that someone like Warrick Dunn or Michael Bennett will pass him on the depth chart. If he stays out long enough, he'll be third string again and will fall right back in line with his contract.

For their part in the resurrection, Garcia, Graham, White and Haye have asked for a reward. None seem to have asked for anything extraordinary, just a salary hike that reflects their place among their peers and some respect from a team that has more than $20 million of salary cap room.

There have been no confirmed reports about what these players are asking for. I saw a rumor somewhere that Garcia was asking for $7 million per year, but it wasn't substantiated in any way. Neither was the report a few months ago that Graham wanted "Frank Gore money". Have the agents for any of these players contacted Cummings and told him what they want? If so, say it. Name names, give dollar amounts. I've always hated Steve Duemig on the radio because he says shit like, "You don't know what I know! If you did, you'd agree with me!" It's an attempt to create a sense of authority without earning it. And that's what Cummings is doing here and what he's been doing for years. He makes statements as if they are fact, but without backing them up. You'd think that with the Boston Herald having to apologize every day for a rumor-printed-as-fact about the Patriots videotaping a Rams walkthrough that guys who are sports reporters for real newspapers, like Cummings is for the Tribune, would be more careful about saying things that they can't back up.

As for the thing about respect, Joe Henderson, also of the Tribune, had something to say about that with regard to Garcia:

Teachers need respect. Cops need respect. People getting evicted from their homes or losing their jobs in this economy need respect. There is a time to speak up and a time to hold your tongue, and I would suggest to you that Garcia just crossed over the great foot-in-mouth divide.

I realize the cop and teacher arguments against high entertainer salaries are old and tired, and that's fine. But respect? I kind of thought the respect was given when the Bucs signed Garcia and almost immediately made him the starter.

So far, only Haye has been rewarded, but he has not been given what he really wants. He accepted a one-year deal worth a little more than $2 million, but that is far less than what he has asked for.

Quotes, anyone? Sources? I'd think that if Haye or his agent had ever divulged what thye were asking for, it would have made a headline somewhere.

We should again note the date here. It's May 18, which means it's early, very early in terms of the NFL calendar. Allen even suggested as much last week, saying that more than two months remain until training camp starts.

That means he has two months to reward these four players for what is clearly a job well done. And the likelihood is he will meet that deadline. [emphasis mine]

Then why write this at all?!? If he's pretty sure they're all going to get their new contracts when Allen said they were going to get them, why would he spend so much ink denigrating Allen? Because Roy Cummings fucking hates Bruce Allen and every article he writes about him absolutely oozes with that hate. It's fucking pathetic.

The problem is, it might already be too late. The damage, it seems, is done.

See here how Allen can't win? If, for some reason, Allen doesn't get the contracts done, he's a liar and a cheapskate. If he does get them done, he took too long. I suppose Allen was supposed to run into the locker room after the Giants loss holding briefcases full of cash to give out. Christ, the draft was just over three weeks ago. What business sense would it have made to give some player an extension before Allen knew what positions he was addressing in the draft?

Now he knows and most of the pieces are in place. And look, B.J. Askew got a new deal. Funny how that works.

Bottom line, we're talking about doing what's right. Without the contributions they received from Garcia, Graham, White and Haye last year, the Bucs might not be the reigning NFC South champions and a team seemingly on the rise.

It's like when you promise to take your kids to, oh, I don't know, Six Flags. And you're on the way, but every quarter mile they pipe up with "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" And for a while you can be patient and tell them "Soon... we'll be there soon." But you can only take it for so long. Bruce Allen may be getting ready to turn this car right around and head back home.