Pot calling the Kettle Black-Min whines about poison pill

[Guiness]

Bizarre as it seems after reading this thread, I think I agree with a lot of what both HW and SRF are saying.

Minnesota's deal for Hutch at least has the potential of being fulfilled. If (Yes, that's a big if) he is healthy, continues to play at a high level, etc, he'll see all those years.

No way Burleson plays out his deal. He isn't, and never will be a $10mil/year player. Like Moulds, he goes out with the bathwater after 4yrs.

Seattle should've properly tendered him. Franchise the guy for crying out loud!

BUT, I think Seattle did this purposely to highlight the absudity of the loophole. IMO their point, as much as getting Burleson, was to point out to others who were on the fence that something has to be done about this.

Teams that were saying 'this could nvr happen to us' saw the SeaChicken's deal, and realized everyone was vulnerable. For this, the league should thank Seattle.

[Scott Campbell]

Seattle should've properly tendered him. Franchise the guy for crying out loud!

Agreed. Seattle could have avoided the whole thing if they didn't try to get so cute with their tag just to save a few bucks.

[Guiness]

yes, but they just followed the status quo. Until this year, teams got away with that.

Lookit what the Pack did with Kamp in '05. Undertendered, and they knew it.

[motife]

Let me rephrase the question: In the past, it's always about how they can structure the money for the current year so the original team can't match, have they ever used terms like guaranteeing the whole contract or worrying about where a player plays or if he's the highest paid before?

hi ziggy,

There has never been anything as blatantly, malevolently poison pill structured as the Vikings offer. Teams in the past have tried to make it difficult for the other team to match financially, but both teams had the same guarantees, the same average per year, etc. So it would have been the same financial burden for the matching team as the one that made the offer.

The Vikings admitted this was unprecedented when asked saying something like, "If it doesn't say in the rules we can't do it, than we can do it."

There was a precedent that the matching term could delete, or not match, "extraneous" parts of the contract not deemed principal to its terms, i.e. the principal part is number of years, amount of money, everything else is incidental.

There was surprise the Seahawks didn't contest on those grounds, that is was extraneous to the deal. What they contested was whether Walter Jones was paid more than Hutchinson at the time of the offer or the time of the match, which gave tacit agreement to the poison pill being legitamate. The special master ruled they had to match the terms existing at the time of the offer, which was NOT the problem.

Many were and still are flabbergasted at the Vikings predatory, non-collegial offer. It was not at all in the spirit of the partnership of 32 owners partnering together in the same league and has essentially wrecked the league to an extent.

The poison pill was not only in their contract, but in the taste it left in other owners mouths towards Minnesota and what lies in the future. "This is business," they Vikings answer. Bullcrap.

I hope the represcussions to the Vikings are long lasting. The intent here was particularly malicious. The precedent, if followed, would mean "restricted free agency", the "transition tag" and "franchising" are meaningless. That's what Tagliabue means by "not in the spirit of the CBA".

If upheld, any team will automatically be assured of getting the RFA, Transition, or Franchise player they give an offer to by putting ridiculous, extraneous clauses in the offer.

The precedent has made the minimum amount of structure in the league chaos. When the Vikings went to the brink on this, they basically said to hell with league structure. It's really breathtaking what a**h*les these guys are.

[Scott Campbell]

When the Vikings went to the brink on this, they basically said to hell with league structure. It's really breathtaking what a**h*les these guys are.

Well when you put it like that, it's like poetry to my ears. The only thing that could be better is if it was revealed that the Bears where secretly in cahoots with the Vikes.

[Scott Campbell]

I hope the represcussions to the Vikings are long lasting.

Yeah, me too. I'd love it if they had a bunch of their draft picks stripped away like the Twolves did when they tampered with Joe Smith. Though I highly doubt that would happen because they weasled their way officially inside the rulebook by way of a technicality. I expect their repercussions to be of the unofficial kind, and sometimes those can be worse.

[MJZiggy]

Thank you, Motife. That was just what I was looking for.

Why do I get the feeling Hutch is going to get the crap pounded out of him this season...?

[Patler]

Thank you, Motife. That was just what I was looking for.

Why do I get the feeling Hutch is going to get the crap pounded out of him this season...?

Among players, Hutchinson will be a hero. They HATE the franchise and transition tags. They hate RFA.

[MJZiggy]

You make a valid point.

[Scott Campbell]

Thank you, Motife. That was just what I was looking for.

Why do I get the feeling Hutch is going to get the crap pounded out of him this season...?

Among players, Hutchinson will be a hero. They HATE the franchise and transition tags. They hate RFA.

Agreed. None of the backlash will make it's way onto the field.

[MJZiggy]

I wish it would. I'd like watching other teams beat up on Minny.

[gureski]

Some people are missing the big picture here.

Forget debating all these details and opinions. The bottom line is that due to the way the Vikings set their clause in that contract to Hutchinson, Seattle was being FORCED to guarantee 100% of the contract IMMEDIATELY. That's endgame right there. That's the entire point right there. Don't go beyond it. Minnesota didn't have to guarantee the entire deal at any time during the life of the deal. Seattle would've had to guarantee the entire dollar amount from day one to match the deal! That's not splitting hairs there! That's the problem and that's why it wasn't a legitmate offer. It was a sly B.S. clause that stuck a knife into the integrity of the system. It doesn't matter if the deal is realistic and Minny may pay the entire deal. In the end they don't have to. The Seahawks were the team that was supposed to have a built in advantage to keep the player. The Vikings dirty offer not only took away that advantage with a clause, it set up a disadvantage in its' place!

The Seahawks were supposed to have the right of first refusal but thanks to the Vikings B.S. clause, they would've had to pay the entire deal IMMEDIATELY and regardless circumstance. The Vikings will NEVER have to do that. That's the difference right there! In a sport where there are no guaranteed contracts you can't ask a team to make someone the highest paid player at their position ...oh...AND GUARANTEE the entire contract too just to keep the player. Oh yeah...but the team offerring the deal doesn't have to guarantee it. Just the team that was supposed to have the right of first refusal. Do you not see how insane that is?

It doesn't matter if you think you'll have the player for the life of the deal anyway or if you thougth you'd cut that player in 3 years... the bottom line is that YOU STILL HAVE THAT OPTION. Every team under every contract has the OPTION of not having to pay the entire deal! It's protection! The only true protection the teams have! The Vikings, to the delight of the NFLPA, have shown agents the way around the NFL's system. Don't think for a milisecond that agents are foaming at the mouth right now thinking of ways to utilize this to their advantage. Someone mentioned restricted free agents...just think what this does to that now? The few built in tools for teams to keep their home grown talent are gone and its' all thanks to the V ikings and their B.S. offer. They have no leg to stand on in this situation with Burleson. They deserve to lose him and I think the Seahawks made their offer ridiculous on purpose to force the league to act on fixing the situation.

Again though....the terrible thing is that they'll need the union to go along with any fix of this situation. They can't just snap their fingers and make it go away.

[motife]

they'll need the union to go along with any fix of this situation. They can't just snap their fingers and make it go away.

It eliminated all 3 mechanisms to develop talent in the CBA, the RFA's committed to a team for 4 years, the transition tag, and the franchise tag.

The "right to match" with all three mechanisms means nothing now that the Vikings have gone nuclear with the Hutchinson deal's poison pill offer and it went unchallenged.

All any team has to do is put ridiculous provisions in the contract offer so the whole thing is guaranteed for the matching team, and they get the player, (minus compensating draft picks depending on the tender made for the RFA's or two firsts for franchised players.)

The NFLPA defended the poison pill, so good luck trying to get them to agree to oppose it now.

The only solution now would be for the NFL to ostrazcize any team that makes similar malevolent offers in the future. The Vikings have really screwed the NFL for the future. I hope they're happy.

[MJZiggy]

I wonder if they've thought of the fact that it screwed RFA & transition up for them in the future too...

[HarveyWallbangers]

I doubt it, ziggy. They and their fans were too busy praising themselves for how brilliant they are. You know, they worked the system to get a great player. You know that, right? You also know that Hutchinson + 3rd round pick is much better than Burleson, right?