Cardinals vs. Fitzgerald Press War?
Feb 27, 2008 Eagles Rumors
When an organization and a player are negotiating behind closed doors it is often difficult to get a handle on how the negotiations are faring. Unless someone is a bonehead, both sides tend to downplay disagreements and give a positive spin on the situation.
But when things head south, you often see the battle for public opinion fought through proxies — the press corps.
That brings me to a new article written by Pete Prisco of CBS Sports. In it, he fawns over what he sees as the Cardinals new free-spending ways. He never criticizes them for getting in the Fitzgerald mess in the first place. Nor does he mention that Fitzgerald has all the leverage in this case, and that the union is often working behind the scenes pushing the player to get every penny.
What he does say, is this:
The Cardinals have offered Fitzgerald $25 million in guaranteed money, but he wants more than the $32.5 million in guarantees that Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson got last year. But that guaranteed money was paid on a six-year deal. Parker wants more on a four-year deal. Offering $25 million on four years is not being cheap. How about more like being unrealistic on the part of the player?
Is Fitzgerald worth that money? Of course he isn’t. But who is? In the current NFL climate, where journeymen free agents will get paid, Fitzgerald deserves a new deal — just not the outrageous numbers he’s seeking.
He is young and popular and the Cardinals want to keep him, but at the same time they would love to keep their team together — and maybe make it better.
The receiver’s greed won’t let that happen.
He’s not done, though. He goes on to talk about how Fitzgerald is selfishly keeping the team from improving and not allowing them to re-sign valuable players like Calvin Pace. Finally…
One thing’s for certain about these talks: The Cardinals aren’t being cheap. That’s the old Cardinals. The new Cardinals have the revenue to give out lucrative contracts, and in this case they are more than willing to do so.
What I’m trying to say here is that it’s difficult to imagine a more one-sided article. Maybe this is just another internet blowhard’s opinion piece, but it could also be a journalist whose opinion being helped along by someone in the Cardinals organization.
October 29th, 2011 at 6:05 am
587188 beers on the wall. sck was here