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A little over two weeks ago, the New England Patriots inexplicably dug their own money into agreeing to give Antonio Brown a $ 9 million signing bonus. Now, the owner of the team, Robert Kraft, must pay the price.
It's the consensus of the league's five sources that spoke to Yahoo Sports this week – each knowing Brown's contract now canceled by Brown and with extensive experience of overlapping NFL contracts and the league's collective bargaining agreement. . The group universally stated that it was likely that the payment from New England to Brown would go deep into the 2020 calendar, after a thorough arbitration grievance that could ultimately reveal what Brown and his agents knew about a civil suit under threat of sexual assault before signing with the Patriots.
The group strongly insisted that attention should be paid: the Patriotes eliminated Brown before he triggered a signing bonus, as described in the ABC. And this will end up being the fundamental and winning point of a forthcoming grievance from Brown and the NFL Players Association.
As one source said:[New England] fighting to keep this signature bonus is now either a blatant misunderstanding [the CBA’s] rules on canceling signature bonuses or it's just out of spite. I can not believe they do not understand the signing bonuses in the collective agreement. There is no way. It's just nastiness. They fight [Brown] completely out of anger and embarrassment of the property. "
Why Patriots Will Have to Pay Brown's Signing Bonus
Regarding Brown's $ 9 million signature bonus, the fight seems to be moving toward an argument of a clause in the collective agreement. Specifically, sections 4 and 9, which lay the groundwork for the offense of confiscation of a contract. It is said:
(a) confiscable violation. Any player who (i) intentionally fails to report, practice, or play, results in his / her ability to participate fully and contribute to the team is significantly undermined (for example, without limitation, leaving or leaving the team absent personal difficulties); or (ii) is not available to the team because of conduct that resulted in his / her incarceration; or (iii) is not available to the team because of an injury other than football resulting from a material breach of paragraph 3 of his / her Player Agreement. NFL; or (iv) voluntarily withdraws …
In simple terms, the language of the ABC indicates that Brown could have lost his signing bonus if he had done one of the following four things:
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Refused to report, practice or play, which prevented him from helping his team.
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Become unavailable due to behavior that resulted in his incarceration.
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Became unavailable due to what his player contract designated as a non-football related injury.
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Voluntarily withdrawn.
The problem for the Patriots is that Brown has no place all of these qualifiers before his release, which in the eyes of the union (and other sources close to the league knowing his contract) is equivalent to the fact that the Patriots are still responsible for his signing bonus. This is the only decisive factor: irrespective of what the Patriots have concluded with Brown regarding the cancellation of the signing bonus, the arbitrators have always held that the language of the CBA takes precedence over the language of the team in terms of player contracts. And the ABC said Brown had to fall into one of the four categories above to lose his signing bonus. No matter what the Patriots inserted in their deal with Brown, the four ABC designations were all that mattered for the signing bonus.
It is interesting to note that sources who spoke to Yahoo said that New England had signed an "unbearable" contract with Brown and had made it: that he and his representation did not inform the team of his civil suit. Essentially, the Patriots could have used this retention of information to cancel the entirety of his contract. But New England denied any pretense of that by playing against the Miami Dolphins after the lawsuit was filed in federal court.
"If they had cut [Brown] as soon as they become aware of the civil cause, the applicant's argument is [withholding] violation undermining the entire agreement, "said a source at Yahoo Sports." But they kept it on the list after filing the complaint.They played it in a They even paid him checks for [two weeks of] job. If the civil suit was a real breaker, the Patriots could have shown it by breaking the deal. Their actions testify to their intention and it manifested itself when they continued to pay after the civil case. "
Another source has blamed the Patriotes for failing to reach an agreement containing weekly protections.
"They made the contract structure, knowing how difficult [the CBA] manages to retain or recover a signing bonus, "said the source. "If they wanted more protection, it was their choice when they negotiated the deal." They could have protected themselves by making this transaction a series of alignment bonuses of 53 players per game. The signature bonus is a piece of money earned immediately recognized upon signing. This is the most user-friendly route for players. "
The Patriots made a bad contract with Brown
Did New England make a bad compromise in the rush of the team to get Brown's contract? And if he was willing to give Brown so much money in the form of a signing bonus that would be hard to cancel, did he do enough background work to justify such trust?
For the first, yes, it is clear now that New England has mismanaged the contracts, given what has happened and the lack of protection that currently exists. The question of whether the Patriots have done enough homework is a topic of discussion, although the team has not done enough to protect themselves from the possibility that Brown and his agents may not tell him all that she had to know.
The reason why one or the other of these things materialized – a poor contractual structure and a lack of knowledge about Brown's problems – will remain a topic of discussion. This is probably due to the fact that Brown's talent makes him a sought product from the moment he was released by the Oakland Raiders. It is quite possible that the Patriots acted too fast and offered a too friendly contract for fear of losing Brown.
An important agent who negotiated several contracts with New England said: "They are so ultra competitive that they fear losing to another team if they do not give them that structure. And they thought that they could control the child – which they probably could. What they did not see coming is this other [stuff] and that's what drove [them] crazy."
In a few months, it's also going to be expensive for the Patriots, because we can not deny this part of this mess: New England dug a hole when it failed to protect itself properly. Now, he will have to pay this signing bonus of $ 9 million as he progresses. Whether Bob Kraft wants it or not.
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