Comments on: Burress Grievance Limits Signing Bonus Forfeitures

By: eaglefan

eaglefan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:55:14 +0000

You NY’ers aren’t getting what I am saying. If you work and your employer withholds money for pay you’ve earned, it is an illegal act. Whether right or wrong, he earned a signing bonus by signing his name on the dotted line. That would give him a pro-rated signing bonus for 2008 of $637,500. The part I find offensive is that they withheld an additional amount of his pay of almost 50% of money he earned (by signing his name, which was the agreement that the Giants management was to give him).
In an ideal world, Burress would have the same pay structure that 90% of the rest of the world does, i.e. go to work, put in time, earn money given to you in a check a week, two weeks, or a month later. But that is not the way the NFL operates. They pay a bonus to sign your name.
Now they want to reverse that. Listen, Burress deserves the book to be thrown at him for his crime and for stupidity. I would hope that holding people accountable for their actions would start to make an impact on personal conduct. But, here’s the thing, if you want to hold other’s accountable for what they do, than you have to be willing to be held accountable for what you are doing.
Withholding pay for signing your name, which is what the Giants were willing to do when everybody signed on the dotted line, is not living up to the terms of the agreement. If you want to put in forfeiture clauses that are within the confines of the CBA, then do it. Otherwise, don’t negotiate something with someone and agree in writing to give them compensation for signing their name.

By: sacked92

sacked92 — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:33:29 +0000

Thanks Eagles fan for making us all dumber with this gem of a comment: “Only in NY could someone legally withhold $362,500 and expect to get away with it!”
Usually something that’s LEGAL is upheld and there’s nothing to get away with. Dumb dumbs.
The guy shot himself and couldn’t play. Would you pay an employee of yours if that happened?
The same guy who caught the SuperBowl TD is the one who gave up on catching Pacman Jones three years ago.

By: Zaggs

Zaggs — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:25:25 +0000

“Only in NY could someone legally withhold $362,500 and expect to get away with it! Wow! Ok Plax was not a good egg, but, really, how does an employer expect to gain sympathy from the working class, their biggest base of fans, for NOT paying a worker what is legitimately OWED to him!”
Seriously? So if any worker willfully chose to stay home, wasn’t sick, wasn’t taking a vacation but stayed home and didnt tell his work, should his work still pay him?
Quite frankly how anyone could read the language as written to have it mean only retirement or hold out is beyond me. Especially as it talks about FULLY PARTICIPATING. The addition of the word “fully” must mean there are situations which you can half way participate, like say only being able to go through walkthru’s or attend meetings. I hope the Giants appeal the descision, this is just stupid.

By: LiveNBreath Football

LiveNBreath Football — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:45:29 +0000

That is an awfully narrow reading of that section. It was clearly written to cover a wide range of possibilities and not just two specific instances. If the section were intended to cover only holdout or retirement, it could easily have said so. The fact that there is not a list, means it is not intended to be limiting (florio, what is that latin legal term for a list that is intended to cover all possibilities?).

By: eaglefan

eaglefan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:39:24 +0000

Only in NY could someone legally withhold $362,500 and expect to get away with it! Wow! Ok Plax was not a good egg, but, really, how does an employer expect to gain sympathy from the working class, their biggest base of fans, for NOT paying a worker what is legitimately OWED to him!
I understand about the $637,000, just not the balance.
Wake up you working class G-fans….your team is just like every other team that wants to stick it to you and their players at the same time. Now some guy (Ralph Vacciano) wants to call the guy “a waste” even though he CAUGHT A SUPER BOWL WINNING TD with only SECONDS REMAINING!
Any you have the nerve to complain about Philly fans and Philly media….Give me a break

By: Anrkist

Anrkist — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:21:38 +0000

If he had shot himself in the head, would that have been considered retirement?