During a weekly visit with our good friend Todd Wright of Sporting News Radio, the light bulb finally began to flicker.
And, after subjecting Todd’s audience to my stream-of-consciousness attempt to comprehend the decision to cut and re-sign linebackers Tully Banta-Cain and Eric Alexander, I finally figured it out. (I could have spared Todd’s audience the agony by merely reading what Shalise Manza Young of the Providence Journal had to say about the situation.)
Banta-Cain and Alexander previously had been signed to one-year deals for the veteran minimum. By rule, neither player could have been signed for 2010 by the Patriots until the first day of the 2010 league year.
So the Pats cut them on the eve of the trading deadline, after which they would have been required to pass through waivers. And then the Pats re-signed them (or, in Alexander’s case, will re-sign him) to multi-year contracts covering 2010, and possibly beyond.
But this maneuver requires even more advance collusion than the 54-man roster trick, which entails a vested veteran being cut on Saturday and re-signed on Monday. It’s possible, if not likely, that the Patriots negotiated the long-term deals with the players’ agents before cutting them — and that the players agreed on a wink-nod basis not to sign elsewhere.
While the tactic might not violate the letter of any league rules, the Competition Committee should find a way to close this loophole, either by preventing such players from being re-signed by the team that cut them or by requiring them to pass through waivers.
As to Alexander, the effort of coach Bill Belichick to explain that he hadn’t been cut makes even more sense. Belichick knew he was taking a slight risk that either or both players would decline to honor their handshake commitments to re-sign. So why acknowledge publicly that Alexander was available to a higher bidder?
Who cares?…..Really
So wait – who exactly is being hurt here?
The Patriotswant to reward players who worked hard with lucrative long term contracts – demonstrating that they’ll open the wallet for players who earn it – especially those who signed cheaper “show me” contracts.
The NFL rules prohibit improving a player’s contract for one year – effectively tying the hands of NFL GMs who want to *gasp* reward good play and behavior.
So the Patriots follow the letter of the law, cut the players, who choose not to use the opportunity to search for greener grass – but COULD if they wanted to – and then re-sign the players to their lucrative long-term contracts.
Who is the bad guy here? If the other NFL teams really that upset that the Patriots aren’t going to pay these guys cheaply this year?
Isn’t it a bit crazy for the NFL to have a rule that only penalizes players who have earned a pay increase?
This is one of the many reasons why players will run through walls for Belichick. He’s tough but he’s fair and he will reward the “right” kind of players.
More ruling bending-to-the-point-of-cheating by NE. If you hate them, it’s only because you wish your team was this smart.
I sure wish mine was.
The league should step in and say no. You can keep them but their prior contracts are enforce and not the new one aimed at circumventing the system. BTW, the league won’t do anything.
Just another example of why he’s the best in the business…..hope he decides to coach the Patriots till he retires permenently……IN BILL WE TRUST!!!!!
Also, by getting rid of Galloway & Mathews he cleared spots for the 2 guys on PUP, Brandon Tate & tackle LeVoir…..SWEET!!!!
If anyone will find a way to cheat, leave it to Bill Belicheat and Tom Stetson Brady. Can they win without cheating?
It may be underhanded, but it is an underhanded way around a silly rule.
If you have a player signed to your team, you should be able to extend him and/or give him a raise without exposing him to the rest of the league.
I don’t understand who the rule is supposed to protect. Banta-Cain and Alexander benefit with raises this year and as much security as any NFL player signed to a multi-year contract gets. The team gets to keep a couple of guys it took a chance on. Any team should be allowed first right of refusal to sign these “diamonds in the rough” to longer term contracts.
I thought all players had to go through waivers as soon as they were released???
“While the tactic might not violate the letter of any league rules, the Competition Committee should find a way to close this loophole, either by preventing such players from being re-signed by the team that cut them or by requiring them to pass through waivers.”
Yeah. Because this issue has caused SOOOO many problems thus far.
Just imagine, teams being denied the chance to sign elite talent like Tully Banta-Cain! It’s unconscionable!
While the tactic might not violate the letter of any league rules, the Competition Committee should find a way to close this loophole, either by preventing such players from being re-signed by the team that cut them or by requiring them to pass through waivers.
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Before the haters get all riled up….THERE IS NO rule against this as of today…….so correct… it did not violate the letter, consonant, vowel, number, egyptian hieroglyphic, or even caveman symbol of the “law” because there is no “law”. It was a good sound business move that was available to any NFL franchise. The purpose of having a deadline for players NOT to have to pass thru waivers…is so that these types of re-signings CAN be done up until the deadline. What is so hard to understand? But keep trying to stir up more hate Florio.
By rule, neither player could have been signed for 2010 by the Patriots until the first day of the 2010 league year.
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This should be the loophole to close, if any.
No reason they shouldn’t be able to re-sign them them to extensions if they want to. Players can sign or try their luck on the market.
Seriously. I am on board with this. Forget fixing the messed up overtime system. Ignore the bad officiating.
Fix this embarrassment to the game!
Looking for a fire where there’s NO smoke again? Seriously, does Belichick break a rule in your eyes whenever he draws a breath? Get a life. He rewarded two guys for doing a good job.
Only the Patriots would find, abuse, and get caught using such a loop hole. I am not stating that they are the only team who has or would use this, I am saying that they are the only ones arrogant enough to use it and get caught and not care that they get caught. Its gotten to the point where the Pats just assume (correctly it seems) that they will do what they want when they want with no consequences. Where as teams like the 49ers, and the Jets (to clear my bias I love the Niners, I also dislike the Jets and Rex Ryan (and the rest of the Ryan family)) get punished for similar malfeasance. The Pats are not the only team that seems to be untouched by NFL penalties whenever possible. Take the Redskins signing Albert Haynesworth less than a half an hour after free agency and no tampering chargers are filed. While the Niners are slammed with penalties for talking to an agent of a free agent. I’m am not saying that any team should be punished more or less but that all teams, players and coaches suffer equal penalties based on of rules and sentences for those rules as appose to Roger Goodell playing Judge, Jury, and Draft pick taker awayer.
Banta-Cain is such a badass name.
I think a move like that should cost the team a 2011 1st round pick
Florio: “While the tactic might not violate the letter of any league rules, the Competition Committee should find a way to close this loophole, either by preventing such players from being re-signed by the team that cut them or by requiring them to pass through waivers.”
Umm…why? Why is this newsworthy? Why should it be disallowed? For the life of me, I can’t figure out why you have an issue with any of this.
The league has all kinds of arbitrary deadlines in which you can or can’t do certain things. The fact that you personally don’t know all the ins-and-outs doesn’t make this a newsworthy story.
The Patriots just rewarded two players with contract extensions and to get it done they first had to rip up the first contract by releasing the players. WOW!!! Stop the presses.
Florio, you’ve done a superb job for yourself with this site but sometimes a little bit of common sense wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
If you think this is a story, you should go read up on how the “Likely To Be Earned (LTBE) incentive clauses are manipulated by all the teams to transfer cap space into future seasons. That’s a far more interesting process than this non-story of yours.
Why is everyone so worried about the foresight that patriots used to get deals done? Did they break any rules? NO Or as Belichick would say that’s the way he interpreted the rules… They didn’t cut Tom Brady they cat JAG Eric Alexander. People aren’t going to set their towns on fire to get a hold of Eric Alexander. The last time the average fan heard of Eric Alexander he was chasing Dallas Clark all over the field in the 2007 AFC championship game. It’s just the fact Belichick is playing chess and a team like the Redskins for example is playing checkers!!!!
It never ceases to amaze me how slanted Florio is against the Pats. If this were the Colts or any team that has an old fart 40 year old QB, these moves would have been a stroke of genius. And where was the reporting that Tom Brady was the first QB to throw five touchdowns in a quarter since the 1950s, and never in the NFL? Well, it wasn’t on this site that’s for sure. If Manning or Favre ever did such a thing Florio would be humping their legs all over this site in the next quarter. Not Brady though. Stop being a hater Florio. Nothing like inventing more news so you can report it.
Harvard Law School.
An Official Sponsor Of The New England Patriots.
Harvard Law School Alum like Alan Dershowitz, and Barack Obama would be so very proud of the way this franchise weasels past the rules of fair play… On and Off the Grid Iron.
Sometimes you expose yourself as a genuine moron. The only reason the teams sign these veterans is because the one year veteran deals count less against the salary cap. For instance, they were both paid $620K but their deals only counted $400K or so against the cap. The league does this to assist veterans, otherwise rosters would be full of rookies. It’s simple, and they had to cut them to resign them.
Please bring back the smart, non-whiny Florio from a few years ago, the guy who did a good job until this bitch that calls himself Mike Florio took over.
Close the loophole by just allowing teams to resign these players long term whenever they want. It doesn’t make sense to say to a team that they can’t lock up a player they want when there’s mutual interest on both sides to do a new deal.
Posted over three hours earlier than Young’s article and gives more information relating to the salary cap impact from the moves:
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/extra_points/2009/10/making_sense_of.html
And Alexander was re-signed, per both articles. Players can’t participate in practice without a contract.
Bill Belichick.
screw the haters… I’m not even close to being a Patriots fan.. but seriously he is one of the greatest coaches of all time. no question.
Why would you morons want to keep players from signing longer-term deals with teams they want to stay with? Why do you hate players becoming more financially secure? Dopes.
col·lu·sion (k-lzhn)
n.
A secret agreement between two or more parties for a fraudulent, illegal, or purpose.
That is a mighty strong word coming from a lawyer.
Who is being defrauded? Where is the illegality? Who is being deliberately mislead?
If Limbaugh doesn’t sue you maybe the Patriots should consider doing so.
If Alexander or Banta-Cain could get a better contract elsewhere – they were given the chance to leave. There’s no “unfair competition” issue here – if other teams wanted Alexander or Banta-Cain, they could have offered them better contracts. Issue closed.
Sometimes cheating becomes a way of life… and I suspect they do it out of habit. Of course often it’s arrogance… scamming the system makes them feel superior. Who knows… there was probably a legit way to do this.
These are the the things that lawyers do every day.
All perfectly legal.
Then you call for more rules. The more rules the more loopholes and lawyerly activity.
So who is objecting?
These were voluntary agreements entered into by both parties.
Old contracts were terminated and new contracts replaced them.
It appears that some trust was involved. It sure wasn’t like they were negotiating with Al Davis when he lied to Jeff George and cut him.
Jeez Florio:
You’re writing this because you needed to counterbalance all the mindless speculation you spewed earlier in the day regarding Merriman, Jackson et. al.
It’s getting pretty old when people to continue to accuse the Pats of cheating when they are operating within the rules, but ignore all the other crap that goes on outside of the rules – such as the various alleged incidents of the Jets’ tampering through the years………
Rewarding guys on the back end of their roster. Unbelievable! Damn Socialists
While the tactic might not violate the letter of any league rules, the Competition Committee should find a way to close this loophole,…
The tactic DOES NOT violate the letter of any league rules. And why should the Competition Committee do anything about a rule that, in essence, allows start of the season borderline roster players like Banta-Cain and Alexander to get rewarded for playing their assigned roles well for a team like the Patriots, or other teams who might have similar players they want to reward. Changing the rules would cause more harm than help for the “inexpensive” NFL players; is that what the Competition Committee is supposed to do? Or is the competition committee only supposed to put in rules that ensure that the frilly dresses that Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady wear during games do not get wrinkled by opposing defenses?
Ok Florio.
The Team is Happy. The Player is Happy.
Lets close this loophole in the new CBA so neither the team nor the player is happy.
I guess we can count on a strike/lockout in 2011 with lawyers like Florio at the negotiating table.
Bellicheat’s entire mindset is focused on how to get around the rules and in this case, he is not technically guilty of anything which viewed in the positive, is a step up from Spygate where he claimed (and Goodell later said so much that it was pure BS) he “misinterpreted” the rules.
Why is any of this news? Cheaters cheat, that’s what they do. When they can’t cheat anymore, they bend the rules. Its in their genetic makeup.
JimmySmith…….even 99% of the haters checked in saying there was no foul play..but I guess we had to have one or two morons (this means YOU) checking in with “cheating” comments. Try reading everything…..and actually comprehending it before EVER posting again. We are all dumber just reading your comments. There is no rule….no violation..no sneaking around anything……..The Patriots cut and re-signed two players who WANTED to play in New England…..they rewarded them with extensions and more money….no rules were broken..no cheating occured. If more teams paid attention to this stuff and actually did the same type of deals….we wouldn’t have 10 teams that are complete and total laughing stocks this season.
But hey..that doesn’t follow along with your “anti-Patriot agenda, does it. Keep drinkin’ the haterade….you make yourself look more stupid every time you open your mouth
Florio, I appreciate your post.
And you can ignore the morons and Pro-Patriot trolls who are too far up bellicheck’s ass to understand.
Who is getting defrauded here? Other teams that should have an opportunity to claim the players on waivers for the sake of balance.
Who is getting defrauded here? Financially IGNORANT players who are playing well on a 1 year deal who could make BIG bank at chances at unrestricted free-agency next year in an uncapped year, but bellicheck has convinved them that a 1 million raise is enough.
The Patriots constantly break and bend teh rules.
If it was baseball, I wouldn’t care because baseball has no semblance of competitive balance.
This matters, for all those with 80 IQ and below posting above, because in football we DO have competitive balance but the Patriots do everything to get around that, including but not limited to spygate. And now they have ways that players under the vet minimum deal and performing well won’t be available to teams who needs said players and might actually pay them what they’re REALLY worth.
Love the Hoodie!
Any team could have claimed these players off of waivers after they were released. It just so happens that the other teams were too busy with the following:
Skins – Who is doing the play calling?
Raiders – Did a police car pull up to the building?
Vikes – Who’s going to bring Lord Favre some more venison?
Bills – We still going no huddle?
Jets – Are we taking this play out of the playbook?
Boys – Should we raise the jumbotron to 87.73 ft?
9ers – Should we play Crabtree?
Titans – Lets try not to lose by more than 40 the rest of the season.
Rams – Is this person worthy of buying this piece of crap franchise?
Browns – When is the next bus trip to a camp?
Giants – What the hell happened last weekend?
Saints – When do we remember we are the Saints?
@ Cleric John Preston
you should also read sloooooooooooowly
Ken1313 says:
October 21, 2009 8:35 AM
JimmySmith…….even 99% of the haters checked in saying there was no foul play..but I guess we had to have one or two morons (this means YOU) checking in with “cheating” comments. Try reading everything…..and actually comprehending it before EVER posting again. We are all dumber just reading your comments. There is no rule….no violation..no sneaking around anything……..The Patriots cut and re-signed two players who WANTED to play in New England…..they rewarded them with extensions and more money….no rules were broken..no cheating occured. If more teams paid attention to this stuff and actually did the same type of deals….we wouldn’t have 10 teams that are complete and total laughing stocks this season.
But hey..that doesn’t follow along with your “anti-Patriot agenda, does it. Keep drinkin’ the haterade….you make yourself look more stupid every time you open your mouth
@Cleric John Preston says:
October 21, 2009 8:40 AM
Because of your blind hatred for the Pats and BB you come off looking like an ignorant fool. There is one major flaw in your without-a-clue, one-sided diatribe. Understand that it takes two to tango. The player and the team. You fashion your words like BB had a gun to the players heads (AND their agents) and forced them to sign. If they did not want to be there they would not have signed. As Florio wrote in an article yesterday “the players clearly have leverage”. The players clearly had leverage because if they had been cut out of retribution (especially TBC) because he did not go along with this he would have been grabbed on waivers quickly. Or if it was before waivers there would have been bidding by multiple teams for his services I would bet. Consequently if they went to the end of the season and were FA’s they would have signed with who they pleased. They did not have to go this route – they wanted to be there.
In NE.
With the Pats.
On BB’s team (not on your team ignoramus)
You’re so stupid you think a quarterback is a refund.
Any team could have claimed these players off of waivers after they were released.
That is actually not true, Banta-Cain and Alexander were UFAs during the time they were released, they were never on waivers. So, the situation was really better for the players and teams in the league where the highest bidder could have signed either one of those two future HOFers (yeah, I’m joking about HOFers).
Only the Pats doing something smart, and classy, could result in this many posts about a couple of borderline roster players who happen to be entirely serviceable at the roles Belichick wants them to play. So serviceable that Belichick wanted to reward their service. Of course, that is why Florio posted on the topic, because he knows the Pats topics generate more posts, no matter how insignificant.
Cleric John Preston says:
October 21, 2009 8:40 AM
Florio, I appreciate your post.
And you can ignore the morons and Pro-Patriot trolls who are too far up bellicheck’s ass to understand.
Who is getting defrauded here? Other teams that should have an opportunity to claim the players on waivers for the sake of balance.
Who is getting defrauded here? Financially IGNORANT players who are playing well on a 1 year deal who could make BIG bank at chances at unrestricted free-agency next year in an uncapped year, but bellicheck has convinved them that a 1 million raise is enough.
The Patriots constantly break and bend teh rules.
If it was baseball, I wouldn’t care because baseball has no semblance of competitive balance.
This matters, for all those with 80 IQ and below posting above, because in football we DO have competitive balance but the Patriots do everything to get around that, including but not limited to spygate. And now they have ways that players under the vet minimum deal and performing well won’t be available to teams who needs said players and might actually pay them what they’re REALLY worth.
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What are you? An aspiring agent? Team wants player, player wants to stay with team. What’s the problem?
You did it again Florio,
You stepped on the neck of patriot nation.
Yes, the dimwits don’t understand how it basically screws the players involved in the deal, go figure.
They need to go back to shoveling snow, the only job they qualify for.
So this guy walks into the psychiatrist’s office with a chicken on his head.
The psychiatrist walks up and asks, “Can I help you?”
The chicken answers, “Yea can you get this guys off my ass?”
“Yes, the dimwits don’t understand how it basically screws the players involved in the deal, go figure.”
_______
Say whaaaaaat????????
How are Alexander or Banta-Cain screwed in the deal? They AGREED to the deal. They WANTED the deal.
You Patriot haters that grasp at every possible straw you can are such a joke. This is THE non-issue of non-issues.
GUESS WHAT GUYS, THERE ARE NO RULES THAT SAY A COACH CAN TAKE A POOP AT THE STADIUM AND I HAVE IT ON GOOD AUTHORITY THAT BELICHICK DOES!!! OH NOES HE IS CIRCUMVENTING THE RULES AGAIN!!!
“gkg020 says:
October 21, 2009 10:12 AM
You did it again Florio,
You stepped on the neck of patriot nation.
Yes, the dimwits don’t understand how it basically screws the players involved in the deal, go figure.
They need to go back to shoveling snow, the only job they qualify for.”
yeah, because massachusetts isnt the healthcare and education capital of the world or anything. gkg, you are an absolute moron.
Cleric John Preston
You are so ignorant you don’t even understand what happened here and what the ramifications are for the Patriots, these players and the Leauge as a whole and comprehend that no rule was broken (as Darth Florio even had to admit). You can’t understand it, so you take the moron bait Darth Florio set out for you to obsess upon. In that regard you’ve performed marvelously.
I wouldn’t be talking about people with IQs of 80 if I were you since yours is clearly a factor of 10 lower (that mean’s you are about an 8, since I know you have no idea what a factor of ten means I thought I better try to explain it to you).
Now go home and get you shine box.
Florio – I’m a bit surprised by you.
Here we have an NFL rule that’s intent seems to prevent teams from rewarding performance and good behavior
Seems to me you should be decrying that rule rather than encouraging the “competition” committee from closing a loophole that encourages players to compete and perform well.
Aren’t you aware of how many players have huge guaranteed contracts who don’t earn it, and what a problem that is for the NFL?
You want to keep that and close any loophole that rewards players who play well???????