One of the worst contracts any NFL team has given a player in recent years was the deal the Raiders gave cornerback DeAngelo Hall in 2008. That year, Hall got a $7 million signing bonus and had already made $1 million in base salary when the Raiders cut him midway through the season. Hall says that’s a big part of the reason he doesn’t need to play for money anymore.
Hall, who went to Washington after leaving Oakland and is now on his third contract with the Redskins, said in an interview with Andrew Siciliano on NFL Network that it didn’t bother him when Washington cut him in March and then re-signed him to a contract that paid him far less than he had been scheduled to make. Hall says that after making all that money in Oakland, money doesn’t need to be his top priority anymore.
“I’ve been blessed,” Hall said. “I’ve been in this league a long time, I’ve made a lot of money – I got $8 million to play eight games in Oakland. So for me this time around it wasn’t about the money.”
Hall says that he thinks the Redskins are building a special team, and he just wants to be a part of it. And he doesn’t want contracts like his deal, or the enormous contract the Redskins gave Albert Haynesworth in 2009, to hold the team back.
“We started something here in Washington with coach [Mike] Shanahan,” Hall said. “That was the biggest thing I wanted to stress. I felt like my contract along with Haynesworth was the reason we were in the situation we were in. So for me it wasn’t about the money. I wanted to come back here, I wanted to finish something I started; I grew up in the Virginia Beach area, I’m a local kid, went to Virginia Tech so I wanted to be a part of this football team. I’ve been a part of it when we weren’t so good so to finally be on the cusp of being great, I want to be a part of that. I was willing to take that pay cut and get back on this football team and help us win.”
After agreeing to a deal that gave him a $250,000 signing bonus, $1 million in base salary and $1 million in incentives, Hall is likely to give the Redskins their money’s worth this season.
