So Ty Law is still upset about the "lack of respect" the Patriots are showing by paying him a paltry $16.9 million over the next two seasons. We should all be so disrespected.
Law's latest tirade came in a Boston Globe piece that in appeared on March 13. The All-Pro corner voiced his displeasure in the article by claiming the Patriots lied to him about continuing to negotiate a contract extension and that he no longer wished to be a member of the Patriots organization. He even suggested he'd be willing to buy his way out of the two remaining years of the seven-year, $51 million dollar deal he signed in 1999 in order to become a free agent.
In the subsequent days, Law seems willing to speak to anyone who'll listen – most recently to James Brown on Sporting News Radio – about his desire to leave the organization.
Nice try, Ty, but it ain't gonna happen.
Why would the Patriots allow the best cornerback in football – and make no mistake that's exactly what Law is at the moment – to walk away and potentially join one of their opponents? That's not the kind of sound business decision Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli have made a habit of making during their tenure together.
While Law may very well have some reasonable points in the midst of his diatribes (his ability to continue eating by earning a $1 million training camp bonus most assuredly was not one of them), he knows one rather unavoidable fact: The Patriots hold all the cards.
According to Law (the Patriots haven't commented on the situation), the team said it would no longer negotiate any potential extensions that would lower a rather bloated salary cap number. The cornerback is slated to count roughly $10.5 million against the cap, and since the team is already under the necessary threshold, it could simply opt to keep things as they are and have Law back in its secondary next season.
The Patriots also could trade the disgruntled star with only the unamortized portion of his signing bonus ($5.6 million) left to absorb. That would be a healthy amount of dead money to deal with, but it still would save them around $5 million (not including any potential replacement that would need to be signed).
Belichick could even decide to release Law outright – although that option would seem the least attractive for the Patriots since Law would essentially get what he wants and the team would receive nothing in return and still would owe $5.6 million on the cap ($2.8 million this year and next if he was let go on or after June 1).
But none of these scenarios involve Law having any control – and that's why he's making such a fuss. He understands that at age 30 and coming off arguably the best season of his nine-year career, his marketability might never be higher. If he has to wait two years (or even one of Belichick gives him the ax after the 2004 campaign) he'll be that much older and perhaps less attractive to potential suitors.
Given the absurd contracts signed by the likes of Champ Bailey (Denver), Ahmed Plummer (San Francisco) and Antoine Winfield (Minnesota), Law believes he's worth more. Given his performance over the last three seasons, he's right to think that. But that doesn't mean the Patriots should bow at his feet and fork over a $20 million signing bonus, which is the number Law's agent, Carl Poston, was quoted as asking for in the Globe piece.
After getting past some of Law's bluster (really Ty, how is anyone to take you seriously when you're talking in the millions of dollars and refer to having to eat?), he may have a point. Football is the only sport where the player has very little power. It's one of the things that make it the best of the four major sports, but at the same time it's one of the unfortunate aspects of the game as well.
Players sign backloaded deals all over the league under the assumption that more than likely they won't ever see those big-money days at the end. Even a player who contributed about as much as a player can – as Law did in 2003 – finds himself in a tenuous position. He watched his best friend, Lawyer Milloy, get unceremoniously dumped just days before the season opener last September. He's not dumb or naïve enough to believe the same thing couldn't happen to him come this September. That's why he's kicking and screaming now, hoping the team acquiesces to his demands and sets him free.
The problem for Law is that Belichick doesn't make these decisions with his heart; only his head (and the rest of his inner circle's) has any input. So he isn't about to shy away from Law or Poston and do something he's not prepared or willing to do. That's just not the Patriots way.
