Written by Something strange and unique happened while I was watching NFL Red Zone last Sunday. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because it wasn’t clear. Something was going down, and everybody needed to stop and look. Scott Hanson had broken away from the Chiefs-Bengals game to show us at a bare-chested Antonio Brown prancing through the end zone at MetLife Stadium, 60 yards away from where the game was going on.
My immediate reaction, shared by Hanson, was that Brown had gone mad and quit on his team. It was a reasonable conclusion based on Brown’s recent past. Tom Brady urged us to have compassion. Later, we learned head coach Bruce Arians vehemently suggested that Brown leave. We still do not know all of the details regarding the situation, but as we dig further into it, the core issue appears to be a labor dispute.
One of the NFL’s all-time best receivers, Brown had signed a $6.2M incentive-laden contract to play this year for the Buccaneers. He was on the brink of reaching milestones that would have earned him $1M of those incentive payments. Reportedly, he had requested a guarantee for his incentives.
Brown’s checkered past has cost him considerably. By comparison, DeAndre Hopkins of the Cardinals is currently playing under a 2-year, $54.5M contract. Hopkins is injured and receives his total contract amount because the Cardinals took on the risk of injury in their contract. Brown, however, felt compelled to play while injured to earn his incentive payments. I expect he believed it was a conspiracy to keep him from meeting the incentive targets.
I do not believe this justifies Brown’s actions. What I am saying is that these types of contracts are unfair. Players should be paid based on the value of their potential contributions. If off-the-field issues exist, then teams should avoid signing a contract. Allowing incentive-laden contracts is unfair to most teams and circumvents the intent of the salary cap. Do you think Brown would have agreed to play for the Lions or Jets at a fraction of his value? Of course not. He signed with the Bucs to catch passes from Brady and win another Super Bowl ring.
I think what we are seeing is the end of an era. The “free agency” age is winding down or evolving into a new phase where money isn’t everything.
Bob Boland and I have been playing editorial pickleball over the last month, trying to explain the rationale for the current Major League Baseball lockout. This week, Bob wrote an excellent article describing Curt Flood’s effort to break league owners’ dominance over its players, effectively breaking a cycle and ushering in a more level playing field between the two sides.
I believe that sports are a reflection of society. What we saw in sports during the sixties was also happening elsewhere. Buffalo Springfield chronicled in their anthem, For What It’s Worth. Something was happening. There was a breakdown in the system. An end of an era. A new age.
Fifty-five years later, we are seeing another shift, one more toward the freedom that Curt Flood sought rather than the free agency that he received. Stephen Stills’ lyrics still apply.
“The Great Resignation” is the label we are giving the recent phenomenon of people quitting their jobs, supposedly in an attempt to align their career with their values. Rather than an endless zero-sum game to get paid as much as possible, they seek jobs that provide meaning. If you are in a situation that isn’t working out, well, throw off your shoulder pads, head to the locker room to grab your things, and hail an Uber.
Viktor Frankl described his experience in a Nazi concentration camp in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl believed that our deepest desire is to find meaning in life and those that can will survive any obstacles presented to them. Connecting your work and relationships to your suffering delivers a sense of purpose. Without it, you become apathetic and a victim of your circumstances.
My frustration with the state of the MLB contract negotiations is its backward focus on divvying up the pie and continuing the free-agent era. Free agency brought money, but not meaning. However, most athletes have found meaning by using their resources to help their communities and their time to build relationships with their fans.
Like MLB proved with its Field of Dreams game last August, we like good ideas that connect the past to the future. Why not focus on ways to leverage professional sports to provide its fans with a more meaningful experience? Make the rules more conducive and entertaining to younger generations while carrying on traditions that appeal to older generations. Value relationships over revenue. The revenue will take care of itself. Build it, and we will come.
We need to avoid spectacles in sports like we saw last Sunday with Antonio Brown. It doesn’t matter if he quit or the Buccaneers cut him. The NFL embarrassed itself by letting it happen.
Creating a win-win between the sports and their fans would usher in a new era of freedom and encourage us all to participate in “The Great Resignation” by rejecting apathy and pursuing meaning.
I’m always going to root for the fans. Hooray for our side!