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January 28, 2015
The tale of Trent Richardson gets stranger by the day. No, I’m not talking about him getting traded or his continual disappointment between the lines on an NFL field. I’m talking about his very standing in the league and with his current team, the Indianapolis Colts. Trent Richardson missed the Colts’ final two playoff games and all indications were that it was for “personal reasons,” but it has since come out that the Colts suspended T-Rich for conduct detrimental to the team. One thing that doesn’t seem in doubt is that Richardson missed a Saturday walk-through the day before the AFC title game. Everything else is mired in a fog that seems destined to end up in a fight between Richardson and the Colts.
With the Colts claiming that they suspended Richardson for conduct detrimental to the team, they’re also claiming that they can void the guaranteed final year of Richardson’s rookie contract. That contract was once a fully-guaranteed four-year $20.5 million deal. If the Colts are right and they get to void the final year – $3.18 million – Richardson will only have collected about $17.3 million of what he negotiated. And you can be sure that Trent Richardson and the NFL Player’s Association will fight the Colts on this.
Trent Richardson told Mike Wells of ESPN that he was dealing with a family emergency.
“I had to miss walk-through,” Richardson told ESPN.com on Sunday. “I’m dealing with a very serious family emergency. I’m still at the hospital. I wouldn’t purposely just miss walk-through.”
Meanwhile, the Colts experienced some success using former Buckeye Daniel “Boom” Herron in T-Rich’s place. I don’t want to pretend like Herron was at risk of taking over in Marshawn Lynch fashion, but he scored two touchdowns, rushed for 170 yards and caught almost 130 over the Colts’ three-game playoff run. Herron is a restricted free agent and I’m sure the Colts would love to use some of that Richardson money elsewhere.
The Colts have some cap space available to them according to Spotrac.com, with just over $9 million to spend. At the same time, 2015 is the final year of Andrew Luck’s rookie deal. The Colts have to start thinking hard about the salary cap because they’re blessed with a quarterback who is going to be deserving of some serious money, at least in the realm of what Colin Kaepernick got with his six-year $114 million dollar deal that guarantees him $61 million. For reference, that cap number is set to be in the $15-20 million range for the next five years.
In a league with complex financials, including “rollovers,” how much motivation to save that cap space is driving their suspension of Trent Richardson? If it was a player they wanted to keep, would they have suspended him? It’s tough to say without knowing all the details, but it’s safe to say NFL teams apply rules and standards differently to different players. From an outsider’s perspective, it would seem Trent Richardson’s performance for the team warrants him none of that leeway.
16 Comments
“Conduct detrimental to the team” = 3 yards per carry.
“If it was a player they wanted to keep, would they have suspended him?”
Seems to me that “normal” orgs wouldn’t create a fiction and mess with a non-productive player because he was low-hanging salary cap fruit. It would worry about creating a toxic atmosphere between players and the FO. That’s something Banner would do, but Indy? My guess is that there’s something going on with Trent. Teams don’t arbitrarily suspend a player stuck in the hospital because of a “very serious family emergency.” Something doesn’t smell right, and it’s Trent’s portrayal of his victimization.
I’m a little surprised that teams don’t play hardball and sue knuckleheads for breach of contract when they get suspended, especially when said knuckleheads aren’t part of the team’s future.
Teams count on players to provide a service in return for pay, and when they violate the rules and cannot provide that service through their own negligence, they have breached their agreement.
Yeah, I know. Never happen. Too much trouble.
I heard that Irsay requested the suspension after discovering Trent’s backhair was clogging every drain in the facility much to the detriment of the team’s vain attempts to take poohs.
Imagine him Gordon and Manziel here, ugh! Maybe Bannardi wasn’t so wrong after all.
Lombanner?
http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/-def9f995-474f-4a67-9c26-02158216e61f.gif?width=320&height=180
Poor guy’s only going to get $17.3mm for 3 years of whatever you call what he did on the field. Set for life. Such a shame.
I hope that he is set for life. Many of these guys are not despite the money they make. Also, I suspect he’ll have opportunities to milk a few more million out of his career if he’s willing to become a 3rd down RB (he can catch, he can pick up the blitz and maybe run if the defense doesn’t expect it).
If that’s the case, it’s insane, but yes, I know it happens. For a simple raw number analogy (not counting for inflation or the investment power of varied sums of money or taxes, etc.), consider this scenario:
Let’s say you have a gross household income of $188,000, which puts you in the top 5% of households in the United States (2012 figures). Over an uninterrupted textbook working life of 43 years, you will have earned: $8,084,000
Less than half of what Trent got in 3 years.
yeah, but it doesn’t work out that way for most because they get it all in a lump sum. so, instead of being smart and budgeting off the $188K for 43 years, they buy the $20mil house along with all the cars and $10K dinners for buddies, et cetera. Then, they get in over their heads, lose the stuff they have leveraged and are flat-broke.
It’s the same principle as the “lottery-curse.” In fact, 78% of NFL players file for bankruptcy within 5 years of retiring:
http://www.munknee.com/78-of-nfl-players-go-bankrupt-within-5-years/
Steve Young had it right when he signed his last 49er contract to be paid out over 20 years instead of the life of the contract.
Here is a humorous irony. I have been a Colts fan for over 50 years. My other favorite team in sports, the New York Yankees for over 50 years. My heroes growing up were John Unitas and Micky Mantle. Now my favorite 2 teams could be battling their respective Player’s Union for contract issues. Such is life.
Would love to have that problem, Brewsters Millions style
Another cheap move by the Colts.
True and they had too put a gun too his head too make him sign the contract!
And how much did the Colts make in that time?
Les, been a Colts fan since 1953! Johnny Unitas (#19) R.I.P. my all time FB great! Colts were originally the Boston Yanks owned by Kate Smith and her husband, Ted Collins. Bellied up after one year, became New York Bulldogs (or Yankees), then Dallas Texans and finally the Colts. I differ with you on baseball though! Red Sox fan since 1941and favorite play Ted Williams! (R.I.P.) Both my icons passed away in 1996 (?).