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Apparently, Keenan McCardell is using a more recent edition of the English language dictionary than I am. Despite signing a four-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that states he plays football for a living and they pay him $10 million to do it, McCardell has deemed that agreement void. Ya see, he had a good season last year, establishing himself as the "No. 1" receiver rather than the "No. 2," and now he feels his contract should have a little more substance to it.

"It is fair for any employee in any line of work to receive a pay raise when they are exceeding their expected roles within their company, or receive a promotion and increased responsibilities," said McCardell.

Man, I love it when athletes compare professional football to a "line of work." Does Keenan also expect two fifteen-minute breaks and thirty minutes for lunch? What's he bringing to the pot-luck company Christmas party I wonder? Here's my main problem with this, Keenan's contract does not stipulate his role as being Wide Receiver No. 1, 2, or 15. I'm not even sure if it is specific to the wide receiver position. In any case, the contract is to simply play football and says nothing about where you land on the depth chart at any particular time. I understand Keenan's gripe, but at the same time, I say a deal is a deal. After all, if Keenan ends up having a terrible season and falls off the depth chart entirely, he still gets paid as the No. 2. Would he be willing to renege on his contract as easily if in doing so he was giving money instead of taking it? Of course, he wouldn't.

If Keenan McCardell thinks he should be paid more money for performing better than expected, then he should blame no one but himself and his agent for not getting such incentives written into the contract. It's a keen clause and players sign into it all the time. Why should he get the same benefit as those guys when they had the foresight to get it in writing and he did not? If you don't have performance-based incentives in your contract, you play your butt off for the life of the deal and you go get a better deal as a free agent. That's how it works and Keenan should know that because that's exactly what he did when he came over from Jacksonville.

You think Mark Prior deserves to make $2 million when Kevin Appier is making $12 million? How about Albert Pujols, you think he doesn't perform better than his $7 million salary? If pro athletes start turning their backs on contracts just because they feel they've put up good numbers, the NHL won't be the only sport locked out for long. Free agency has done enough damage to sports, but can you imagine if an athlete could just sit out and make himself a semi-free agent anytime he wanted to? If I got a home run in my first at-bat of the season, I might just take a seat and point to my other-worldly batting average and slugging percentage. Keenan McCardell seems like a nice, articulate guy, but this whole thing reeks of something Leon from the Budweiser commercials would do. You know, the guy who tells his coach he can do more for his team by sitting on the bench and looking anguished for the cameras, asking the camera guy, "Yo, Money, what lens you got on me?"

McCardell skipped out of every team meeting, practice, and game from July to October, and watched his team go 1-5 while he sat and waited for his salary hike. Despite meetings with Coach Gruden and teammate Simeon Rice publicly pleading for him to come back, "Leon" McCardell sat on his million-dollar hands and demanded a trade if the Bucs weren't going to pay him the money he felt he deserved, even threatening to sit out the entire season if they did neither.

"Leon" got his wish today--well, sort of. Today Bucs GM Bruce Allen swallowed his pride and granted McCardell his trade. In the end, McCardell's principles cost him $705,882. Ironic that a player demanding money was willing to sacrifice so much of it. And here's the best part...

The San Diego Chargers, McCardell's new team, aren't planning on restructuring his contract either.

Play on, Leon.

# posted by j.h.k. @ 6:02 PM