Richard Sherman Negotiates his own Contract – The World Is Coming to an End

Richard Sherman has done the unthinkable and negotiated his own contract.   There has been a lot of uproar over this and for some reason many people seem to feel threatened by this.  Why is this such a headline maker.  What it is about Richard Sherman negotiating his own deal that is a problem?  If you believe Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk  then every player needs an agent.  No questions asked.  PERIOD!!!!!  Holy crap dude simmer down a bit and look around before you make crazy comments like that.

As with everything.  Every player is different.  While I do actually agree that most players will need an agent.  Not because they could not negotiate but because they just don’t want to.  Agents do serve a very useful purpose.   But really be honest not all agents are going to have the best interest of every player they represent in mind.   Not everything is going to be fair and easy to understand.  It is just the way it is.   There are a select few where it really will not matter if they have an agent.  They will more than likely be able to get basically the same deal that they would have by having an agent.

It seems that people are thinking that Richard Sherman did this to save the money he would have had to pay an agent.  It is possible that is part of it.  More it is probably that he just wanted to do it.  He knew what kind of deal a corner back about to turn 30 coming off a major injury could get.  He has no idea how well he will recover from the injury and neither does the team.  Both sides are taking a serious risk here.   What Richard Sherman was willing to do was bet on himself recovering and returning to something close to what he was.

The deal basically comes down to $5 million guaranteed for this year and the rest of it based on how well he plays.    A player basing his deal on if he plays well.  WOW who would have thought of that.  If you listen to the talking heads he could have gotten a much better deal with more guaranteed money.

Maybe that is true but probably not.  He got a deal he was comfortable with.  The team got a deal they were comfortable with.  Richard Sherman has made over $40 million  in his playing career already and adding $5 million is not chump change.  If it works out he will add at least another $20 million.  Which appears to be something that he is comfortable with.

He also got to basically pick the team that he wanted to go to by doing it this way.  He stays on the West coast in the same division so he will get to play the Seahawks twice.  I am sure he would enjoy getting a few picks off of Wilson.

So lay off talking heads.   This is not the start of a trend.  Yes most players will continue to use agents – as they should.  This deal has worked out well for both sides.  More power to Richard Sherman for learning something new and being willing to take a chance on himself to earn his money.