With so much on the line, money equals respect in NFL
Mar 26, 2021, 7:20 AM | Updated: 7:27 am
“The Broncos overpaid for Shelby.”
“Von called their bluff.”
“They didn’t have to reset the market with Justin Simmons.”
Some of my esteemed colleagues don’t like the size of these contracts. They want to pay the players less. Like DMac says, though, it’s not your money, so why do you care?
But there is more to it than that. In the last five years, the Broncos have struggled to foster a winning locker room culture. And that won’t change if you don’t find a way to not only keep your best players but to keep your best players happy.
How do you do that?
Easy.
You pay them.
At every level, the game of football is about sacrifice. Sacrificing your body for your team, for your coaches, for your tribe — for a purpose that is bigger than you. This sacrifice is painful and met with many roadblocks. On the other side of every monumental effort is someone pushing just as hard with just as much on the line.
Crack!
The good coaches and GMs understand this and reward the players who set the lofty standard. A handsome contract for a productive player affirms the style of play you appreciate, setting the example in the locker room for all of the young players to look up to.
“If you play like Shelby, Justin and Von, then you’ll get paid, too.”
That big contract is the carrot on the end of the professional football stick. Everyone is chasing it. But it isn’t just about the money; it’s about respect. If you don’t have respect in the NFL, you have nothing. The money is just the symbol of that respect. That’s all a player needs to keep throwing himself into the fire.
One day in the middle of the 2003 season, when I was a practice squad receiver, Rod Smith sent me upstairs to get his check. As I was walking back down the stairs with that envelope in my hand, I took a peek at the number inside the envelope. It nearly took my breath away to see how much he made that week compared to me. I was the small fish in the money pond.
But then we all went out on the field, and that check didn’t come with us. No one had any cash in their pockets out there on the grass, and no one was talking about money. All that mattered was what you were willing to sacrifice.
By the time Rod sent me upstairs that day to get his check, I was already very familiar with what he was willing to give — for his teammates, for his coaches and for me, the practice squad receiver from California.
The example Rod set on the field put the money into context and let me understand what the Denver Broncos stood for.
Whatever you reward becomes the standard.
Whatever you fail to reward becomes a lesson.
So what is it that these Denver Broncos stand for?
We’re fixin’ to find out.
