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The contracts for this year's crop of top NFL rookies seem to be the biggest ever, but they're almost as interesting for what they don't pay as for what they do.
Contrary to widespread media reports, neither No. 1 Fitzgerald pick Eli Manning nor No. 3 pick Larry Fitzgerald received a $20 million signing bonus. What each player did get is a complex package of bonuses in deals that appear to make them the highest-paid untested NFL players in history, but that left many people confused over the true value of the deals.
The phrase "signing bonus" has been tossed around to describe all compensation in a contract that a player is guaranteed to receive even if he doesn't play a single game. At the risk of splitting hairs, at press time for this story, the highest actual rookie signing bonus this year was the $8 million that the Oakland Raiders agreed to pay No. 2 pick Robert Gallery.
"I think there are some liberties taken when some of the folks outside the organization interpret the contract," said John Idzik, senior director of football operations for the Arizona Cardinals, who would not comment directly on the club's reported $60 million deal with wide receiver Fitzgerald. "I think that is where you are seeing these very large numbers that in many cases are not entirely accurate."
Here's what Manning really got:
A $3 million signing bonus.
A $9 million option bonus, which the team will pay in 2005 to extend the deal to the 2010 season.
A $5 million buyback bonus, which the team will pay in the second or third year of the contract to buy back two years of the deal.
A $3 million bonus in incentives that are deemed "not likely to be earned" under the NFL collective-bargaining agreement.
Rival agents last week questioned how the contract could be touted as having $20 million in guaranteed money when $8 million is contingent on Manning achieving performance goals and the Giants buying back two years of the contract.
But Manning's $20 million in guaranteed dollars is Getting paid
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real, even though it is not paid in one lump sum, said sources with the Giants. If, for example, the Giants cut Manning before his first professional game, he would receive all of his salary for 2004 through 2009 - which adds up to $17 million - plus $3 million in signing bonus.
"If they cut him today, he gets $20 million," said Tom Condon, Manning's agent.
What is less clear is whether Fitzgerald's reported $20 million in guaranteed money is truly there. Fitzgerald gets a $7.5 million signing bonus and a $5.037 million option bonus, which gets paid next year if the Cardinals pick up the option on the deal. Fitzgerald also has $6.8 million in guaranteed salary.
But that $6.8 million guarantee backs up the $5.037 million option bonus, and the guarantee on the $6.8 million goes away once the option is exercised in 2005, said sources with knowledge of the contract.
Fitzgerald also gets an additional $2.7 million if he plays a minimum of 35 percent of offensive plays in the first year, or 45 percent in any other year, and if the team or Fitzgerald hit any one of 12 minimum performance targets. That bonus is available in every year of his contract, and agents agree that Fitzgerald will probably earn it in his first year. "If the kid doesn't get at least one of [the performance targets], the kid is the worst receiver ever," said one agent. Despite that, the $2.7 million is still, technically, not a guarantee.
One contract that has gotten relatively little attention is Gallery's. Gallery
even though his guaranteed signing and option bonus total $14.5 million, about $500,000 more than that of the No. 1 pick in last year's draft, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer. Gallery, an offensive tackle, also may get an additional $2.5 million in bonuses that become guaranteed under certain circumstances.
Although agents disagree on the precise values of the deals, they do agree that this is a good year for first-round rookie contracts. The contracts are especially creative and include multiple bonuses because agents and teams were challenged by the fact that they could only prorate signing bonuses over six years, compared to seven last year. Under the league's collective-bargaining agreement, signing bonuses may be prorated three years past the last capped year in the contract, which is 2006. The NFL and NFL Players Association are in talks to extend the CBA, which expires after the 2007 season.
"This is the most explosive first round ever because of the presence of so many dramatic offensive players and franchise quarterbacks," said veteran agent Leigh Steinberg, who represents No. 11 pick Ben Roethlisberger.
Moorad named CEO of Diamondbacks and Agency must defend clients
The new head of Moorad Sports Management knows his competitors will try to steal his clients now that veteran agent Jeff Moorad has left to become CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But Greg Genske says he's ready.
"While [Moorad's departure] may come as a shock to people in the sports industry, the people at Moorad Sports have known about this day and been preparing for this day for over a year," said Genske, 32, the new CEO of the Newport Beach, Calif., firm, which represents 40 MLB players, 40 minor league baseball players and five NFL players. The client list includes stars such as MLB's Manny Ramirez, Luis Gonzalez, Shannon Stewart and Darin Erstad, and NFL running back Edgerrin James.
But one rival agent said, "It's open season," echoing the sentiments of others in the representation business, none of whom would comment for the record.
"I think other agents have been trying to steal our clients since I joined the firm," Genske said. "It is just the nature of our business. We are quite confident that our clients are satisfied and will be staying with us."
Genske was hired last November as executive vice president and was groomed by Moorad to take over the practice. Genske said Moorad, 49, told him that being a sports agent was "a young man's business."
It is somewhat ironic that the new head of a firm that other agents predict will be raided was part of the legal team that won a $44 million jury award in a trial over client stealing. Genske was one of the lawyers who convinced a federal jury that agent David Dunn acted inappropriately in taking 50 NFL player clients from the firm of Dunn's former partners, Moorad and Leigh Steinberg.
Brock Gowdy, managing director of the San Francisco office of Morgan Lewis Bockius and head of the legal team that handled the case for Steinberg and Moorad, said Genske was instrumental in winning the verdict.
"He is tough and forthright," Gowdy said. "I wouldn't be misled by his boyish charm."
Kent Roger, a partner at Morgan Lewis, said third-year associates are rarely given the responsibility Genske had in such a big trial. "He is a bulldog," Roger said.
Genske said part of his job on the litigation team was to become an expert in the business of athlete representation.
Scott Parker, a Moorad Sports lawyer who has worked on some of the firm's biggest contracts in both baseball and football, said Genske has become "very capable and very competent" in a short time.
He noted, too, that all the agents and client service managers who worked for Moorad for years are staying with the firm, including Brian Peters and Gene Mato.
Genske said the "Moorad" name also is staying, at least for now.
Among the challenges Genske has to deal with is an MLB Players Association investigation into whether Moorad's switch from representation to management violated the union's conflict of interest rules (see related story above).
A major football client has fired the company, complaining about a contract negotiated by Moorad and Parker just before Moorad left the firm. Sean Taylor, the fifth pick in this year's NFL draft, fired the agency just days before Moorad left and days after signing a deal with the Washington Redskins.
Taylor re-signed with NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus, the agent whom Taylor had fired right after the draft in favor of Moorad and Mato. Rosenhaus said Taylor now thinks his deal is below market value, and that the fact that Moorad negotiated the deal and then quit the agent business is an issue he has taken up with the NFL Players Association.
Genske replied, "We think the deal will stand up over time as a good deal."
The Taylor deal was one that Moorad had a major role in negotiating, but in the last several months Genske, Parker and other agents in the firm have been taking over much of the contract and other work, which is why Genske thinks the firm will be able to retain player clients. High-profile baseball clients, including Shawn Green, Stewart and Gonzalez, have said they plan to remain with the firm.
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