When it comes to getting key players signed and under contract, what can be said about the Cincinnati Bengals that hasn’t already been said about the Dallas Cowboys? The amount of counterproductive feet-dragging is staggering at times.
The Trey Hendrickson saga is well documented, but the ongoing standoff with first-round pick Shemar Stewart might be even more mind boggling. It’s not about contract length or money, so why let some new contract language keep your top pick out of training camp?
Stewart has been very public in his ripping of team management, but today owner Mike Brown spoke out as training camp is opening up around the NFL.
Brown talked at Monday’s media luncheon and said that a guaranteed rookie contract has “never happened,” but it’s holding up Stewart’s negotiations.
“We feel there’s really no reason why it shouldn’t be [signed],” Brown said. “The issue seems to be about guaranteed money if, in the event, he acted contrary to league rules or our rules. A criminal situation — something at that level.
“That’s never happened and we (Bengals) have been here for a long time. And that is what is holding up this contract. From our vantage point, it is a form of foolishness for this not to get done.”
Did anyone hear an acknowledgement from Brown that he’s a part of this “foolishness?”
Brown says Shemar Stewart’s holdup isn’t about money
As anyone would guess, this doesn’t have anything to do with the actual money because of course it’s doesn’t; Brown even says so.
“There is no dispute over the money,” Brown said. “It’s just a dispute, in his mind, that if he did something that really deserved punishment that he would want the whole contract guaranteed and we would want to say, ‘Well, it isn’t guaranteed, if you did something to that level.’
“I don’t want to pay somebody who, hypothetically, could be in jail for four years at this level of pay. Do I think any of that is going to happen? No. That is why I use the word ‘foolishness. We want to get it done and get him in here working. He is a good young guy.”
Seriously? Is this a good way to start off a business relationship? We don’t want to pay you because you might be locked up? Is there a hit-by-a-bus clause in there too?
GM Duke Tobin thinks Stewart is getting bad advice
Brown wasn’t the only member of Bengals’ management that spoke on Monday. With training camp on the immediate horizon, Director of Player Personnel (aka general manager) Duke Tobin says he doesn’t blame Stewart, but said that “he’s listening to the advice he’s paying for.”
That sounds like a not-so-thinly-veiled shot at Stewarts’s representatives. But, if Tobin has been paying any attention at all, Stewart is also getting “advice” from his own teammates.
“It’s made it very easy when the people in your locker room say you’re doing the right things,” Stewart said last month. “Especially the star players. We all agree Trey is right, right? But, technically he’s still 1% wrong, for being under contract. I’m 100% right so it should be a no-brainer. In Trey’s case, I think it should be a no-brainer too. I mean, he had 17 sacks for two years back to back…”
Those are some serious words, but Tobin still thinks Stewart is being misled by someone somewhere.
“I don’t understand the advice,” Tobin said. “We’re treating him fairly.”
If the Bengals are treating Stewart fairly, why do they seem to have these same problems with multiple players invariably? For what it’s worth, Brown knows how pertinent it is to get their first rounder into training camp.
“He’s someone we think will be important to our team this year,” Brown said.
Then act like it.
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