Originally posted by xaxer

And now, Ward desires a contract extension that will pay him the money elite receivers often make. On his current contract, which runs for one more season, he makes $1,668,750. You can look at that two ways: Oakland wide receiver Randy Moss has an eight-year contract worth $75 million. The average American high school teacher earns a few apples more than $47,000.
And the owner of the team is probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions. The team itself will make hundreds of millions of dollars this year.

It is unfair to hold an NFL player to the pay standard of a teacher when the person on the other side of the contract, the owner, is even richer.

Furthermore, it seems pretty obvious that when a guy is kicking ass for you year after year after year (not a one season wonder) that maybe it is a good idea to give him a contract commensurate with his respective rank at his position. This is especially true when the player is critical to your team.


Most importantly, it is standard operating procedure for teams and players to agree to a new deal before the final year of a contract, when the team actually wants to keep the player. That is standard in more sports than just the NFL, but it is especially true in the NFL.

You pretty much EXPECT to redo any contracts of players in their final year if you actually plan on keeping them. The Steelers know this. I have no idea why they would pursue this idiotic tactic.

If they don't sign Ward, their Super Bowl hopes are done, and possibly even playoff hopes.