BREAKING: Tee Higgins Requests Trade

[SunsetBengal]

(03-11-2024, 12:56 PM)Whatever Wrote: I don't see it as a character indictment, personally.  The reality of the current situation is, much as people don't want to hear it, Tee Higgins is not a current member of the Bengals.  He's an Unrestricted Free Agent who believes he is worth and can get more money on the open market than the Bengals are offering and the Bengals are using a league rule to limit his options to try to force him into making a decision between a one year deal worth less than he believes he's worth or to not play football.  It's his right to make that decision.  There is no reason for him to act in good faith with a party who is actively trying to limit his income.

Beyond that, we're dealing with a person who at least believes he is in a position to acquire generational wealth for himself and his family.  Players suffer career altering injuries every year, and they fall from being stars to going year to year on small prove it deals.  In extreme cases, a Ryan Shazier type injury happens.  Tee himself literally killed a man on the field of play and had to stand by helpless as medical personnel fought to resuscitate him.  It's is for people to say "Just go with it for a year and you'll get paid next year" when it's not their money and it's not their health and well being at risk.

I have been pretty vocally against resigning Tee and have been one of the few against even tagging him.  But this is not an indictment of the man's character at all.

If a player comes out and plays "safe" or half-asses plays because he playing on the franchise tag, that is indeed on his character.  I don't know about your family, but in my house we'd consider that tag amount ($21.8M) to be generational wealth.