6 hours ago
(6 hours ago)samhain Wrote: It was one of the dumbest contract disputes I've ever seen, particularly for a rookie. Both sides look petty and stupid, but at the end of the day I think a put a slightly larger part of the blame on Stewart's camp. The agent hurt the player in this case IMO.
I do think the agent is equally at fault and I don't disagree that he hurt Stewart atleast marginally. But he was asking for more signing bonus earlier the whole time as a concession to the default language. We dont know what percentage was talked about but it had to be larger than 500k or the Bengals would look terrible. Ultimately the agents biggest fault in these negotiations is letting his frustrations leak to Stewart but if the Bengals aren't willing to sit down and negotiate at all than not sure what answers he has for Stewart.
Also of note is while this default language is more common now. What percentage of the signing bonus is paid out to players at signing from the teams that implement the language? As this could of in some ways tied the agents hands because you want to get the league average for your client.
