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Tight with a Buck

Bombers offering No. 1 QB paltry base salary

By: Gary Lawless

Posted: 01/14/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are offering No. 1 quarterback Buck Pierce a paltry base salary, a change from a deal Pierce's agent thought was all but signed.

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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are offering No. 1 quarterback Buck Pierce a paltry base salary, a change from a deal Pierce's agent thought was all but signed. (CP)

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Bombers GM Joe Mack apparently put the kibosh on the proposed Pierce deal.

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Bombers GM Joe Mack apparently put the kibosh on the proposed Pierce deal. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

Steven Jyles is among the lowest-paid starters with $200K guaranteed and $50K available in bonus payouts.

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Steven Jyles is among the lowest-paid starters with $200K guaranteed and $50K available in bonus payouts.

Talks between Buck Pierce's agent and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers took a strange turn late this week when the club backed away from a deal they had been working on for several weeks.

Pierce's representative Brian Cox believed a deal was imminent after going back and forth with Bombers assistant GM Ross Hodgkinson in an effort to craft a contract for the team's No. 1 quarterback.

Cox, however, confirmed when the deal hit GM Joe Mack's desk it didn't get his approval.

"I can tell you this," said Cox, when reached on his cellphone Friday morning. "Buck wants to be in Winnipeg and the players in Winnipeg want him there. They want to play for him. I thought we were close on a deal and now it seems we're not."

Cox would not disclose details of the deal, but would not deny the base salary offered is under $150,000. If Pierce were to hit all his playing bonuses the deal would top out in the $300,000 range.

Cox had hoped to get a base salary of $200,000 and the rest in a bonus package, but the Bombers now appear skittish and have reintroduced Pierce's injury issues.

"Every player in pro football risks injury when he steps on the field and Buck did what he was asked to do last season and took his team to the Grey Cup," said Cox. "We're just asking for what is fair."

One agent, when told of the negotiations in Winnipeg, was astonished at the low base salary.

"They must not want him," said the agent, who demanded anonymity. "(Pierce) beat Steven Jyles out for that job and he's going to make $200,000 in Edmonton. Dealing with Winnipeg is odd. You work with Ross (Hodgkinson) and then Joe (Mack) can scuttle it. It's like Ross has the job but Joe has the title."

In 2011, Pierce started 16 out of 18 regular-season games as well as the East Final and Grey Cup. He threw for 14 touchdowns and 18 interceptions and a career high 3,348 yards while winning 11 regular-season games and a playoff game.

One league executive suggested both the Bombers and Pierce had limited leverage.

"Where's he going to go? There aren't any salary openings for the kind of money he wants. On the other hand, do the Bombers want to open camp with Joey Elliott and Alex Brink? They need to get a deal and they will," he said.

Mack has been effusive in his praise of Pierce and said earlier this week he expected a deal would get done.

"You never know for sure, but I'd be very surprised if we had any problem signing Buck," Mack said.

Pierce was signed by the Bombers two years ago after being cut loose by the B.C. Lions due to injury issues. The club offered him a contact heavy on incentives and last season he reached many of them to top out in the neighbourhood of $200,000. Mack was not available for comment on Friday.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless

Gary Lawless, Winnipeg Free Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 14, 2012 C1

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About Gary Lawless

Gary Lawless is the Free Press sports columnist and co-host of the Hustler and Lawless show on TSN 1290 Winnipeg and www.winnipegfreepress.com
Lawless began covering sports as a rookie reporter at The Chronicle-Journal in Thunder Bay after graduating from journalism school at Durham College in Ontario.
After a Grey Cup winning stint with the Toronto Argonauts in the communications department, Lawless returned to Thunder Bay as sports editor.
In 1999 he joined the Free Press and after working on the night sports desk moved back into the field where he covered pro hockey, baseball and football beats prior to being named columnist.

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