LIKE the profession of football wasn't volatile enough as is. Throw in the prospect of free agency -- which began last Friday night -- and your employment, future, and career can take a turn for betterment or disaster in one fell swoop and signature.
Having only been a free agent in the NFL and never in my seven years with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, for the most part, I have only been privy to this phenomenon as I've seen it shape and affect other athletes' lives. And for the life of me, when I think back to some of the big names that have changed teams over the years, guys like Barrin Simpson, Adriano Belli, Henry Burris, Chris Brazzle and Jermaine Copeland, well, the only names that come to mind in terms of players that have maintained or improved their level of play as a result of changing teams via free agency, are -- uh -- pretty much Barrin Simpson and Adriano Belli.
Remember when your parents told you that money can't buy you everything? Well, when it comes to free agency, apparently, money does not always lead you in the right direction, either.
It seems a lot of people were pleasantly surprised that all-star-calibre players like Dan Goodspeed, Tom Canada and Matt Sheridan may have turned down opportunities for larger coin in larger cities to stay here.
Well, outside of the obvious benefits of playing in this city, let's evaluate the process and see why the grass isn't necessarily greener in other pastures, even when all the extra money may be lying over there.
To start off, when you sign a new deal with a new team that is most likely larger than the one you left, there is the pressure of that new contract and expectations for you to perform at a level exceeding the one you have always been able to achieve. And no matter how many times you may have played against your new team in the past and how many times their coaching staff has seen you and how much they think they have a feel for you, they never really know what they have paid for until they see you in practice, interacting with your new teammates, and adapting to their new system. And those are variables that can greatly affect any player's performance -- for the better I suppose -- but more often than not, for the worse.
Testing the waters
The point of testing the waters in free agency, as any player will tell you, is to determine what your true value is on the open market. But, besides the obvious pitfall that your value may be assessed at amounts lower than you expected, few players make some very important considerations when it comes time to potentially changing teams for maybe only 10 or 20 thousand bucks.
If you are a receiver, you need to know the same quarterback is certainly not going to be throwing the same passes anymore. A running back is not going to be running behind the same offensive line, a defensive end may not be playing in a 4-3 alignment and an offensive lineman may be asked to adopt different techniques and flip-flop his alignment.
So what is your level of comfort worth to you? Is moving to a new team worth it for $20,000 or even $30,000 if you don't know how you will get along with the coaching staff or players who really have no loyalty or history with you other than what they have just paid for you?
Is it worth it if you aren't familiar with the system in which you will be used and how that system will affect your production?
Is it worth being exposed to a new fan base and city in which you have no acceptance, and will most likely judge you on your production right out of the gate?
Those are a lot of the questions that need to be asked before anybody decides to jump ship in free agency.
And looking at how, far more often than not, these free agent acquisitions do not live up to their billings, price tags and expectations in new markets, they are questions that are not only being overlooked but apparently not realistically answered.
Fortunately for us, it's evident our big three understand that change via free agency is not always a good thing.
Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.
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