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Garcia's Potential Holdout The Least Of Our Problems
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Published: May 14, 2008
Updated: 05/14/2008 12:22 am
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TAMPA - Even though he was paid in excess of $5 million last season, Jeff Garcia has a case to make more money from the Bucs. Just saying that, though, makes me feel ridiculous. To tell you the truth, I couldn't care less if he gets an extra dime.
Play, don't play, hold out - whatever.
It hit me after listening to Garcia, a generally good guy, go on a 10-minute rant Tuesday after attending an optional workout at One Buc Place. Garcia has wanted an extension of the two-year deal he signed last year with the Bucs, presumably at a nice raise to reward him for leading them to the playoffs in his first year here as quarterback.
He hinted that if he doesn't get what he wants, he might hold out. He's scheduled to make $2 million in base salary this season, plus incentives. That is well under the going rate for starting quarterbacks in the NFL.
"All I'm asking is a little respect," he said.
Oh, please.
Teachers need respect. Cops need respect. People getting evicted from their homes or losing their jobs in this economy need respect. There is a time to speak up and a time to hold your tongue, and I would suggest to you that Garcia just crossed over the great foot-in-mouth divide.
There is no denigration intended toward Garcia's worth as a quarterback, or as a human being for that matter. He's just playing the same "gimme-gimme" game that has been going on around pro sports since the dawn of time.
Nor should this be interpreted as a vote of sympathy for Bucs management, which just raised ticket prices again. The NFL is the Death Star of sports, sucking in every available dollar and demanding more, more, more, MORE!!!
Money Is There
So, on matters such as this, let's wish a plague on both their houses. They have all forgotten the people who hope they have enough left over for ever-more-expensive tickets after paying their taxes, insurance, mortgage, college tuition and groceries.
This is one of those times when values and perspective have gotten lost in unseemly gamesmanship.
The salaries that are paid to pro athletes have never bothered me all that much, to be honest. There is a demand for what they do, they have a limited number of years in their career, the money is there and I'm pretty much for anyone getting what they can.
The Bucs also have room under the salary cap to accommodate Garcia, so it's not like giving him the money would cripple them in any way.
That's not the point.
The Bucs should have acknowledged Garcia's worth after last season by extending his contract, just as they did with Jon Gruden. But that should have been done quietly, because the last thing anyone in this or any other town needs right now is to hear a guy who made $5 million last season complain he isn't getting more.
How much did you pay the last time you tried to fill up your gas tank? What choices have you had to make to balance your budget. How many nights a week is pasta on your dinner table because there's no room left in the budget for anything pricier? Priced a gallon of milk lately?
You want respect? How about giving some to the common folk by keeping discreetly quiet instead of saying, as Garcia did, "There comes a time when you want us to bend over backwards and give everything we have, well, we want the same out of you."
Something To Talk About
This may be a cheap shot, but I have yet to run across a player who will go to ownership and try to give a rebate after a poor season. It's all a game they play with money, and the aim is to grab as much as you can.
Dealing with Bucs general manager Bruce Allen is like negotiating with a stone wall. He doesn't talk back, and his appearance never changes. He will defend the cash box with tenacity, and he doesn't care if you try to make him look as miserly as possible. That sure didn't bother Allen when he went into a standoff with Keenan McCardell a few years ago, and it won't be any different now.
He has kept assistant coaches from moving up because they have contracts. If Garcia really wants to push it and hold out, I suspect Allen will let him do just that. A deal is a deal, and Garcia signed his last year.
But I say again, who cares?
There are bigger things to worry about than whether Jeff Garcia gets more money. Usually, it's good theater when the star player gets into a snit, but given everything that's going on in the world just now it's just the latest performance in the theater of the absurd.
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