Backloading Contracts - The Collela Deal

[Hell Atlantic]

i understand the goal of the deal. if a player is asking for a $10million bonus for 4 years, it's not right to offer 5 yrs and in that 5th year you give them a $12million salary to give the appearance of a nicer offer.

in my case the player was asking for $18million for 6 yrs. i didn't want to give a 9 yr player a 6 yr deal. i understood he deserved to be paid, but i wanted to give him more bonus and less salary. the last year (i forgot what i offered him) is merely a reason to go back to the rengotiating table. this is how it's done in real life. look at Rich Gannon's deal with the Raiders and Peyton's deal with the Colts. they will never see much of that money, but they are assured of the bonus. giving a player $32million guaranteed for 5 yrs means at no point in time can i EVER cut Collela, nor trade him. he is a Hero for life. in light of that insane amount of risk i accepted, i felt adding more money the last year of the deal was legit. and if it wasn't i would've received a "backloading" prompt rejecting the offer immediately.

so my point is if this offer isn't allowed to stand - and i have no prob with that - i want to not offer him anything at this point. i'd like to wait until the season to decide what to do with him. i shouldn't be forced to rework the deal next year - what if he doesn't want something i deem to be reasonable? the whole reason for renogotiating is to hear what the other party wants and to counter with what you think would be beneficial for your side. the fact remains that my next counter offer wouldn't look much different than the previous offer. i want him on my team on my terms, not his. so now i'm getting screwed because the game liked my offer and accepted it, but now i have to rework it. unfortunately FOF is not very editable or else i'd tell jeff to just void the offer and i'd start from scratch.

if anything i accept forfeiting my picks now and getting it over with, but i'm not interested in reworking the deal. if this was such a huge abuse of the system it wouldn't have even been allowed to be offered by the game.

[Jave]

It prompts you when you try to backload a contract?? I didn't know that.

No offense man, but you put the 14mil at the end of the contract as a salary because you knew you would never have to pay it. He will either retire or if he is stubborn and hangs around, you will just renegociate the contract the year before to next to nothing because of his age.

BTW, Hamilton is making 16 mil this year and Colella is just as good or better then Hamilton so signing him to a 30 million dollar contract with 14 of it guaranteed you will never have to pay is a good deal for you. It's a brilliant move if Jeff lets ya get away with it.

Ok bro. Aside from what I quoted above, my major problem with the deal is this. I understand you want to get him signed to the cheapest contract you possibly can so you can sign other players who can make an impact on your team. But look at Hamilton. I mean, it was give him a deal he would sign or lose him to free agency. He wanted a stupid contract but I didn't want to lose him so I paid his ass the ridiculous contract so I could keep him on my team.
Now you have a franchise quarterback on your team in Colella and it's time to pay the guy. You don't want to because he wants such a big contract, but it's that, or lose him to free agency in his prime. I have very little sympathy for your contract problems because I had to suck it up and sign my guy and pay him, so why should you get a pass?

You have done a great job with Cal so far. Suck it up and pay Colella. I think he's earned it.

[Matt]

my question.

Is that $14 mil final year a number you came up with, or the progression of the proposed contract?

[Hell Atlantic]

i put it in there. i don't remember the actual numbers, i'm at work, but i remember specificially saying "what the hell, if he doesn't like it he'll just say the deal is too backloaded". i hit the offer deal button and if he didn't like it i wouldv'e reworked the numbers. i was as shocked as you were that it even went through, and no one is even more shocked than i was that it was accepted. and to be honest, as i was in bed last nite i was thinking that may not have been a good move cuz if he gets hurt like Crespo i'm suddenly stuck with a huge problem. so that is why this deal shouldn't be so wrong - i've taken on a $32million risk for 5 years. i'm honestly having second thoughts about this deal.

i wish there was a way the game let you offer a guy a deal, then the stage is simmed, and you get an email saying "Player X accepts your offer - finalize the deal?" and you have one last time to back out or accept it. this also gives the commish enough time to see if the deal is valid, if it isn't then the GM has to reject the deal. right now i'm potentially getting screwed because the player agreed to consider an offer i didn't think it would and accepted an offer i wasn't allowed to give him. the GM gets screwed big time here.

[Jave]

ROFL, you should get an award for acting here. Stop playing the victim here. You just signed one of the top quarterbacks in the league to play for a mere 7 mill a year, but your the victim? I would rather you just say, "I tried it, I got caught, ok fine, lets move on".

But your idea about the extra chance and confirming a contract is a great idea. You should get this idea to Jim. It shouldn't be that hard to code into the game. Your onto something here.

[Hell Atlantic]

there is no "getting caught". the AI accepted the deal. if it was a gross abuse of backloading it wouldn't have even gone this far.

you keep trying to insinuate that i exploited Collela and just because the last year of his deal is roughly $14million i will cut him. NEWSFLASH - he carries with him a $6million + cap hit that year. all that means is i need to resign him or cut him, and you can bet the house i won't cut a guy who's due $6million+. if that's the case i'd cut/trade Larry Deason, but with 2 years and exactly $5million in bonus remaining, i'm not going to do it.

so let's stop trying to pretend i come out ahead. i come out ahead in the sense that i keep a good QB, but by no means am i out in the clear. i simply can't cut Collela from the Heroes. $32million in guaranteed money will assure him of that. he wins this round.

[Jave]

there is no "getting caught". the AI accepted the deal. if it was a gross abuse of backloading it wouldn't have even gone this far.

you keep trying to insinuate that i exploited Collela and just because the last year of his deal is roughly $14million i will cut him. NEWSFLASH - he carries with him a $6million + cap hit that year. all that means is i need to resign him or cut him, and you can bet the house i won't cut a guy who's due $6million+. if that's the case i'd cut/trade Larry Deason, but with 2 years and exactly $5million in bonus remaining, i'm not going to do it.

so let's stop trying to pretend i come out ahead. i come out ahead in the sense that i keep a good QB, but by no means am i out in the clear. i simply can't cut Collela from the Heroes. $32million in guaranteed money will assure him of that. he wins this round.

DO you seriously buy into your own hype? And do you seriously believe that any owner here believes that you got screwed in the deal that keeps one of the top 5 quarterbacks in the league on your team playing for half the salary of the other quarterbacks at his level, in a deal where the payoff happens after he retires and you are no longer obligated to pay the contract?
Come on. I know your smarter then that.

[Hell Atlantic]

uhhhh...you need to pay back the bonus, goofus, when they retire. that is GUARANTEED money.

i'm not saying i'm a victim. i'm saying i get screwed if i have to resign him to a new deal. if this deal was so out of whack it wouldn't be allowed by the game. obviously money talks and the money was saying "$32million in guaranteed money, PLUS the Heroes will need to resign you to a new deal come that 5th year cuz no way will they cut you or pay you that salary". he wins.

i refuse to lose.

[Jave]

i reject your reality and substitute my own.

You said it.

[Hell Atlantic]

i will agree to give up picks. i shall give up a 2nd and a 3rd round pick. i will let the commish decide which years. i think that is a fair enough "punishment" for this nonsense.

[Kobeck]

I think I can offer some clarity here.

I happened upon an exploit, although at the time I assumed everyone else was doing it. If I remember correctly I was offering guys good signing bonuses, but the base did not go up over time. No real benefit in the short run but 3 or 4 years down the road guys were playing for a fraction of what they "could" be worth. In my case I readily admitted what I did and If I remember correctly of the 10ish significant contracts I did in that manner 6 or so were redone as the players agent requested ASAP. Crippled the Mules CAP wise for a number of seasons, besides there being a season or two when if one of those guys had of retired or had a CEI then the CAP would have collapsed completly on me. Seems like Jeff/Cringer had "mercy" on me and let me keep the Willoughby contract intact, ensuring Manuel another couple of seasons under center for Murfreesboro.

Anyways I also tried the "take my picks - please!" apporach. lol

Didn't work for the Mules and should not work for the Heroes.

Blatent case of backloading, but hey it is just one contract. Hell I had like a dozen of them - lol

[Hell Atlantic]

nevermind. i've agreed to allow the commish to void the contract and make Collela a free agent.

the way i see it, it releases us from this nonsensical contract (i really didn't want to give anyone, especially a QB who has a career QB rating of less than 85 percent $32million in guaranteed bonus, Caro maybe, but not Collela) AND it goes without saying that at some point had Collela not taken this deal he wouldn't have been a Hero. i would have traded him long before giving him a deal like the one he was asking for ($18million in bonus, asking for $18-20million in total compensation in the last 2 years of his requested 6 yr deal). i offered this contract on a whim, not even thinking it'd be accepted. all i lose out on is what i would have got for Collela in a trade. that sets us back multiple years.

[BuddaKINGII]

Something smells shady around here. Im with jave, pay the guy. You cant have the top roster and not expect to have some cap problems.

[Coder]

First of all HA, everyone gets into cap trouble.

I recall you saying once that "I don't let my best guys become Free Agents, I sign them no matter what they want.".. My spontaneous thought then was that "Yeah, good luck with that one".

Being a General Manager is all a combination of several things. Juggle the star salaries, mix it up with some cheap veterans and add some rookies to the table.

Look, the game is not conspiring against you. It's the same for everyone and if you can't sign a player to a reasonable deal you have to make the tough decision and let him go. I had to let Alton Fillmore go the first year you were in the league. You didn't complain then, did you? I managed to sign Shawn Hernandez last year because he was let go. I didn't complain then. I bit the big one and re-signed Virgil to a big-ass deal, thereby compromising my cap-situation for the future. I didn't complain then.

You're not being singled out here, and it's no ones faul either. Not Jim's, not Jeff's and not Collella's (well, the last one is debatable I guess).

As for trade value.. don't think he's worth as much in a trade as he is as a Free Agent, to anyone.. who'd want to pay to get a player they'd have to negotiate with?

[BuddaKINGII]

cannot. !