Just when it looked like the Eagles off season was looking great, news is breaking that Sheldown Brown is requesting a trade. Not exactly what everyone wanted to hear today. The report is according to ESPN and Eagles insider Garry Cobb. I can’t say that is a huge shock because of how the Lito Sheppard situation played out. Brown watched Sheppard receive a big payday from the Jets, and by all accounts, Sheldon Brown has been the Eagles most reliable cover corner and has become one of the vocal leaders of the team. He has seen the Eagles give huge money to Asante Samuel and then trade Sheppard and let Brian Dawkins walk. My hope is that the Eagles are able to work a contract out with Brown. I think he is extremely important to the secondary. What we don’t know yet is whether Brown is willing to stay an Eagle and sign a new deal or if there is more to this story. Either way, it is pretty obvious that this is coming out right before the draft for a reason. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: YOU’VE GOTTA READ THE EAGLES RESPONSE THAT THEY RELEASED!!
Philadelphia Eagles statement on Sheldon Brown’s contract situation:
“It’s very unfortunate and counterproductive that Sheldon has chosen to go public with his feelings about his situation. After thorough evaluation by himself and discussions with his family and agents, he chose to accept an extension of his rookie contract early that provided his family financial security for the rest of his life. It removed any concerns about health or performance that all other players in his draft class had to worry about. He has three years remaining on that contract and, after taking the signing bonus and his first two years of salary into account, we feel that Sheldon is being paid fairly. Focusing only on a player’s salary for a given year is not a valid analysis.
“There have been league MVP’s, Super Bowl champion quarterbacks, and perennial Pro Bowlers who have been in a similar situation. All of their teams have required them to wait until their contract expired or there was only one year remaining before any adjustment took place. It is only in the most extraordinary, in fact, less than a handful of circumstances in the last ten years that any players two new years into a contract with three years left have been adjusted. We don’t think this qualifies as an extraordinary circumstance.
“Sheldon’s comments under the circumstances actually serve to devalue him in a trade if we were willing to consider it; which we are not.”
Wow! I honestly can’t ever remember that kind of press release from a team during a contract squabble. This was released in a matter of hours and is an obvious PR move by the Eagles. This is going to get real interesting now. Like I said earlier, Stay tuned!
This is NOT good news, but if he doesn”t want to be an Eagle and has trade value lets use him for a #1 WR. Less than ideal, but I don”t see the Eagles being held hostage by his demands. Hell trade him to Denver for BDawk!!
Haha. Now that would be funny. You know, thuis really becoming a trend in the NFL I don”t like. I understand that much of a contract is not guaranteed but these players keep signing long term deals so they can collect signing bonuses and then 2 years into the deal as the market changes, decide they need a new deal. Maybe they should stop signing 6 year extensions. I like Sheldon, and I would prefer him on this team, but the whole system is screwed when players just continually gripe about their own contract after they see a free agent get a big payday. The reality is, no one has forced players into signing. We will likely know more in the coming days on this since now it’’s out in the open.
Twitter Comment
Eagles have released a statement/response to sheldon browns trade demands…youve gotta read this!…[link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
I applaud the Eagles for standing up and refusing to be intimidated.
But this makes me nervous…
Cool, never knew that! Lately I”ve been reading a lot on this.