Kam Chancellor cannot win this one — so what’s the end game?
Kam Chancellor’s hold out is dumb.
Enough is enough. Amid all the walking on egg shells, quietly questioning his end game and trying to understand a player going after what he deserves — the reality is he simply cannot win.
He can’t.
And for that reason, continuing to hold out is dumb. A fantastic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
He already owes the Seahawks over a million dollars in fines. Every game he misses is going to cost him a quarter of a million bucks. If he waits until week 10 to return in order to accrue a season on his contract — he will lose money this year. And he’ll be no closer to a new deal. He’ll have two more years to go. He’ll be out of pocket and his reputation with the fans in Seattle — and possibly some of the players — will be forever tarnished.
Forget the ring of honor. Forget the glory. Forget seeing 12’s wearing #31.
Sadly for Chancellor his biggest mistake was to sign a contract that he clearly believes undervalues his contribution to the team. There’s not much he can do about it now. Nobody forced him to sign that contract. Nobody will force the Seahawks to rip it up.
To test the team, see if it works and then return would be understandable to an extent. To start missing games, lose game-cheques and let your teammates down is quite another thing. And where does he go from here?
If the Seahawks start 0-2 they aren’t going to cave. At that point does he come back into a locker room no richer and with possible resentment that he wasn’t out on the field trying to win two tough road games?
If they go 2-0 does he creep back into the VMAC with his tail between his legs?
What is the end game here? Where is he going?
Is he going to retire?
Pride is a good thing sometimes. It can make you feel responsible. It encourages leadership and support. It can drive you to succeed.
It also gets in the way when you’ve lost and need to concede. When you need to take a step back. When you need to admit you aren’t going to win and there’s nothing you can do about it.
We’d all love to go back in time and change the outcome of the last Super Bowl. It’s impossible. Chancellor equally can’t go back in time and un-sign that contract extension.
We’d all like to earn more money. Who wouldn’t? Not all of us play a punishing pro-sport. Not all of us put our bodies on the line. A lot of us do have families to support though — and the thought of not turning up to work to prove a point is simply out of the question. You’d be fired.
Kam Chancellor’s average salary is $7,000,502 per year. He’s among the highest paid safeties in the league. There are thousands of Seahawks fans who won’t make that amount of money in a lifetime, let alone one year.
Life is tough sometimes. Yet some people would argue Chancellor’s situation isn’t remotely ‘tough’ or ‘unfair’. He doesn’t get paid exactly what he wants. Welcome to the club. He earns enough money to not need to work ever again the moment he retires from his short career in football.
How many other people in the world are underpaid, can’t hold-out and need to work decades before they can even consider retiring? How many of those people will be at Century Link screaming for this team in week three against the Bears?
Right now the Seahawks need Kam Chancellor. The players need him on the field. The coaches need him in the locker room. The fans need #31 out there against the Rams and the Packers helping to launch another tilt at the Super Bowl.
He’s tried to make a point to get more money. And he’s failed. He failed.
Clearly that’s something Chancellor is struggling to deal with. He’s blocking fans on Twitter for no logical reason. It’s quite sad actually to see fans Tweet that they’ve been blocked by their favourite player. Does that not bother him at all?
Clearly his teammates are ready to move on. One player told ESPN’s Ed Werner: “We will win without him, and it will hit him.”
That player is right. They will win without him. Perhaps not both of the first two games but over the course of the season they will win. The Seahawks will not feel compelled to change their stance. Nothing is going to change their stance.
Come back. Get on the field. Do your job. Yes, that’s right. Your job. It’s what you’re paid to do. It’s what’s expected of you. You agreed this contract.
You either play for the Seahawks or nobody — at your expense. What are you gaining from sitting out any games during the regular season? The team is not going to budge.
Chancellor won’t be richer in the wallet and he’ll lose a lot of the good feeling he’s worked hard to develop since 2010.
It’s dumb. And it’s time this madness stopped right now.
***UPDATE***
Perhaps sensing he’s losing the battle for hearts and minds, Chancellor has talked to the NFL Network in the last few moments. He says he could be at practise tomorrow if the Seahawks meet him halfway.
If this is an attempt to portray the Seahawks as the issue, it won’t work. If, as Chancellor claims, this is all over 2017 money being pushed into 2016 for a grand total of an extra million bucks — why is he even holding out? Is all the drama, all the distraction really worth it for one seventh extra of his current annual salary?
The funny thing is — who’d bet against the Seahawks adjusting the contract of a loyal, dedicated player if he was — you know — leading the team out against St. Louis this weekend? They’re probably less inclined to give him a small raise after this hold-out.
Look at Antonio Brown in Pittsburgh. He got an extra $2m out of the Steelers this off-season. Chancellor must rue the day he went down this road instead of following Brown’s example.
It’s simply unrealistic to expect the Seahawks to push a heap of 2017 salary into 2016 meaning he’d earn around $9m next season. If that’s what he expects, it isn’t going to happen. Again — he signed this contract.
It just further emphasises what a thoroughly pointless episode this is. An exercise in time-wasting. A fruitless encounter. A wild goose chase.
Time to play football Kam.