OpEd: How Deion Sanders could've benefited from a Bobby Bonilla type contract in 1998

A future agreement would've been nice for Coach Prime

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MLB players aren't typically celebrated with their own day. For Bobby Bonilla, a bit of unfortunate luck for the New York Mets, along with a bad investment with Bernie Madoff, meant a lucrative payout for the former All-Star every July 1st. The day he becomes $1.19 million richer off a deferred salary arrangement lasting until 2035.

The Mets figured they could stomach a long-term series of annual payments to prolong the remainder of Bonilla's $5.9 million left on his contract in 2011. A former friend of the slugger faced a contract debacle and should've pulled out a similar "Thank me now, pay me later" clause.

It was 28 years ago, Deion Sanders joined the Dallas Cowboys, but it came with a stranglehold over his 7-year, $35 million contract that was handed down by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. The NFL even took the matter to court because they felt it wasn't fairly negotiated with Deion's deal being back loaded and spun off onto bonuses. In the first three years, Sanders made a total of $1 million in salary with a monster jump of $5.2 million in year four with the Cowboys.

But how much did the future G.O.A.T. stand to gain by proposing a 25-year deal?

Here's the breakdown of what Sanders could've high-stepped away with under the same terms of Bonilla's deal. The bulk of his $35 million contract came after year three. So, for the sake of starting when the contract terms got sticky, we'll start in 1998. A majority of those covering the team believed Dallas would cut Sanders to avoid paying him because of how the contract was structured. Turns out that never happened.

According to Sportrac, Sanders made $18.5 million with bonuses over the first three years, leaving roughly $16.5 million over the final four years. If you tack on 8 percent interest (similar to Bonilla's deal), Sanders would have collected $4.5 million per year until 2023. A total of $119.9 million over the 25 years.

Now, that's wishful thinking, and getting Jones to be onboard with any type of contract spread over the greater part of three decades would've been a miracle. It would've saved the Cowboys short-term, but it would've also been a huge deal for an NFL player in the early 90s. Yet again, Deion embodied his assumed role of being a trendsetter and would've welcomed guaranteed future money.

A little known fact is that a teammate of Deion's struck a lifetime deal with the Falcons before he was drafted in 1989. Bill Fralic, who went on to be credited for perfecting the pancake block, demanded Atlanta pay him $150k per year for 40 years. It was a clause originally drafted by his father and thrown into his rookie contract. Fralic signed a 4-year, $1.3 million contract in 1985 with the unusual provision. He was paid a total of $8.6 million from his football earnings. A majority from the annual stipend he received until his death in 2018 at the age of 56.