Seahawks Ex Richard Sherman Rips GM John Schneider: 'Lowball Disrespect' on Bobby Wagner Signing
Some players seem to understand that NFL GMs, due to the salary cap, are working under a "budget'' of sorts.
Example? Ex-NFL standout Marcus Spears, now on ESPN, applauding the Seattle Seahawks' rival Los Angeles Rams' "all-in'' approach to attacking the building of a Super Bowl roster despite the eventual price the franchise will have to pay when it comes to future cap years.
And some players ... don't seem to understand.
“I knew it was in the works,'' said Richard Sherman, the former Seahawks star, speaking of Bobby Wagner's jump from the Rams back to Seattle. "I was hoping that John didn’t mess it up, and he didn’t. He tried. He tried on multiple occasions.''
"John'' is John Schneider, the long-time Seahawks GM who in tandem with Seattle coach Pete Carroll has built a Seattle team that over the course of the last decade has appeared in two Super Bowls, won one, and made the playoffs in 10 of his 13 seasons.
It is, by any measure, an enviable record.
So what is Sherman griping about?
Sherman's diatribe on @933KJR suggests he has a beef that goes well beyond how Schneider went about his business with Wagner, who was an All-Pro in his single Rams season and now is happy to be "back home'' in Seattle.
Sherman (via The Athletic) is charging that Schneider had disrespected Wagner during contract negotiations, calling it “borderline disrespectful.”
“Just lowballing a guy,” Sherman said. “There’s a difference between lowballing and being disrespectful and they got borderline disrespectful. Thankfully, Bobby really wanted to be with the Seahawks, and he really wanted to come back home, because other people offered him more money.”
Yeah, but ...
Wagner signed a one-year, $7 million deal with Seattle, and - once again - expressed glee over being able to do so.
"For me, I never really wanted to leave in the first place," said Wagner, who for the record was unhappy with the Seahawks when he was dumped a year ago. "Obviously, business happened and I had opportunity to go play in the city I grew up in (LA). And so I thought that was cool. And then I wanted to come back at the city I kind of matured in, so for me, I think it was cool to to be able to kind of make that happen ...
"I wanted to be home. And this was another home of mine, and I wanted to be back."
What Sherman is skipping over - surely because he has a lingering bone to pick with his old club - is that while it is the job of the player and his agent to get the best possible deal, it is also the job of the GM to do the same for the franchise and its cap. (Check out what Bobby really made with the Rams; does this mean LA also "lowballed'' him''?)
That's the way the game is played. And until we hear Wagner himself express unhappiness with the way any bidder was "borderline disrespectful,'' we're going to assume Sherman is only pretending he doesn't understand that.
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