SI:AM | Vita Vea Turns Up the Heat With Trade Request as Contract Negotiations Stall

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m still very thrown off by the MLB trade deadline not being until Aug. 3. I keep thinking there should have been more trades made already.

In today’s SI:AM:
🏴‍☠️ Bucs star wants out
🐏 More trouble for UNC
1️⃣ Ranking college quarterbacks

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Trouble in Tampa

Veteran Buccaneers defensive tackle Vita Vea is set to report to training camp today, but he might not stay very long if he gets his way.

Vea has requested a trade as negotiations between the two-time Pro Bowler and the team have stalled. Vea’s agent, Collin Roberts, confirmed to ESPN that his client has asked to be traded.

Vea is in the final year of a four-year, $71 million contract. His base salary for this season is $17 million, and he can earn up to an additional $1 million in per-game roster bonuses, but none of the money is guaranteed.

Vea, 31, is one of the best defensive tackles in the league (we ranked him ninth) and has been a critical part of the Bucs’ defense ever since he was selected with the 12th pick in the 2018 draft. He’s one of only five defensive tackles in the NFL to start at least 78 of a possible 85 games over the past five seasons.

Monday’s trade request came hours before Bucs veterans were required to report to training camp on Tuesday. Vea had previously staged a hold-in at the team’s mandatory minicamp in June, and the trade request makes it unlikely that he will participate in training camp before a deal is reached.

The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen reported that Vea would prefer to be traded to a team in his home state of California or to the Raiders, but without a no-trade clause, Vea can’t dictate where he goes.

It doesn’t sound as though the contract negotiations have been so contentious as to irreparably damage the relationship between Vea and the team, as we’ve seen with other players. Vea may very well back off the trade request if the team offers him a contract that meets his demands. But if the Bucs aren’t interested in paying him what he thinks he’s worth, he would be a welcome addition to any number of defenses.

More mess for UNC

There’s never a dull moment in the football building in Chapel Hill.

North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi has been placed on administrative leave by the school, a decision tied to a human resources complaint, according to ESPN and The Athletic. Separately, Pablo Torre reported that the school is also under investigation by the College Sports Commission, an independent regulatory body tasked with overseeing NIL compliance.

The news is the latest in a series of negative headlines for the UNC program. In addition to a dreadful 4–8 finish in Bill Belichick’s first season in charge of the Tar Heels, the school has also dealt with constant coverage of the machinations of Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. There was also the hubbub over Patriots scouts being banned from attending UNC practices—a ban that was communicated to New England by Lombardi.

Lombardi is not a popular figure in Chapel Hill. Multiple sources described him to Raleigh NBC affiliate WRAL as “rude” and “nasty” last October. Another source told the station, “Nobody likes him.” But one person who does like Lombardi is Belichick, who first worked with him in 1991 while both were on the Browns’ staff. Belichick brought Lombardi to Chapel Hill to oversee roster construction when he was hired before last season. Lombardi made $1.5 million last season, according to public records.

The Belichick experiment in Chapel Hill has been a disaster so far, and there isn’t much reason to believe things will go better in Year Two. Belichick brought in a good high school recruiting class (ranked 17th by 247Sports), but UNC’s transfer portal class ranked just 52nd. The Tar Heels will open the season on Aug. 29 against TCU in Dublin. They’ll need the luck of the Irish to come home with a win.

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The top five…

Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer takes the mound — Max Scherzer pitched in Washington on Monday for the first time since 2023. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

… things I saw last night:
5. Some great team defense by the Yankees to preserve their lead over the White Sox in the seventh inning. (Or maybe it was just a terrible decision by Chicago third base coach Justin Jirschele to send the runner.)
4. The ovation Max Scherzer got as he took the mound against the Nationals in Washington. It was Scherzer’s first appearance since June 10, and he pitched decently. He went 2 ⅔ innings, allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts and three walks.
3. An incredible diving catch by Orioles center fielder Colton Cowser. He covered a ton of ground to get to that ball.
2. Griffin Conine’s walk-off hit to snap the Marlins’ 12-game losing streak.
1. Tigers announcer Jason Benetti’s call of the Detroit grounds crew’s lengthy pursuit of a squirrel on the field. (I also liked this wider angle that shows more than a dozen members of the grounds crew chasing the squirrel around the outfield.)

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