Wes Welker: "Asante Samuel Chose Money Over Championships"

I was listening to ESPNRadio this morning, and the host mentioned that Wes Welker was quoted as saying something along the lines of, "He chose money over championships", in reference to Asante Samuel's six-year, $57M contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Osi Umenyiora was on the air, and said that he would have done the same thing, due to the fact that feeding his family comes first. This is a point of view that I just can't wrap my head around.

Anybody who isn't a professional athlete looks at a six-figure salary and considers it a dream (in some cases, a dream come true). These guys act like their families will go hungry if they don't make millions of dollars every year. Can somebody explain this logic to me?

I understand that a person who chooses a career in professional sports has a time window that is much smaller than that of an IT technician or a nurse. You will not be celebrating 30 years with the company when you're getting ready to retire.

But honestly...these guys make more in one year than most people's 401k plan amounts to over the course of their entire life.

This topic even spills over into the debate about whether or not an athlete should stay in college until they have their degree. If these guys are so concerned about feeding their families, then why is it that they bet the bank on a long, prosperous career in sports?

Had you stayed in school and earned a degree, your time window would suddenly become a whole lot bigger, since you can go out and get a normal job once your career in sports has ended.

I think what digs me the most about this is that some of these athletes do not appreciate the organizations that employ them. Yes...it's a business, and these are business decisions.

But when a team like the Patriots has you on their roster and wants to keep you, why not work something out? They basically made Samuel into what he is today, and I believe that will be proven when the Eagles try to use him in a cover scheme. He will be burned every time.

Suddenly he'll be double-checking how much of that contract was in guaranteed money.

The Patriots knew what they had, and Samuel knew what he was doing in their system. What happened to showing some loyalty to an organization that has molded your career?

Oh, that's right...poor guy needs to feed his family.

'Til next time....

Chris Radez is a columnist at Bleacher Report, and he is one of the founders of TheScoreBoards Sports Forums. You can reach Chris by commenting on this article, leaving a note on his BR profile page, or by sending him a note at TSB, where he lives under the moniker NEsince92.