One Year Contract...Every Year

For as much as I love sports, it's a little hard to relate to athletes at times because they get these ridiculous guaranteed contracts. When I say sports, I exclude NASCAR because driving a car in my opinion is a skill, not a sport. The only sport related thing they do is when they throw their helmets at each other or at other cars, and even when they do that they look like Johnny Damon throwing a baseball. After athletes sign their contracts, that's it, essentially they get that money whether they're good or not. It's hard for regular people to relate to that because at any other job I can think of, if you're not at least adequate, there's the door and don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out. If athletes sign a big contract and they suck, they still get paid, still have a job, and even if a player gets traded, somebody still has to pay their salary. Man that must be nice!!!! Imagine yourself in whatever job you work at now, and you sign a three-year contract worth an obscene amount of money. That means whatever you do, whether you work your tail off and prove to the company you're worth the money, or you suck more than porn star Brianna Banks on a workday, you still get paid. (I would insert a Julio Lugo joke to the latter of the two, but since he is now the reincarnation of Babe freaking Ruth in St. Louis, I can't. The only good part about Lugo doing well in St.Louis, is whenever his name is mentioned on Sports Center, my dad yells F(**ING LUGO!!!! and it's a cheap laugh for me every time.) This concept works out pretty well for the players, but for the teams themselves it's a pretty scary thing. There's always a chance that the player they signed to a huge contract, could turn into a complete bust and be a bunch of money on the books that could be better used elsewhere. For every Albert Pujols, there's an Adrian Beltre. For every Kobe Bryant, there's a Raef Lafrentz. And for every Reggie White, there's a Scott Mitchell. I have an idea that could potentially fix the risk that owners take by signing huge contracts, and could also bring more people to stadiums because people would be able to relate to athletes more. Establish a rule in all sports that the only contract that a player can sign, is for only one year.

Now I understand that the unions of all the major sports would be totally against this and it would never happen, but go with me on this one. Can you imagine the intensity and passion that athletes would play with every game? Athletes would not only be competing for wins and titles, they would also be competing for their jobs on a yearly basis. This essentially would be the pinnacle of competition, which every sports league should be. I'm sorry, but do you think an athlete who just signed a fat contract is going to compete on a nightly basis to the best of his or her ability, hell no. They know that they already have the money due to the contract, so they'll play, but not 100%. Now I understand that all athletes do not have this mindset, and half of them play every game like it's their last. But this idea is not meant to hinder them, or the money they could make. The players who perform and produce on a yearly basis will get their money, maybe even more so. If contracts are only a year long, teams might step up to the plate and offer the premier players insane amounts of money considering they're only paying them for 365 days. Also, historians of all the major sports might say that this idea would promote the free agency idea even more so, due to the considerably shorter contracts. As opposed to the seventies and eighties where players stayed with teams for their whole career, and these people also somewhat believe that free agency hurt the major sports in a lot of ways. My response to this idea would be sports reflect current culture, and current culture right now is that people do not stay with companies for very long before they move on to their next job. I understand that my idea is taking this concept to the extreme, but I've seen some people pull the one and done idea with many companies. What my idea is supposed to accomplish is to weed out all of the athletes who sign a big contract, then don't perform and set back an organization for many years because they have pay these schmucks. If you don't think there's enough for me to make an argument. Here's my top 5 of situations where the "One and Done" contract would have helped immensely. There are a lot more of these types of players, but I think readers would get bored if I listed a bunch of people who sucked and got paid a lot of money.


5. Scott Mitchell
In the middle of the 1993 season, Miami Dolphin fans thought that they're season was over when Hall of Famer Dan "Nutrasystem" Marino got injured and was out for the year. Relatively unknown backup Scott Mitchell stepped in and played really well in relief, starting the last 7 games of the season he threw for 1773 yards, 12 touchdowns and only 8 interceptions, and kept the Dolphins in the playoff hunt. The following off-season, it seemed as though every team wanted Scott Mitchell (which is kind of laughable now). The Detroit Lions eventually signed him to a 3 year, $11 million contact with only starting 7 games in the NFL. His first season in Detroit he started 9 games due to injury, completed 48.4% of his passes, threw 10 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, To add a little insult to injury, his team played better and made playoffs with his backup Dave Krieg at the helm. Although he had a career year in 1995, they never won a playoff game with Mitchell at the helm, and eventually lost his starting job to a rookie QB, Charlie Batch.

4. Javon Walker
Okay, this one kind of hits close to home, because this pre-madonna played for my beloved Packers. In 2004, he had a career season with 89 catches, 1,382 yards, and 12 touchdowns. But in the off-season he signed a new agent, which told him that he was getting underpaid and he should be traded. Walker then came out and said that he would never play for the Packers again and would retire if he weren’t traded. He was traded to the Denver Broncos where he had one good season, but was eventually cut in 2008. In the preceding off-season, the Raiders still thought he had something left in the tank and signed him to a 6 year $55 million contract. The fact that the Oakland Raiders signed him should be foreshadowing enough to show where his career was headed. Chalk up another dumb signing by Al Davis, which by the way I don't think understands that he is still running the Oakland Raiders. Since the signing, Walker has only caught 17 balls for one touchdown.

3. Albert Belle
The guy was about as mean a baseball, as you'll ever see. Like Ty Cobb mean. The only way I can describe how mean is to say that Albert Belle was "Your 5 Year Old Bumps Into Him At The Supermarket, Then Tells Your Kid Santa's Not Real," mean. But for a while in the early to mid 90's he was not only feared on the street, but he was also a feared hitter that there was in the game. After playing for the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox, the Baltimore Orioles wanted to make a splash and signed the 32 year old in 1999 to a 5 year, $65 million dollar deal. Although producing in his two years there, he always made people in the locker room feel as uncomfortable as an nun who attends the AVN porn awards. On top of making his teammates uneasy, the media wouldn't go near him and he would hunt them down if they wrote something bad about him. Lastly, after the 2000 season he ended up having a hip condition, so he retired, leaving the Orioles to still pay the last $45 million dollars left on his contract.

2. Raef Lafrentz
In the category of "Times A Player Has Been Dumped Because He Makes Too Much F(*king Money," I think Raef Lafrentz is in the top 5. He was pretty coveted among teams coming out of the University of Kansas during the 1998 draft. The Denver Nuggets drafted Lafrentz, where he played three years, averaging 13 ppg and 7.8 rpg. He was then traded to the Dallas Mavericks, and when he became a free agent re-signed by the team to a completely idiotic 7-year, $70 million contract. He only played with the Mavericks for one more season, and was then traded to the Boston Celtics in 2003, and then he was traded again from the Celtics to the Portland Trail Blazers in 2006. His name has been synonymous with the term "Salary Dump". He was never traded because teams wanted his services, the reasons why he was traded is so teams could get rid of his inflated contract to free up cap space for themselves.

1. Carl Pavano
If there was ever an need for a One and Done Contract, this would be the guy. Carl Pavano was a sought after free agent in the winter of 2005 because of his 18-8, 3.00 ERA the season before. The New York Yankees eventually signed him to a 4 year, $39.95 million dollars contract. Before I go any further, I have to say that I'm ecstatic that he didn't go to the Red Sox, because they offered a contract for more years and more money. If the Sox signed him, I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have gone after Josh Beckett. Hmmmm, Josh Beckett or Carl Pavano, I wonder which one worked out the best. If you say Pavano, I would say you're nuttier than squirrel s(*t. Anyway, in his first season with the Yankees was a injury plagued season where Pavano went 4-6, with a 4.77 ERA. He comes back better than ever, or so the Yankees said, in spring training of 2006, but this season would be worse than 2005. First off, he strains his ass muscle during spring training (How friendly are those team showers getting?). Next, in August of that season, right when he's going to come off of the DL from shoulder trouble he tells the Yanks that he got in a car accident and he's broke two ribs. He never pitched that season in the majors. Then in the beginning of 2007, Mike Mussina says that Pavano had to prove if he wanted to pitch for Yankees. When Mike Mussina, probably one of the mildest mannered men in baseball history, calls you out and basically says you're a wuss, that's pretty bad. Pavano never pitched in 2007 and was never resigned when his contract ran out (I wonder why?).

In all of the situations I just mentioned, the "One and Done Contract" would have worked wonders. As soon as these terrible situations started, all the teams would have had to do is not sign them when their one-year contract expired. Goodbye overpaid and overrated players and good reddens.

Lastly, there is already a phrase we use that proves my point for me. Whenever an athlete is in the last year of their deal, we always say, "Oh, he/she is in their contract year. They should be nasty." These athletes should be nasty all of the time, so if they're going to play harder because it's the last year of their contract, then make it every year. That way the fans, the owners, and fellow teammates don't get cheated.