Petition to Woody Johnson to pay Brick his bonus when lockout is lifted

[BroadwayJ667]

D'Brickashaw Ferguson was due $750,000 for an offseason workout bonus. He attempted to earn it during the day or two that the lockout was lifted. Now he seems resigned to the fact that he will never see that money. In my opinion Brick is one of the better players is nothing else one of the better people on the team. He has worked hard in his years here and has definitely improved every year. Other players recognize his ability as they named him into the top 100 players. If I remember correctly he took a fair to team friendly deal so that the Jets would be able to sign others.

Woody Johnson seems like a good owner. The players seem to like him and Rex and Tanny often sing his praises. After Hard Knocks he appears to be a fair and kind man.

Now football is a business and the Jets appear to be under no obligation to pay Brick his workout bonus. However the reasonable thing to do would be to compensate one of thier best players in some fashion once the lockout is lifted. By doing this both sides will come across as winners.

[slats]

I hope the Jets are forced to pay him, but if they aren't, Ferguson only has himself and his choice of agent to blame. Other players have forms of lockout insurance in their contracts, D'Brick has the largest offseason workout bonus in the entire league in his. He -or really, his agent- should've known better.

[Sperm Edwards]

I hope the Jets are forced to pay him, but if they aren't, Ferguson only has himself and his choice of agent to blame. Other players have forms of lockout insurance in their contracts, D'Brick has the largest offseason workout bonus in the entire league in his. He -or really, his agent- should've known better.

I don't know how that would play out. If I'm an employer and I promise to pay something for someone to do an "extra work" task, I think I would at least have an obligation to make the task plausible if I am operating in good faith. It is not operating in good faith to say to a player "work out on ___ date and I'l pay you," and then on that date lock the doors so the player can't work out. To tell the player that he has to have, in writing, a promise from the owner to not lock him out of the building to avoid bonus payment is unlikely to go over well with any jury.

Truthfully though, I would be surprised if the Johnson/Tannenbaum still withhold payment from Ferguson once the lockout is over. Not saying it's impossible, but I would be surprised.

[THE ILK]

I say, they should give the money to Revis.

[jason423]

I doubt they will be forced to pay him a penny. The Jets have every right to not hold workouts whenever they choose and even though Brick showed up that one day when facilities were open the Jets are not forced to have a "workout day" even under the old CBA. The only rules pertaining to workouts are limitations on days of the week (i.e. no more than 4 days a week), required times for players (i.e. a player can only be officially scheduled for a 2 hour window and they can choose the rest of the time they show up), minimum payments for those who do show up, and sending a schedule of the workout program to the NFLPA.

If Woody wanted to pay him they would have opened the doors up that day for him to get in his workout. They chose not to open the weight room. I think the Giants are the only team that did open the weight room. At he end of the day the only person to blame for missing the payments is his agent. Ferguson was in a position of power during negotiations and at a time when a lockout was looking likely. Other players (Mangold) took $0 for a workout bonus because of far they would never get it while others (such as Tom Brady) have ways to regain "lost lockout" money. His agent should have forced Ferguson to not take such a high workout bonus. I cant blame the agent entirely because Bricks old agent also had super high workout bonuses in Bricks rookie deal. Way higher than any other Jet and just about anyhone in the NFL. Makes me think that Ferguson likes the idea of the super high workout bonus too. In this case they should have taken none.

[SoFlaJets]

with so many other more important things going on in this world whether Brick gets his bonus or not is right there at the bottom of my list of petitions that need to be signed

[flgreen]

D'Brickashaw Ferguson was due $750,000 for an offseason workout bonus. He attempted to earn it during the day or two that the lockout was lifted. Now he seems resigned to the fact that he will never see that money. In my opinion Brick is one of the better players is nothing else one of the better people on the team. He has worked hard in his years here and has definitely improved every year. Other players recognize his ability as they named him into the top 100 players. If I remember correctly he took a fair to team friendly deal so that the Jets would be able to sign others.

Woody Johnson seems like a good owner. The players seem to like him and Rex and Tanny often sing his praises. After Hard Knocks he appears to be a fair and kind man.

Now football is a business and the Jets appear to be under no obligation to pay Brick his workout bonus. However the reasonable thing to do would be to compensate one of thier best players in some fashion once the lockout is lifted. By doing this both sides will come across as winners.

I agree with this.

I've stayed pretty neutral on which side should win, I just want it over. I remember at the time Ferguson was criticized for taking a team friendly deal. The Jets probably won't have to pay him his bonus, but I really hope they do.

One, he deserves it. Two, it will send a very bad message to any other players who might be inclined to give home town discounts to the team.

.

In the long run I don't think it will be either a good business decision, or good public relations to screw him.

[Maxman]

That could cause a really bad long term issue if he doesn't get that money. By all accounts it was already a very team-friendly deal for the Jets.

[jason423]

That could cause a really bad long term issue if he doesn't get that money. By all accounts it was already a very team-friendly deal for the Jets.

But it really wasnt. Much like Mangold's deal it was a good deal for both sided. The misconception comes from (no surprise) Mike Florio jumping the gun about injury guarantees and a 2 million dollar ST incentive that he claimed boosted the value of the deal. Of course almost all th ebeat guys ran with that. Due to the CBA players could only get an injury or skill guarantee. They could not get both. The odds of a catastrophic injury in the NFL to collect on that injury guarantee are so small its almost worthless. Leon Washinhgtons leg snapped in half and that would not have been enough to simply walk away and collect on an injury guarantee. It also is the one area where you can protect your future earnings with an insurance policy, something you cant do with by deciding not to take a skill guarantee. The 2 million incentive was also only there to comply with cap rules in the CBA and never included in the final contract number.

In essence doing a rolling guarantee allows the team to protect themselves, with an extension, to make sure the player completes his original deal without incident before effectively guaranteeing the new contract. Its a mechanism a number of teams have used, but only the Jets were criticized for.

[Vudu]

I could care less to be honest.