“Financial literacy is the biggest problem I see in NFL locker rooms,” wrote 49ers tight end Vernon Davis in a guest column for The Monday Morning Quarterback with Peter King.
With a statement like that coming just days prior to his decision to skip San Francisco’s mandatory mini-camp on Tuesday in the hopes of renegotiating his contract, one can only assume that Davis spends a lot of time in the locker room staring at himself in the mirror.
Davis is at the tail end of a five-year, $37 million contract extension that he signed in 2010, $23 million of which was guaranteed. “It was the biggest contract for a tight end in league history,” wrote Davis. Indeed. And few would have argued that San Francisco was wrong to pony up that kind of cash for a 25-year old tight end who just led the league in receiving touchdowns and appeared to be on the fast track to superstardom.
So how did the highest paid tight end in NFL history actually perform after signing this historic contract?
To put it mildly? Not very well.
Davis fell off a cliff during the first three years of his new deal, significantly declining in receiving yardage (from a career-high 965 in 2009 to a paltry 548 in 2012) and touchdown catches (from an NFL-best 13 in 2009 to just 5 in 2012). Last season saw Davis finally return to form with 850 yards and 13 touchdowns. As a result? He now wants more money.
Those who agree with athletes like Davis, Houston Texans’ wide receiver Andre Johnson, and others who hold out for more money, will point to the fact that teams can cut players at any time and release themselves (to some extent) from the financial obligations of the deal.
If you are an NFL player unhappy with the “unfairness” of this development in contractual negotiations, then don’t sign the contract in the first place. Make your agent get you more guaranteed money. Take it up with the players association. Play out the deal that you signed and become a free agent. Make it a point of emphasis in the next collective bargaining negotiation.
But whatever you do, please — PLEASE — don’t insult the general population by “pulling a Vernon” and addressing us as if we are uneducated dolts.
“It’s not that complicated,” Davis wrote. “I want the 49ers to win the Super Bowl, and I want to be on the field this summer working toward that goal, but I have to worry about my future first.”
This statement is what the “financially literate” among us refer to as ludicrous to the point of being insulting.
If $23 million guaranteed, not including endorsements, bonuses, and the countless freebies bestowed upon professional athletes, is not enough money for you to not have to worry about your future, then you, good sir, are not financially literate.
If you believe that a franchise should give a raise to a 30-year old tight end who has played up to the expectations of his record-breaking contract in exactly one out of the first four years of that contract, then you are not financially literate.
If you have the gall to claim that “it’s all about getting paid what you deserve,” when you were getting paid like an elite player despite performing like a barely mediocre one, then you are not financially literate.
A quick Google search for a definition of “financial literacy” yields the following: “The ability to understand how money works in the world.”
Given his recent statements on the topic, one can only speculate as to what world Vernon Davis is living in.
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