Sadly, Ellis seeing business side of NFL
by Kevin Blackistone
07:56 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 6, 2006
This is business. It isn't personal. And that's a shame.
Because if it were about character and dependability and sacrifice, about all the other things that really matter, Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells would be treating Greg Ellis better than they are.
Here is a guy who has done everything that's been asked of him since Jones selected him out of North Carolina with the eighth pick in the '98 draft. He's played both ends on the defensive line, though he's naturally a pass-rushing left end. He fought back from what could've been a career-ending broken leg to lead the team's defensive linemen in tackles. Several times he led them in sacks.
Last year, he was stuffed into a new scheme, the 3-4, for the first time in his career. It didn't suit his skills, but Ellis didn't go Alfonso Soriano on his coach even as his playing time went down and his starter's role was lost as he struggled to find his footing.
Now Ellis' bosses want him to play upright, as a linebacker, for the first time in a pro career that is about to go into its ninth year. Ellis hasn't balked at that, either, even though it probably will deflate his numbers just like the 3-4 did last season, making him look like an aged player in decline, which he is not.
All Ellis has done is asked his employers – who just rewarded Terrible Owens with potentially the richest contract for a wide receiver – for a little insurance: He wants some of the money due to him at the end of the four years remaining on his contract now.
He doesn't want a new contract. He doesn't want more money. He just wants a little of what he signed on for.
The Cowboys have been mum about the situation. Their silence suggests Ellis, whose 31st birthday is in August, is headed for the cutting board by the end of next season, just like some others players getting long in the tooth experienced at Valley Ranch.
This isn't a case of having to absorb some seismic shock to the salary cap. But it is a reminder, once again, that there is no sentimentality in the NFL.
Once a team no longer sees any utility in a player, it all but discards him, quite unceremoniously in the case of a guy like Ellis who never blossomed into a superstar as his lofty draft status seemed to portend. So what if he is a model citizen as well as a standout player and a leader in the locker room?
It brings back to memory how Jerry and Jimmy Johnson treated Ken Norton Jr. in the early '90s. Norton tore a biceps going into the playoffs. He needed surgery or risked his career if he continued to play.
Norton's bosses pleaded with him to play through the injury, and he did, all the way to a Super Bowl victory. When time came to reward him with a new contract, they refused his relatively meager request.
Loyalty isn't worth a plugged nickel in sports, especially in the NFL. Sacrifice really isn't worth much there, either.
Why NFL players, with all the dangers of catastrophic injury, have allowed themselves to continue to play without guaranteed contracts being part of their labor agreement is one of the greatest, if not gravest, mistakes of any labor group since Samuel Gompers started organizing workers. This is why New York Times columnist William Rhoden chose the provocative title The Forty Million Dollar Slaves for his just-released book on the state of black athletes in this country.
It isn't my money, so it is painless to judge how to spend it, but the money Ellis is seeking from Jerry now, rather than watch evaporate later, doesn't look like a lot, a couple or three million maybe. For a guy who's given so much to his employer without hassle, I would think the Cowboys would see it as a golden parachute of sorts and hand it to Ellis with a handshake and a thank you.
No wonder Ellis pulled out of the Cowboys' "voluntary" minicamp this week. Why give anything extra anymore to an employer who won't return the favor?
"That's the way he feels right now," his agent, James Williams, told The Dallas Morning News' Jean-Jacques Taylor on Tuesday. "Greg is a man, and that's the way he acts. He's not going to say something bad or derogatory about the team. But he's really frustrated with the situation as it is now."
Understandably.
07:56 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 6, 2006
This is business. It isn't personal. And that's a shame.
Because if it were about character and dependability and sacrifice, about all the other things that really matter, Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells would be treating Greg Ellis better than they are.
Here is a guy who has done everything that's been asked of him since Jones selected him out of North Carolina with the eighth pick in the '98 draft. He's played both ends on the defensive line, though he's naturally a pass-rushing left end. He fought back from what could've been a career-ending broken leg to lead the team's defensive linemen in tackles. Several times he led them in sacks.
Last year, he was stuffed into a new scheme, the 3-4, for the first time in his career. It didn't suit his skills, but Ellis didn't go Alfonso Soriano on his coach even as his playing time went down and his starter's role was lost as he struggled to find his footing.
Now Ellis' bosses want him to play upright, as a linebacker, for the first time in a pro career that is about to go into its ninth year. Ellis hasn't balked at that, either, even though it probably will deflate his numbers just like the 3-4 did last season, making him look like an aged player in decline, which he is not.
All Ellis has done is asked his employers – who just rewarded Terrible Owens with potentially the richest contract for a wide receiver – for a little insurance: He wants some of the money due to him at the end of the four years remaining on his contract now.
He doesn't want a new contract. He doesn't want more money. He just wants a little of what he signed on for.
The Cowboys have been mum about the situation. Their silence suggests Ellis, whose 31st birthday is in August, is headed for the cutting board by the end of next season, just like some others players getting long in the tooth experienced at Valley Ranch.
This isn't a case of having to absorb some seismic shock to the salary cap. But it is a reminder, once again, that there is no sentimentality in the NFL.
Once a team no longer sees any utility in a player, it all but discards him, quite unceremoniously in the case of a guy like Ellis who never blossomed into a superstar as his lofty draft status seemed to portend. So what if he is a model citizen as well as a standout player and a leader in the locker room?
It brings back to memory how Jerry and Jimmy Johnson treated Ken Norton Jr. in the early '90s. Norton tore a biceps going into the playoffs. He needed surgery or risked his career if he continued to play.
Norton's bosses pleaded with him to play through the injury, and he did, all the way to a Super Bowl victory. When time came to reward him with a new contract, they refused his relatively meager request.
Loyalty isn't worth a plugged nickel in sports, especially in the NFL. Sacrifice really isn't worth much there, either.
Why NFL players, with all the dangers of catastrophic injury, have allowed themselves to continue to play without guaranteed contracts being part of their labor agreement is one of the greatest, if not gravest, mistakes of any labor group since Samuel Gompers started organizing workers. This is why New York Times columnist William Rhoden chose the provocative title The Forty Million Dollar Slaves for his just-released book on the state of black athletes in this country.
It isn't my money, so it is painless to judge how to spend it, but the money Ellis is seeking from Jerry now, rather than watch evaporate later, doesn't look like a lot, a couple or three million maybe. For a guy who's given so much to his employer without hassle, I would think the Cowboys would see it as a golden parachute of sorts and hand it to Ellis with a handshake and a thank you.
No wonder Ellis pulled out of the Cowboys' "voluntary" minicamp this week. Why give anything extra anymore to an employer who won't return the favor?
"That's the way he feels right now," his agent, James Williams, told The Dallas Morning News' Jean-Jacques Taylor on Tuesday. "Greg is a man, and that's the way he acts. He's not going to say something bad or derogatory about the team. But he's really frustrated with the situation as it is now."
Understandably.
posted by The Gryphon at 8:09 AM
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