I am done with the Manny Ramirez saga. It’s the same thing year after year, again and again. Will he stay or will he go? I am sick of it. I have a tough time holding down my Chicken Lou’s whenever I see Manny or Brett Favre on my TV screen or I hear them on the radio. It’s nauseating. It’s incessant. It’s ridiculous.
The most common theme in so much of this is blaming the team; the Sox should just sign him, the Packers should just grant his release – blah blah blah. It’s the biggest joke. The teams have as much to gain and as much to lose by where these players land.
Let’s start with Manny. His best years seem to be behind him. Not to say he is still not incredibly productive (he is), but it’s just a fact that as players get older, their numbers start to decline. Who knows where Manny will be in two more years? Is he worth $20 million each of the next two years? I think so. But is it worth signing him for another five to 10 years? I don’t think so.
Manny is closing in on 40 – not exactly a guy you want to sign long-term. He should play out his contract. If the contract he signed has two 2-year options, then that is the team’s prerogative whether they want to exercise them or not.
Teams get screwed over by contracts all the time and no one complains. The Orioles paid Albert Belle his contract for three additional years after he left the game. Since Manny signed the deal, he needs to finish the deal. And when he is a free agent he can work out another. I have no feelings toward someone who does not want to finish out a contract. You sign it, you play it. I have no problem with the team doing its due diligence to make sure that Manny is a guy they want to sign again and if they don’t more power to them.
Now Favre. What an ordeal this has become. First he retires, then he doesn’t want to be retired anymore. I feel bad for the Packers. How are they supposed to plan for the future if they don’t know what their leader, the face of their franchise, intends to do? Simple answer: They can’t.
When Favre finally pulled the trigger and retired they were ready with a young QB and moved on. Favre has not. And now he wants his release. You know what? Screw ’em. Who cares what he wants? I don’t. The Packers don’t. The Packers care about their team, and if that does not include Brett Favre, more power to them.
A lot of people will counter that if the Packers don’t want Favre they should release him. Well that’s not true either. Just because they don’t want him doesn’t mean they don’t think he has talent. He is obviously still a good quarterback and since the Packers have his rights, they are under no obligation to release him. It is just smart management.
Do you think the Pats would release Tom Brady and let him go to the Jets? Of course not! If they were not going to use Brady they would make sure he was far, far away from the Pats, making sure they were not going to see him in the regular season, and that is what the Packers want to do with Favre. Make sure that if he is going to go gunslinging for a team, that it doesn’t come back to burn them. Off to the AFC most likely for him, and if I was the Packers’ GM, that is where I would send him.
I am sick of players complaining about contracts they signed. Why is it a team’s fault that they signed it? No one forced them to sign the deal. You signed it, you play it. Not complex. Professional sports teams get the short end of the stick wit contracts sometimes. Sometimes it’s the player. However, teams don’t sit and complain, they move on. Players refuse to play so I say to them, “Grow up.” If you don’t want to sign the deal or think it’s unfair, then don’t sign it.
– Keith Lavon can be reached at
