Being on the right team, staying healthy and playing well are obviously the most important things for a professional athlete, but not far behind those happiness keys is having the right agent. If you don’t believe me, just ask Tarell Brown. The 49ers starting cornerback fired his representative yesterday after he was informed he cost himself a $2M bonus by not participating in a voluntary offseason workout program.
Details are on what exactly happened aren’t completely clear yet, but apparently, agent Brian Overstreet negotiated a $2,000,000 escalator into his client’s contract that specified he would participate in all the voluntary conditioning programs the team offers during the summer. Unfortunately, he allegedly never told his client about it, and since Brown has always stayed in shape on his own, he never thought to do his maintenance running at the 49ers facility.
Here’s what the obviously disappointed cornerback told ESPN…
"No one wants to leave money on the table. If I would have known the clauses in my contract -- that's what agents get paid to do, to orchestrate the contract and to let you know what you can and can't do as far as workouts and OTAs and things of that sort. That's what he got paid to do. He didn't do that, so in my opinion, you have to be let go. We all are held accountable for our actions. This is part of the business."
I’m pretty sure that’s the most level-headed and kind statement a man who just flushed two million dollars down the toilet has ever made. You would think he would be a raving lunatic, stomping around the locker room with a sharp object and repeatedly calling to threaten his now former agent, but apparently, this dude has a steely reserve of level-headedness running through his veins that prevents him from flying off the handle, at least when he’s not on the field launching himself at wide receivers.
From an outside perspective, it seems like the team is totally within its rights to not pay Brown any of this money, but considering he’s apparently in great shape and he’s been the team’s starting corner for the past two seasons, one would hope executives would find a way to throw a million bucks or so at him in order to find some kind of compromise. After al, the last thing you want is for a defensive starter to be thinking about lost revenue in between plays when you’re a Super Bowl contender.
If anything else about this case winds up playing out in public, we’ll be sure to let you know what happens. Otherwise, try to make sure and read your contract carefully, regardless of what business you might be in. The last thing you want to do is unintentionally screw yourself out of money that you could have used to do this…
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