Seahawks Leader Issues Ultimatum: Pay Me or Trade Me
These are dark times for Seattle sports — the Mariners are facing an uphill battle trying to catch the Astros in the NL West a negative run differential and Sounders FC is 10th out of 12 teams in the MLS West.
The Seahawks haven’t been immune to this either. Ever since the team blew its salary cap on Russell Wilson’s mega-extension after his rookie deal, the defense has been falling apart at the seams, with three out of four members of the “Legion of Boom” secondary either playing elsewhere or out of the league.
And the last remaining tie to that Super Bowl-winning defense that ranked in the top 10 all time — maybe even top five by allowing just 14.4 points a game — just issued an ultimatum to Seahawks management that amounts to “pay me or trade me.”
To say Earl Thomas is holding out isn’t quite right. A holdout implies that a team is balking at paying an asked-for price but ultimately considers a player part of their long-term plans. But the Seahawks seem perfectly content to fine Thomas his game checks and let him walk.
So Thomas took his PR campaign to the Players’ Tribune in a piece entitled, “Here’s What’s Actually Going On.”
In it, Thomas lays bare that his distaste for only being paid $8.5 million is getting in the way of his ability to do his job.
“A lot of people talk about how short the average NFL career is,” Thomas wrote. “They’re right. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of talented players come and go. What you discover pretty quickly is that in order to survive, football demands everything of you — not just physically and mentally, but emotionally as well.
“And my feeling is, if you do manage to survive — and especially if you thrive — in this league, then that’s something that should be acknowledged. It’s something that should be respected.
“If you’re risking your body to deliver all of this value to an organization, then you deserve some sort of assurance that the organization will take care of you if you get hurt. It’s that simple. This isn’t new, and this isn’t complicated. It’s the reason I’m holding out — I want to be able to give my everything, on every play, without any doubt in my mind.”
Meanwhile, the Seahawks can cut Thomas this year with a cap hit of only $1.9 million in dead money. The only reason they would refrain from doing so would be if they wanted to simply play keep away and make sure Thomas doesn’t sign with one of their rivals, like Dallas. The Cowboys are reportedly interested in obtaining Thomas, and if Seattle makes the playoffs, that’s a team they could run into come January.
Thomas also seems dimly aware that the team and the league can and will go on without him, but his brain doesn’t take that logical next step to “honor your obligations in a contract year if you want to get paid.”
After saying he loves the city of Seattle, Thomas said business is business. “I also have learned why I need to take care of this business side of things. In the NFL, no matter what you’ve done or what you’ve accomplished, teams are constantly reminding you that you don’t matter,” Thomas said.
So the Seahawks are in a position where they have a malcontent on the downside of his career — Thomas has missed significant time with injury in each of the past two seasons — trying to ransom them for more money, saying “pay me or trade me.”
And so far, Seattle’s looking like they want to take a third or even a fourth option: They can hold onto his rights and not have to pay him at all unless he plays, or they can release him outright, take a small cap hit, and basically tell him good luck getting the same money we’re paying you on the free agent market.
The whole thing is a mess. And for fans in Seattle, it’s just one more reason why the whole city’s sports outlook in the coming months is as gloomy as the weather in the fall.
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