Okung fired his agent and will represent himself, says other athletes should do the same:

Uhh, he about to get screwed. Contract situations are so incredibly difficult, lots of ways they can screw this guy over now even if he gets the money. Seahawks should be happy,

Originally posted by philosoraptor:
Uhh, he about to get screwed. Contract situations are so incredibly difficult, lots of ways they can screw this guy over now even if he gets the money. Seahawks should be happy,

How hard can it be to hire a lawyer to look at a contract?

Justin Smith did it and Floyd Mayweather does it all the time.

Originally posted by glorydayz:

Originally posted by philosoraptor:
Uhh, he about to get screwed. Contract situations are so incredibly difficult, lots of ways they can screw this guy over now even if he gets the money. Seahawks should be happy,

How hard can it be to hire a lawyer to look at a contract?

Justin Smith did it and Floyd Mayweather does it all the time.

Thats different. Representing yourself is another thing, I thought he was gonna handle the whole process. I didnt read the article. It makes sense to save the contract and hire a lawyer to simply read the contract and tell him if there any clauses, or anything that will bone him in the end.

This will never be the norm imo. NFL teams sign dozens of contracts a year while a rookie coming into the league has no clue about contract law. That's about as predatory as it gets. There's no way a guy like Mariota would have any idea what a clawback provision is without some form of counsel. Wouldn't it be nice if that counsel also knew if clawbacks were common and had an idea if the financial terms were fair? Even "slotted" rookie contracts aren't all created equal.

Guys like Justin Smith can negotiate their own final deals because they've been around the league long enough to know how contracts work and generally what they're worth. Justin Smith was also one of the best players in the league and a cornerstone on our defense. He has a little more leverage than a TJE.

I have no clue how smart/educated Okung is off the field. He may be fully capable of signing his own deal, but I highly doubt that's the case for the vast majority of players. GM's will rape the ones that have no leverage and no understanding of contract law.

Originally posted by Overkill:
This will never be the norm imo. NFL teams sign dozens of contracts a year while a rookie coming into the league has no clue about contract law. That's about as predatory as it gets. There's no way a guy like Mariota would have any idea what a clawback provision is without some form of counsel. Wouldn't it be nice if that counsel also knew if clawbacks were common and had an idea if the financial terms were fair? Even "slotted" rookie contracts aren't all created equal.

Guys like Justin Smith can negotiate their own final deals because they've been around the league long enough to know how contracts work and generally what they're worth. Justin Smith was also one of the best players in the league and a cornerstone on our defense. He has a little more leverage than a TJE.

I have no clue how smart/educated Okung is off the field. He may be fully capable of signing his own deal, but I highly doubt that's the case for the vast majority of players. GM's will rape the ones that have no leverage and no understanding of contract law.

Great post!

Originally posted by philosoraptor:

Originally posted by glorydayz:

Originally posted by philosoraptor:

Uhh, he about to get screwed. Contract situations are so incredibly difficult, lots of ways they can screw this guy over now even if he gets the money. Seahawks should be happy,

How hard can it be to hire a lawyer to look at a contract?

Justin Smith did it and Floyd Mayweather does it all the time.

Thats different. Representing yourself is another thing, I thought he was gonna handle the whole process. I didnt read the article. It makes sense to save the contract and hire a lawyer to simply read the contract and tell him if there any clauses, or anything that will bone him in the end.

Comparing boxing contracts to NFL contracts are way different when it comes to bargaining chips. Boxing is one on one and NFL is a team. Mayweather can negotiate what he wants because he's the one man on top. NFL you're basically just a cog in the machine, easily replaceable if need be.

i remember ray allen did this years ago, think he was still with milwaukee at the time

Originally posted by crabman82:
i remember ray allen did this years ago, think he was still with milwaukee at the time

Helps when your contract is fully guaranteed. Okung will sign a five year fifty million dollar deal and collect eleven million of it

The only way this makes an impact in the NFL is if high school started teaching financial literacy and our social and school system wasn't set up to produce employees instead of owners. Then I could see a change in like 30 years with people growing up more knowledgeable about money. As it stands, our nation is basically built on labor coming from those who knew and know very little about economics.

Hiring an agent and lawyer is about the same s**t

Not

Originally posted by blizzuntz:
Hiring an agent and lawyer is about the same s**t

If the lawyer agree's to a flat fee as opposed to a percentage, per the article it is a huge difference.

Neither Jay Z or Floyd Mayweather have a back ground that would scream financial literacy, yet both handle contracts on the day to day. Floyd even handles the promotional contracts, so once again it can't be that difficult.

Originally posted by glorydayz:
Not

If the lawyer agree's to a flat fee as opposed to a percentage, per the article it is a huge difference.

Neither Jay Z or Floyd Mayweather have a back ground that would scream financial literacy, yet both handle contracts on the day to day. Floyd even handles the promotional contracts, so once again it can't be that difficult.

the only difference is in the NFL there are countless ways for the team not to pay you. Knowing all these things is way different than someone like Pujols signing a guaranteed contract.

Originally posted by glorydayz:
Not

Originally posted by blizzuntz:
Hiring an agent and lawyer is about the same s**t

If the lawyer agree's to a flat fee as opposed to a percentage, per the article it is a huge difference.

Neither Jay Z or Floyd Mayweather have a back ground that would scream financial literacy, yet both handle contracts on the day to day. Floyd even handles the promotional contracts, so once again it can't be that difficult.

LOL Cant be that difficult. There would be more people with law degrees or Masters degrees in finance if contracts were so easy. Thats like me saying because some hicks cook meth being a chemist cant be that hard.

Floyd's contracts are for one time payments and deals. It's different negotiating a long term contract where more situations can arise., including the signing bonus, guaranteed money, and other clauses that could come into play dealing with retirement injury and cutting a player.

Plus floyd is the biggest attraction in his sport, he can pretty much get what he wants.

Originally posted by Pillbusta:

Originally posted by crabman82:
i remember ray allen did this years ago, think he was still with milwaukee at the time

Helps when your contract is fully guaranteed. Okung will sign a five year fifty million dollar deal and collect eleven million of it

Sounds about right.