July 1 has a way of dragging bad contracts back into the spotlight, and for football fans in Washington, it’s a reminder that the franchise has handed out more than a few ugly ones of its own.
The day is best known for Bobby Bonilla Day, the annual punchline tied to one of baseball’s strangest financial arrangements. Bonilla played in Major League Baseball from 1986-2001, and in his early years he and Barry Bonds made up one of the best young duos in the sport.
By 1999, though, Bonilla had been released by the New York Mets, who still owed him $5.9 million. That was $5.9 million from 27 years ago, and Mets owner Fred Wilpon didn’t want to pay it all at once.
So the money got stretched into annual installments.
The Mets believed they would make far more through investments with Bernie Madoff, and that decision left them tied to a deal that has been a joke for decades. Bonilla got $1,193,248.20 as a deferred payment in 2011, and the payments have kept rolling from 2011 to 2035.
By the end of it all, Bonilla will have received $29,831,205 from the Mets. Why didn’t they just go ahead and pay the $5.9 million?
Washington has its own long list of contract blunders, and Daniel Snyder was responsible for some of the worst. In 1999, the Redskins won the NFC East at 10-6, with Brad Johnson throwing for 4,000 yards.
Even so, Snyder wanted Jeff George and gave him a four-year, $18 million deal. That move rubbed Norv Turner and Johnson the wrong way, and George never came close to justifying the money.
He was eventually released by Mary Schottenheimer in early 2001.
Then came Adam Archuleta in 2006. Snyder made him the highest-paid safety in NFL history with a six-year, $30 million contract, even though Archuleta had not proven himself as one of the league’s top safeties. Washington got just seven games out of him, and he was in Chicago the next season.
Snyder also committed to Deion Sanders, a 32-year-old cornerback, on a seven-year, $56 million deal. The contract aged badly almost immediately, and Sanders gave Washington only one season. The dead cap money that followed only made it worse.
Still, the worst Redskins deal of all was Albert Haynesworth’s. Washington gave him seven years and $100 million, with $41 million guaranteed.
Haynesworth arrived fat and out of shape, and his attitude matched the disappointment. The whole thing was a disaster for Washington.
And if you want the NFL’s worst contract overall, the source of that debate sits in Cleveland: the Browns signing Deshaun Watson for five years and $230 million. Cleveland also gave up a significant number of picks to Houston to get him. What in the world were the Browns smoking?
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