Doug Brown's View on Murphy Contract

[maddeep73]

He turned down the NFL offers due to the amount of bonus they were offereing. knowing that the NFL was looking to use him for TC fodder. Also if he did sign on, the 3 months prior to TC would be eaten up by NFL practices, a timeframe where he could make good coin selling commercial real estate. He knows the CFL is a very good fit for his post football career, in that it is only a 6 month business and not a 12 horu a day job 7 days a week during the season. So he could keep things moving his business in between practices each morning.

So he says. During negotiation players say lots of things publicly to increase their leverage. (See Bobby Singh last year)

I prefer to look more at Murphy's actions. Ie. Turning down the NFL, coming on 1040 saying he's willing to talk and not retiring to his so called lucrative real estate business.

He will sign and for good money no doubt. Make no mistake though, he wants to come back.

[Rammer]

He turned down the NFL offers due to the amount of bonus they were offereing. knowing that the NFL was looking to use him for TC fodder. Also if he did sign on, the 3 months prior to TC would be eaten up by NFL practices, a timeframe where he could make good coin selling commercial real estate. He knows the CFL is a very good fit for his post football career, in that it is only a 6 month business and not a 12 horu a day job 7 days a week during the season. So he could keep things moving his business in between practices each morning.

So he says. During negotiation players say lots of things publicly to increase their leverage. (See Bobby Singh last year)

I prefer to look more at Murphy's actions. Ie. Turning down the NFL, coming on 1040 saying he's willing to talk and not retiring to his so called lucrative real estate business.

He will sign and for good money no doubt. Make no mistake though, he wants to come back.

I agree he does want to play football, no doubt in my mind, as he took a 5 figure salary last season to do so, but now wants to be paid a suitable salary for his skill level. I don't have a problem with that, he should be up in the top 5 paid OL in the league, his only porblem being that he is an I versus an NI OL, who could be more valuable to a team.

[Rammer]

He turned down the NFL offers due to the amount of bonus they were offereing. knowing that the NFL was looking to use him for TC fodder. Also if he did sign on, the 3 months prior to TC would be eaten up by NFL practices, a timeframe where he could make good coin selling commercial real estate. He knows the CFL is a very good fit for his post football career, in that it is only a 6 month business and not a 12 horu a day job 7 days a week during the season. So he could keep things moving his business in between practices each morning.

So he says. During negotiation players say lots of things publicly to increase their leverage. (See Bobby Singh last year)

I prefer to look more at Murphy's actions. Ie. Turning down the NFL, coming on 1040 saying he's willing to talk and not retiring to his so called lucrative real estate business.

He will sign and for good money no doubt. Make no mistake though, he wants to come back.

Sounds as if Wally thinks that Murphy is also interested in coming back to the CFL and that pretty much confirms it. Wally did suggest that the deal for Murphy should be worked out soon or not at all, sees no reason that teh contract should be signed June 1st. Just need to find common ground as has been pointed out several times on this board in past threads.

[David]

He gave his explanation on why he didnt sign with the NFL, because of the timing and his business in lossing money. I dont know the real situation but I know he should be the highest paid lineman on the team PAYEM WALLY

You care to provide details of this business allegedly "losing" money? He's involved with some partners in commercial real estate in Florida. I seriously doubt he losing money at it. In fact, I'd say it is quite lucrative. He likely filed his retirement papers from the NFL in that money was a secondary issue. Although he could have made more on an NFL roster, there were no guarantees he'd be starting and the CFL season affords him the opportunity to spend more time at his business venture.

As much as he enjoyed it here, I think he could walk away from the game tomorrow and not have any regrets. It was reported last year that he'd like to settle down and start a family and he commended his wife for being so supportive of his itinerant football career.

DH 8)

[maddeep73]

Sounds as if Wally thinks that Murphy is also interested in coming back to the CFL and that pretty much confirms it. Wally did suggest that the deal for Murphy should be worked out soon or not at all, sees no reason that teh contract should be signed June 1st. Just need to find common ground as has been pointed out several times on this board in past threads.

Yup. Wally is 'optimistic' something will be done soon. He didn't say it was a done deal by any means, but that a decision one way or the other is forthcoming.

[Rammer]

Sounds as if Wally thinks that Murphy is also interested in coming back to the CFL and that pretty much confirms it. Wally did suggest that the deal for Murphy should be worked out soon or not at all, sees no reason that teh contract should be signed June 1st. Just need to find common ground as has been pointed out several times on this board in past threads.

Yup. Wally is 'optimistic' something will be done soon. He didn't say it was a done deal by any means, but that a decision one way or the other is forthcoming.

That is about as close as he will ever come to suggesting that it is a done deal. Couple that with his comments of being right at the SMS level and you have to think that the Murphy deal is already factored in, otherwise we are out of whack on the Cap level.

[Hambone]

Right, for more money than he'll get here. This shows me that he wants to play football. If cash was his only concern like he says, he would have taken NFL money or retired to real estate. This kid wants one more year, bank on it. He wants to play football, not sit on a sideline or slang condos.

He gave his explanation on why he didnt sign with the NFL, because of the timing and his business in lossing money. I dont know the real situation but I know he should be the highest paid lineman on the team PAYEM WALLY

For a player in Murphy's situation it would all get down to the NFL signing bonus and the situation. Everything else matters little. He'd stand to make more at minimum NFL wage for the upcoming season than he would make in 4 more CFL seasons. If he figured his odds of sticking were excellent then he would've signed an NFL offer and bonus money wouldn't be so much a sticking point. However he's 30 years old and would cost an NFL team double what they would have to pay a rookie. He's smart enough to know he'd realistically be battling for a backup spot against younger, cheaper players meaning the odds of sticking on an NFL roster to collect actual salary would not be great. When gambling on those odds the signing bonus must be significant enough to offset the loss of CFL wages through to final NFL cutdown day.

[OV - 54:40]

Where does Brown get Murphy playing 7 years in the NFL from?

[Shi Zi Mi]

Where does Brown get Murphy playing 7 years in the NFL from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Murphy ... ll_player)

[Toppy Vann]

I think Doug Brown has done justice to both the Lion's side of this and Rob Murphy's in what is a well written column.

Buono as a GM appears not to be a guy who will harm his payroll lists with money for one guy that doesn't fit his budget or where he thinks the guy fits. That is the mark of a good GM. Uncompromising. It is like Sam Pollock used to say when he was winning Stanley Cup after Stanley Cup as GM of Montreal - pay your best player the top salary and so on and when you are negotiating make the deals as if the player salary list will be stolen and published in the paper tomorrow. He like Buono turned over about 25% of the talent in the Montreal organization (big club and farm team) each year and he was a winner.

I don't think anything the player has said will impact the GM's offer to him in this case. What is clear is that Wally won't pull a Ryan Kesler type move and pay a guy what he can't or isn't worth relative to other players. What is also clear is that if the guy wants to build a real estate business he can defer his role in it for maybe a year and go at it part time but he ain't going to be getting the money he can by being in Vancouver over Florida. Luckily for many pro althletes they have supportive business partners and who knows if this is the case here.

[OV - 54:40]

Where does Brown get Murphy playing 7 years in the NFL from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Murphy ... ll_player)

The baseball player ???

[Shi Zi Mi]

Where does Brown get Murphy playing 7 years in the NFL from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Murphy ... ll_player)

The baseball player ???

For whatever reason the last part of the address isn't included in the link.

Copy the entire link address to your browser.

[Toppy Vann]

Mike Beamish's column today in The Vancouver Sun ties this story up nicely with Wally Buono basically saying that if Rob Murphy doesn't like the money offer, he will likely 'hang them up'. It covers the Lions constraints of the SMS and some on why the Lions can't and won't pursue big name free agents.

"I don't look at Rob pulling the strings, I look at him as being truthful" the story quotes Wally Buono as saying about the Murphy situation.

This is purely a business/football situation and there is no animosity visible from either side.

If you are a CFL player, this is your reality unless you are a top marquee player making big bucks. At some point you have to look ahead to life and a career after football. This is what Rob Murphy is faced with and he would play far from home and business versus what a guy might pull off if he was from Seattle playing here in BC. In the CFL, the salaries for the average guy are not going to tip the balance in favour of football at that point when a good career situation arises.

[OV - 54:40]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Murphy ... ll_player)

The baseball player ???

For whatever reason the last part of the address isn't included in the link.

Copy the entire link address to your browser.

OK - found it - thanks.

Not sure about Wikipedia's - anybody can be an editor - authenticty . But anyways, maybe they were including all his NFL TC, PR + NFL-Europe time, by saying 99-05? There's some football database dot whatever type sites (sorry, don't know how to put up the link) and they have pretty thorough NFL player participation lists - Murphy shows as playing 10 (regular season) games in 02, 2 games in 03 and 15 in 04; i just found Chris Schultz's statement that he had played 7 years in the NFL a bit misleading when he's only played 27 games over 3 seasons - i could be nit-picking semantics wise i guess.

Back to the topic - IMO Murphy should command a pretty decent CFL wage for O-linemen after a strong season; not sure he can demand tops in the league type bucks though after just one year -there are some other CFL O-linemen who have proven themselves for a number of years of dedicated service to the same team; if Murphy comes back and has another outstanding year, he could probably hope for an increase again; anyways - a 100Gs or so to play a game you love for half a year ain't too shabby coin IMO - if he feels he is better off doing other gigs elsewhere then, good for him and can't blame the guy for looking out for #1; can't blame Wally either for not bending over to give the guy whatever he wants. Hopefully, they can work something out.

Lots of interesting speculation on CFL salaries and the SMS now - i have little faith in the figures being thrown around in the media or on these type sites as being even close to 100% accurate though. If there was a bona fide list of CFL salaries the comments on CFL pay might mean more - love to see some proof to another of the good ole CFL cliches - that quality NI O-linemen are so rare that they can command these exorbitant salaries while an import O-line starter is going to be so under-paid - i believe the "facts" would show this to be often vastly over-stated or a fallacy.