TotalBroncos

As you would expect, the NFL Players Association, via Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, has asked for an inquiry into the process by which former Denver Broncos defensive end Elvis Dumervil was released even after he agreed to a $4 million pay cut in 2013. The cut happened because Dumervil and his agent, Marty Magid, didn’t get the signed re-structure back to the Broncos before the deadline of $4:00 p.m. ET. Because of that, had the Broncos not released Dumervil when they did, they would have been on the hook for the whole of Dumervil’s previous base salary — a figure of $12 million. As it is, the release forwarded almost $5 million in dead money from the remainder of Dumervil’s contract, and makes Dumervil tougher to re-sign at the agreed-upon $8 million figure. Dumervil and Magid are fielding offers from other teams in a generally depressed market for pass-rushers, and we’ll see where that goes. There are those who believe that Dumervil and Magid simply screwed up a process that should have been far simpler, while others have opined that the duo intentionally obfuscated the process so that Dumervil could test the market. The latter theory doesn’t make a lot of sense; the Broncos said all along that they were going to cut Dumervil if he didn’t agree to a lower base salary. Most likely, it’s pretty clear that everyone involved needs to move past the fax machine as an acceptable form of communication technology. As Mike Klis of the Denver Post put it, “The Broncos did ask the league office if it would honor the verbal agreement on a restructured contract the team negotiated with Dumervil. The league rejected the request. And now Smith is going to look into the matter because with so much blame going around as to how the contract exchange was botched, it was the player who may have been most hurt.” This wouldn’t be the first time in the last decade that the NFLPA had to look into contract shenanigans — in fact, there’s a pretty estimable history of players and agents and teams goofing this whole contract thing up, and the union becoming involved. Arrington’s Bonus: In 2003, then-Washington Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington signed an eight-year, $63 million contract extension that was supposed to have a $6.5 million roster bonus installed for the 2006 league year. It didn’t, because the contract given to Arrington and his agent, Carl Poston, didn’t have the bonus in it. Arrington signed off without noticing the error, the NFLPA suspended Poston, and according to the late Gene Upshaw, the head of the NFLPA at the time, he would up telling Arrington about the mistake at the Super Bowl. Arrington bought his way out of Washington D.C. after the 2005 season, and would up testifying before Congress in 2006 regarding Poston’s suspension. Surprisingly, Arrington blasted the union. “They suspended him without a hearing, the NFLPA,” Arrington told the Associated Press . “If you are educated and you pay attention to what is going on around you, they do a lot of foul stuff. It’s like organized crime, to be honest with you. They are bad.” Upshaw, who said that the union tried to recover the bonus after the omission was caught, said that the suspension was a strong message to all agents. “This isn’t just about LaVar,” Upshaw said. “This is about the other players this guy represents. We have a duty to the other players.” T.O.’s Delayed Philly Trip:

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NFLPA gets involved in Dumervil contract mess, the latest in a series of NFL contract snafus over the last decade (Shutdown Corner)