Miami Dolphins Olivier Vernon Wants More Money?
By Brian Miller
Sports athletes always want to be paid more and frankly most of the time they deserve to be. Sports entertainment is exactly that, entertainment and it’s a huge business. While the Miami Dolphins are trying to figure out the how’s and the who’s of their own impending free agents, one player may be trying to get a little extra something for himself. Olivier Vernon.
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In what is not really news but is kind of worth talking about, Omar Kelly of the Sun-Sentinel tweeted about Vernon’s desire.
Yet when a player says "I'm underpaid, my salary needs to be adjusted" (Olivier Vernon) the team & fans say "you signed the contract."
— Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) February 16, 2015
The context of the conversation on Twitter was the idea that players get chastised when they ask for more money while as he said fans and teams say they signed the deal. The issue here is that when this happens we forget that these same teams ask players to take cuts all the time. Making the entire issue a double standard.
The reality is that teams should be able to ask a player to take a pay cut or do a restructure and that player has the right to decline. At the same time players should be able to ask for a raise if they are indeed playing better than their contract or ask for a new deal entirely. Teams have the right to decline that as well.
The question here however is about Vernon. If Vernon is in fact wanting more money, he likely isn’t going to see it until his contract is up. Vernon has played well in the last two seasons. He has started 30 of 32 games the last two seasons. He has been a solid compliment opposite Cameron Wake but last year saw his sack total drop from 11.5 to 6.5 on the season.
I don’t know if Vernon is actually asking for more money or is simply making the statement that he believes he should be paid more so let’s not read too much into this. The bigger question is anyone on this team playing well enough week in and out to warrant a pay raise under their current contract? No.