Denver Post sports columnist Woody Paige posts Woody’s Mailbag on Thursdays.
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If the Broncos’ Elvis Dumervil is badly shorted on his contract, what will that do to the team’s morale? Champ Bailey says the Broncos need Elvis. Will this affect future signings of quality players?
— Mike Lee, Santa Fe, N.M.
Mike: I heard the other day that my late friend from Memphis, Tenn., the other Elvis, made more money last year in spite of the recession (depression) than he ever did alive. Toward the end of his life, E.P. was playing Vegas for a pittance — about $100,000 a week — because his manager, Tom Parker, owed so much to the casinos. He shorted Elvis to pay off his debts.
There wasn’t as much concern about the singing Elvis then as the sacking Elvis now. Denver’s Elvis will make more guaranteed money in bonuses and salary in a four-year period than the other Elvis did in a similar span. Elvis Dumervil is not leaving the building.
According to someone who knows and is close to the talks, the negotiations are ongoing regularly between the Broncos and Dumervil, there’s no reason to panic and the numbers will not be discussed publicly until the deal is done. Yes, they are far apart. Yes, they are getting closer.
I sincerely don’t understand all the uproar on a couple of levels. “Doom” is not a free agent; he is tied to the Broncos for another season. The Broncos are not going to let him go this year, and there’s still more than a month until training camp starts.
So how do you know if Dumervil will be badly shorted on his contract? Would $50 million be short? You could buy a lot of turquoise jewelry and Peña art in Santa Fe for that kind of money.
Elvis has signed the team’s tender; nobody else signed him as a restricted free agent and, from what I’m told, negotiations are businesslike.
But most everybody else in the public and the press seem to be bent all out of shape that a contract wasn’t agreed to in June. It’s an unusual year, as I keep saying, because there’s no contract between the NFL and the players association in place.
What’s going on in Denver with Elvis is going on in every other city in the league. Champ says the Broncos need Elvis. A chump like me says they need Elvis. I feel quite certain this deal will get done by Aug. 10, and you can go back to worrying about the economy for people not named Elvis.
This won’t affect the Broncos’ signings of quality players in the future. It hasn’t affected them in the past or in the present. Oh, bring up Brandon Marshall. They didn’t sign him for one reason, and everyone, including the Dolphins now, knows why.
I’ve just gone back and looked at the Broncos’ negotiations with players in the past while Pat Bowlen has been the owner (since 1984). They have signed dozens of high-priced veterans to new, big contracts. They rarely sign restricted free agents to new contracts. They have lost approximately 40 unrestricted free agents since 1993 (averaging a little over two per year).
Out of that group, fewer than 10 were what you might consider impact players — four-time Pro Bowler Trevor Pryce, Jason Elam, Bertrand Berry and Reggie Hayward (he did have 10-1/2 sacks his last year here). Shannon Sharpe left after the 1999 season to sign with Baltimore (and returned to end his career).
You might, if you insist, include Montae Reagor, Shane Dronett, Ted Washington, Ian Gold and, earlier, Bill Romanowski and Steve Atwater.
The Broncos have lost a few star players. They have also signed a lot of quality players (and many duds) who were free agents. Domonique Foxworth and Karl Paymah recently wanted bigger contracts. The Broncos traded Foxworth and Paymah became a free agent.
The most notable acrimonious negotiations were with Clinton Portis. He wanted a new contract. The Broncos traded him for Champ Bailey. I would guess that deal worked out for the Broncos more than for Washington because Champ is an annual all-pro and Portis has been a hit-and-miss player because of injuries and an inconsistent year or two (and bad teams).
And Mike Shanahan, who did the deal, ended up with Portis again. The Broncos shouldn’t have let Pryce go, but he had sat out much of one year and his production fell off badly the next. He wanted more money, and they thought he was on the downside (even though he has been outstanding for Baltimore since).
Berry had a nice ride with Arizona. Elam got more money from Atlanta, but he’s retired now (and retired with the Broncos this offseason, so he wasn’t too upset about what happened).
Don’t bring up Jay Cutler. Money had nothing to do with what happened there. So we’re back to Marshall, and everybody lumps the two together.
Elvis is a great guy and made the adjustment well to the Broncos’ new 3-4 defense and should be a Pro Bowl-type player for years.
What happened with Portis didn’t stop anyone from signing here. What happened with Marshall didn’t keep anybody from signing here. Players across the league will tell you they consider the Broncos an elite organization (despite the lack of playoffs around here for quite a while), and I rarely (if ever) hear a player bad-mouthing the franchise once he leaves for whatever reason.
Ray Crockett was the exception. Sharpe came home. Gold and Keith Burns came back. Oh, I did forget Ashley Lelie. He wanted more money. The Broncos traded him. He’s bounced around and done OK, but will never be an all-pro receiver.
There was the Al Wilson situation, but his health did him in. Ask every other current player with the Broncos about their salary, and the vast majority will say they are fine. Kyle Orton certainly felt he deserved a long-term, big-time deal.
Ryan Clady held out some as a rookie and probably thought he deserved more, until his offseason hoops game.
You think players won’t want to play in Denver because Elvis is negotiating a contract? Why, then, does anybody ever want to play in Oakland? In summation, we all know Elvis deserves a ton of money. He will get it.
Hi, Woody. I love your column. I was just wondering what you think the chances are that the Broncos sign Champ Bailey to a new deal, since this is the last year of his contract. It seems to me this will be his last year in Denver even though he deserves a new deal. He’s playing at a high level and should finish his career as a Bronco.
— Ethan P., Tucson
Ethan: Here we go again. I was told that it won’t be an issue until this year is over. Bailey has been super and should be rewarded one more time so he can finish his career in Denver. But I think that will be determined by the year he has. You know there’s no loyalty either way in pro sports.
Woody: Any other year and I’d be inclined to agree with your opinion about Rockies first baseman Todd Helton, that he might end up hitting about .285. But really, have you ever seen him so totally clueless at the plate? I have to wonder if he’s done and whether his back troubles have caught up with him.
— Jim Manville, Kailua Kona, Hawaii
Jim: Say hello to my friends on the Big Island. I try to go once every year. For people who’ve never been to the Kona Coast, you’re missing out. Go see an active volcano. Go see the best beaches in the world. Go eat at some fantastic restaurants, and the island has six world-class golf courses.
The weather is always great. One hotel will give you your room free for a night if it rains more than 15 minutes in one day. The owner said he gave out three free nights in one entire year.
I’m trying to put off, Jim, talking about Todd. You may be right. I just wrote that if things don’t get going for the Rockies by the end of June, it will be time to release Jason Giambi and put Helton in that pinch-hitter role.
He’s busting his rear end to break out of this slump. But, truth is, the end may be near — or here. He almost never struck out before. Now he strikes out regularly. He hasn’t had power for years, but he could hit doubles frequently.
He doesn’t have warning-track power anymore. I compare him to Mark Grace at the back end of his career.
This is sad to watch. I guess I’m hoping that Helton breaks out because he is one of the special people. It’s not his back. It’s the entire body and the mind, I’m afraid.
Woody, why can’t MLB be more like the NFL? I’m not talking about the salary cap, contract structures and especially not the $50 nosebleed seats. I’m talking about a code for how the uniform should be worn. High socks are how the uniform should be worn, and those sleeveless jerseys need to go. What is this, a beer league softball team or professional baseball? When it looks like guys are running around in sweat pants pulled over their cleats, the commish needs to step in. What are your thoughts on why the NFL is so strict on socks and the MLB is not?
— Brandon, Hibbing, Minn.
Brandon: I agree. I complained for a long time and nobody listened, so I gave up. There should be a uniform code, literally and figuratively, about the socks and the undershirts. (How about those ratty sleeves that the player apparently cuts off with his fingernail clippers?)
But baseball doesn’t get it. The NFL actually has fashion police. Former Broncos defensive lineman Greg Boyd is the clothes cop in Denver. He checks the players in their uniforms in the locker room before the game and makes sure they abide by the regulations during the game. Then the league doles out fines.
Baseball doesn’t get it, but, then, you have a commissioner who dresses like he slept in a suit he bought from Goodwill, with apologies to Goodwill.
Hey, Woody: You are by far my favorite sports columnist. So, I have to ask, how do you feel about the University of Colorado moving to the Pac-10? Do you think the addition of CU adds strength to that conference? Or does it make the Pac-10 more of a glorified conference full of cheaters, criminals, liars and just doggone awful teams?
— Anthony Smith, Edgewater
Anthony: If the Pac-10 is full of cheaters, criminals, liars and doggone awful teams, CU should fit in nicely.
I don’t think CU adds anything to the conference except a great place for teams to go (Boulder and Austin, Texas, were the only special locales — forgive me, Nebraskans and Kansans and Iowans and Missourians and Texans and Oklahomans — in the Big 12), a very good educational institution, a world-class ski team (although nobody else in the Pac-10 — except fellow newcomer Utah — has a ski team) and, lest we forget, the Denver-area TV market (although the Pac-10 doesn’t realize people in Denver generally don’t care about CU games on TV).
I checked the capacities of the basketball arenas and football stadiums throughout the Pac-10, and CU does fit in quite well there. The Buffs have 11,000 seats for basketball games, and the football stadium has about 52,000 seats. Those numbers are similar to everywhere but Arizona State for football, the L.A. Coliseum (USC) and the Rose Bowl (UCLA).
CU’s presence in the Pac-10 will help the Buffs in basketball recruiting, especially now that Jeff Bzdelik is gone, and in football recruiting once Dan Hawkins is gone after this year.
The Buffs have many miles to go before they sleep as a conference champion in any of the sports the Pac-10 offers. There are Ducks in the Pac-10, but no quackers.
I think CU did what it had to do on many fronts, but I will miss the Big 12. I liked the conference. So did Texas and Oklahoma, as it turns out.
Hi, Woody: I love the mailbag. What are your thoughts about the NFL possibly moving to an 18-game regular season?
— Raymond J., Pueblo
Raymond: I’m for it. I wrote in 2008 that it could possibly happen this season. I’m off by one. There’s no reason for four exhibition games (the biggest joke in sports), and with 18 games, at least the season-ticket holders will get two more real games for their hard-earned dollars. (You never pay extra for this mailbag, which is not an exhibition mailbag.)
I’d prefer 20 games and no exhibitions. We have proven in this country we can’t get enough of the NFL. (College football keeps adding more games and everybody loves it.)
NFL players don’t want to play 18 games. I imagine most people reading this don’t want to work five (or seven) days a week, but you all do.
More players, it is claimed, will get hurt. But Carolina wide receiver Steve Smith broke his arm last weekend playing touch football. The Broncos had a wide receiver who got hurt slipping on a McDonald’s bag.
Players get injured on and off the field. Two more regular-season games won’t make a difference.
Woody Paige first joined The Denver Post in 1981 as a sports columnist. , or .
