Who of us ever said Bradford needs to "negotiate from a position of weakness?" That's just weird for you to keep saying, haha. Here's kind of how it should work. Bradford tells agent something like: "If they'll give me my full $16 million to play this year then great, take it. Try and get that from the start. But if they won't, I'm willing to take a pay cut down to (insert Bradford's amount here) so that I can stay and play for my team.
It's that easy. I agree that Bradford should not be throwing dollar amounts around during interviews, but he also really shouldn't act like he has no control over what his agent will try to get him paid.
You're losing me here. I said it's not smart for him to negotiate from a position of weakness when you said "I'd think it would be rather simple to tell your agent 'I want to take a pay cut. Get it done or I'll fire you'." That's not the way to start a negotiation process. If you want that to be the end game for Bradford, and for him to communicate
that, it's still not smart. I'm giving you my perspective as someone who's negotiated multi-million dollar deals on behalf of the other side (e.g., the side of the people who hold the money). Do you know how quickly I would bury someone across the table from me who said, "Yeah, we just want less money, because that's what our client told us to say."?
Bradford isn't 'acting like he has no control over what his agent will try to get him paid'. That's just misreading the comments. Bradford only said that there's a lot that can happen (in the negotiations) and that's why he has agents. To look after his best interests. And that's why he pays his agents 6 figures. He's not saying he won't restructure. He's only saying that he's not going to be involved IN the negotiations. And he won't. Because no players are. Brady didn't announce that he would take a restructured deal before it happened. It came out afterward that he did. And people are even getting THAT information all wrong. All his agents did was position him for better options while helping the team in the short-term. Which is what Bradford's agents will also do if they're worth anything.
