We decided to either try trades or just go with older players. If you do that and let contracts expire you can be in the lottery for about four or five years and expect your fans to be patient.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late.
In all my years of baseball, I have always expected to be traded. I never liked the idea.
I only had one player in my 33 years of sports that couldn't be traded. He wore No. 23 - and 45 when he played baseball.
I'm realistic. And realistically, I'm not that type of player that earns that type of money any more. So I'd be willing to take a little cut to get a couple of extra years.
What you don't want to do is to hang on to the aging superstar past his prime and take resources away you can otherwise use to build a better overall team.
Any time you sign a big contract, you get in those later years, the expectations are high to play at a high level.
In the NFL, you have a short shelf life. As a running back, if you're the first pick, and you're NFL life expectancy is only 3.5-6 years, your first big contract might not come until three years in - well, you might never get there. They need to get those signing bonuses up front because nothing is guaranteed.
The Giants are looking for a trade but I don't think Atlanta wants to depart with a quality player.
The contracts are structured different than athletes in America, but for me, it was good to move on and go back to playing in the premiere league, which is the best league. It was disappointing, as far as the team goes, but for me, there wasn't much I could do.
We decided to go the way of trading and getting younger players.