it needs to be said. The Atlanta Falcons screwed the pooch. The NFL owners have been crying woe is us in respect to their salary-cap deal with their players and then Atlanta owner Arthur Blank, via the negotiating wisdom of Rich McKay, simply gave Matt Ryan, the third pick in this year's draft, an eight percent raise over what last year's No. 1 pick, JaMarcus Russell, received. And the overweight LSU quarterback had to hold out all of training camp to collect his rich deal.
They gave money away.
I can remember hearing on the Friday prior to the draft, via the Falcons, that Ryan's agent, Tom Condon, had agreed to parameters closer to the Russell deal and to guaranteed money within range of what No. 1 pick Jake Long received from the Dolphins. I laughed when I was told there was this financial understanding with Ryan's people; no way would Condon agree to such terms.
Instead, Condon shot the moon and Blank blinked, and now Atlanta is the laughingstock of the league. Of course, the other 31 teams aren't really laughing; they'd like to put Blank in a cage with Chuck Liddell and knock some financial sense into him
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