TERRY MOSHER
I’m a union kind of guy and that stems from a long time ago when I was in college and took courses describing the fierce and often violent labor battles to improve wages and working conditions that led over the course of our long history to organizers landing in jail (Eugene Debs, is one) and numerous laws passed to accommodate workers.
Unionism is my topic today because it indirectly concerns the holdout of Kam Chancellor. But first I have to tell you that I was a central figure in bringing the union to the old Bremerton Sun newsroom. I no longer am an employee of the now Kitsap Sun and I don’t know where the union stands, or even if it stands anymore there, but at the time, and this was in the early 1970s, I and others felt that we needed some control over our work conditions and how much we were paid for the long hours we put in making the paper as good as we could.
So we went through the legal process to get one. I think it was 1973 when we finally had the vote and was successful in bringing a union to the newsroom (there was already a union among the composers and printers).
Things went pretty well after that for us reporters until the private company that owned the Sun merged with its cousin in Cincinnati and now we were owned by a huge media corporation. We soon discovered he raw power of that corporation in contract negotiations and the balance of power tilted quickly to the corporate side.
We (the union) had gained the upper hand in our last negotiations with the Sun before the merger ‑ which I felt bad about because the balance in the relationship was weighed heavily to our side and I feel a deep need for justice and justice to me is when each side has an equal share of power sharing ‑ and the newsroom was at its zenith as far as good morale and good working conditions and more than fair pay.
I’m not sure where the balance lies between NFL owners and players, but I suspect the owners have the current edge. That edge means players are getting a smaller share of total revenue than it used to, although the sides disagree what is considered total revenue. The bottom line is that there is a cap from which a team’s total salaries can’t surpass and that has led, as you already know, to all-pro players being released to make salary cap room for other players on the roster, and that is the problem with the Chancellor situation.
When the Seahawks decided to sign linebacker Bobby Wagner (nearly nine million a year with eight million signing bonus) and quarterback Russell Wilson ($89 million with a $31 million signing bonus) and $10 million for Marshawn Lynch with a $7.5 signing bonus they put themselves up against the salary cap and that leaves little room for more money for Chancellor, even if the club wanted to redo his contract which it does not because it would set a bad precedent that may have already been crossed when it redid Lynch’s contract.
Even though I’m a union guy, as I have explained, I sit more in the Seahawks corner in this stalemate with Chancellor. My feeling is that Chancellor got his money two years ago when he signed a five-year deal worth $35 million with a $7.8 million signing bonus. Fair is fair. Nobody held a gun to his head and forced him to sign it.
Even though the Seahawks set a bad precedent by redoing Lynch’s contract it can be argued that Lynch was (is) more important to the style of play the Seahawks play than Chancellor is and therefore was (is) much more important to satisfy The Beast Mode.
As good as Chancellor is, as good as he is to team chemistry, I would argue that the team is more important than he is to the team. The difference between having Chancellor in the secondary and not having him back there will not make that much difference in the long term to the success of the team.
I’d hold firm if I was the Seahawks. In fact, if this goes on much longer I would try to trade him. I don’t know what team would have the necessary salary cap room to take him on, but I’d get rid of him before the regulars season starts.
You have to look at it this way: If Chancellor comes back under his old contract he will not be a happy camper and might be a distraction in the lockerroom as well as on the field.
And if the Seahawks relent and redo his contract every Tom, Dick and Harry on the roster will also want their contact redone. The Seahawks will have opened a Pandora Box that they won’t be able to close without costing more trouble in terms of team chemistry.
So, I say, let Chancellor go.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.