How different would you be if you had $10 million in your bank account? Or if you signed a contract that guaranteed you $20 million?
Would you still be the first guy to get to work and the last one to leave? Would you still work through an injury?
These are exactly the types of questions NFL teams are trying to decipher when it comes to acquiring players in free agency and the draft. They want to know whether they’re motivated by more than just money. What’s the player’s big goal? Is it getting drafted or getting to that first big contract? Or is it about maximizing every drop he can get out of his career?
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Sometimes, of course, the answer is all of the above. Khalil Mack and Aaron Donald were given deals that made them the highest paid defensive players in the NFL and proceeded to go out and perform like … the two best defensive players in the NFL.
But not every player given a massive contract will follow that path. All of us are driven by money in some way or another, but in the NFL, it’s primarily a scout’s job to help a team decide whether investing millions of dollars in a player might change his outlook. The truth is that nobody really knows how a player will act when he gets life-altering money because the player himself doesn’t even know.
I’d like to think that I still would’ve gone through my exact pre- morning meeting and post-practice routines that saw me put in more time at the facility than pretty much every guy I played with during my seven years but who knows? Would I still have watched the practice tape every single afternoon after I went in the ice tub for 15-20 minutes?
I’m pretty sure I would’ve still played through a herniated disc in my back for the last four games of the 2004 season even if I already had lifetime financial security because, like most players, I had a warrior’s mentality to play through anything I possibly could and also felt an obligation to my teammates, especially the fellow linemen who I knew were also fighting through injuries.
The question I think about now that I never really pondered as a player is at what point would my sense of duty to my team and teammates be on some level disloyal to my family? Does it make sense to play with a herniated disc in your back or a partially torn MCL in your knee or some type of arthritic condition even if you are already set for life financially?
One could argue that you’re choosing your very short-term relationships with those players on that team over your quality of life for decades to come. I’m not sure how many players ever get to the point where they look at it that way, but I know that I do now in hindsight.
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What every team wants when they invest huge sums of money is what the Bears and the Rams got from Mack and Donald this past season. That’s certainly what the Cowboys are hoping will happen with defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence after they gave him a 5-year, $105M contract that includes $65M guaranteed. They need him to keep performing like he has the last two years and not revert to any of the issues he had in 2016 when he was suspended for four games and then finished the season with only one sack.
Lawrence is having shoulder surgery on Wednesday for a torn labrum. The way he attacks his rehab will be the Cowboys’ first clue as to whether it was money well spent.
In the meantime, Dallas, like every other team, will spend the next couple of weeks trying to get it right in terms of player motivation before they pick these young men in late April.
It can, and often is, the difference between success and failure.
Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports