Patriots: Better Off Without Welker

A clipping from the Roundup Record-Tribune about Mac Bledsoe's 1999 visit.

Author's Note: This is my first article for a new sports writing gig I got, so that's why I have the different tag-line at the end. Enjoy!

I have loved the New England Patriots since Bledsoe's time. I was 10 when Drew's dad, Mac, came to my school in Roundup, Montana and gave a motivational speech. What he said resonated with me and I had been wanting to have an NFL team of my own (my best friend was a 49ers fan, so I had been a 49ers fan by default--and who didn't love Jerry Rice?!), so the New England Patriots became my team!

I was devastated when Tom Brady took over for Bledsoe in 2001. I "knew" that this kid couldn't be as good as Bledsoe and I knew where my loyalties were. But then I realized, as Brady started looking better and better through the season, that I was a Patriots fan, not a Bledsoe fan. Even though players come and go, and we get attached to them, at the end of the day, we are fans of our teams, not the players. Now, over a decade later, I am still sad to see some of my favorite players go, but love my Patriots more than ever!

Wes Welker had his first season with New England during my first semester at college. I was amazed by his talent and he easily became a top 3 favorite of mine (always behind Brady, and behind Deion Branch when he was on the team). Welker brought our team to a new level and the games were impressive to watch.

As the seasons passed and Welker continued to perform at an incredibly high level, I was a happy camper. When Welker dropped a perfect pass from Brady in the last 10 seconds of Super Bowl XLVI, I was unhappy. And then Welker decided to start contract negotiations. That made me even more unhappy. Here is an excerpt of an article I wrote about him back in September 2012:

"Wes Welker is a prime example of a player I love who was in contract negotiations this summer and, frankly, disgusted me. He wanted $11.42M this year with a long-term contract because he felt he was worth that much to the Patriots organization. He is now on a one year contract, making about $9.5M this year, and I'm pretty sure that yesterday in the season opener he got a total of 14 yards (Fourteen?!?!! Is this a high school stat???) and let a perfect pass bounce off his helmet."

In the 2012 season Welker went on to have 118 receptions for 1,354 yards; down from his 2011 season stats: 122 receptions for 1,569 yards. Although these are decent stats, I was disappointed in his season and was, to be honest, more interested in the on-again, off-again relationship Deion Branch (like me, a Louisville Cardinal alum) was having with the team.

I heard through the grapevine that Welker was renegotiating his contract with the Patriots for the 2013 season. I was furious! Why should my team spend more money to keep someone who tends to drop big passes when it really matters (e.g. 2012 AFC Championship game) instead of paying him what he's worth and getting some new guys who could start learning from the vets?!

Then, on March 13, 2013, Welker signed with the Broncos for $12 million over two years. And I said, "Good riddance." Honestly. I figure if he's spending more energy off the field trying to get a bigger paycheck than making big plays on the field, we don't need him. We are a team and if he doesn't feel like putting the team ahead of his millions of dollars, we can do better.

I've been spending the last couple of weeks getting over my anger at Wes Welker and scoping out the Patriots' prospects in the upcoming NFL draft. And then yesterday I came across this interview with Welker on the Broncos' website. Take a look here.

Wes Welker apparently told John Elway "how much [he] wanted to win" and that he "wanted to be part of a winning team." Are you kidding me?! The Broncos haven't been a winning team since Elway's time and, while I respect the hell out of Peyton Manning, he's 37 years old! In my estimate, they've got one shot to make the Broncos a championship caliber team: the 2013 season. Welker just left a winning team to go to a team that might have the possibility of winning. Maybe. It's ridiculous.

Then Welker had the gaul to say that the biggest thing he learned at New England was "always putting the team first in everything you do." Please. If he actually believed in putting the team first, he wouldn't be in Denver. How is this interview not raising red flags for Elway? It's incredibly obvious that Welker follows the money and doesn't care about "the team." I can guarantee you that I wouldn't put him on my team if I had one--who's to say he wouldn't leave after one season if someone else offered him more money?!

So, for all you New England fans mourning the loss of Welker, let him go. Frame your #83 jerseys and hang them up. Look back at Welker's time with us as a good era, but just let it slip into the history books. I mourned Bledsoe's leaving for months and (no offense to Drew) we got someone better. We're going to get a better receiver who doesn't only play well, but really knows and respects the value of being a Patriot.

"It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get back up." --Vince Lombardi

Professional Athletes' Salaries: Too Much?

Professional football is finally back! I am a huge football fan (Go Patriots!) and the offseason feels so long! The US Tennis Open has also been going on for the last couple weeks (Congrats to Serena Williams who won yesterday! Murray v. Djokovic today! Wish Federer was in the final!) and Rory McIlroy just won another PGA Tour event yesterday. Great couple of weeks in sports!

Before you read the rest of this I would like to make it very clear that this is just an observation, I love sports, and I am not disrespecting any of the players I am about to mention.

Have you ever thought about how many millions of dollars professional athletes make?! It's amazing. Let's start with some of the lower paid professional athletes:

• Rory McIlroy won $1.44M yesterday in the BMW Championship on the PGA Tour. The total purse for the BMW Championship was $8,000,000.
• Yesterday Serena got $1.9M for her US Open win. Today the winner of the men's final will receive the same amount. *Quick Side Note: How awesome is it that men and women get the same amount of prize money in the the Grand Slam events?! The Open will have spent $24,054,000 on prize money this year. The Grand Slam events actually are on the lower end of the USTA and WTA tournaments when it comes to prize money. Players are working to raise the purses at Slams so they will be "in closer line with their own tour events in terms of the percentage of prize money."

Those are the sports with athletes who are paid on the low end of the scale when it comes to professional athletes. In the NFL, it's another story. 

• The highest paid athlete in the NFL is Peyton Manning, making $18M this year and having a $96M contract for the next five years. To put that in perspective with another athlete in a different sport, this year Manning will be paid three times the amount Serena Williams has made this year. He will have made 3/4 of the amount of the entire purse of the US Open. To put it in perspective with the rest of the country (median income is currently about $51,000), Manning will make about 350 times the amount of the average worker this year. WHAT?! There is no possible way I can comprehend that amount. Wow.
• My favorite player, Tom Brady, is going to make almost $8M this year (about 150 times the amount of the U.S. median income). His contract through 2014 will end up making him $78,000,000. Again, wow.

These guys and gals play sports. And they are paid amazing amounts of money. While I know that they are paid by the teams (which are private organizations, so it is not our tax dollars or anything paying these players), sports bring a lot of money into cities that have pro teams, and sports are highly valued in our society, the sheer volume of these figures is staggering to me. The fact that these players feel like they deserve these kinds of salaries makes me a little nauseated. 

Wes Welker is a prime example of a player I love who was in contract negotiations this summer who, frankly, disgusted me. He wanted $11.42M this year with a long-term contract because he felt he was worth that much to the Patriots organization. He is now on a one year contract, making about $9.5M this year, and I'm pretty sure that yesterday in the season opener he got a total of 14 yards (fourteen?!?!! Is this a high school stat???) and let a perfect pass bounce off his helmet.

So. It's crazy! I know that a lot of players have their own charities that they've started and they do good in their communities, so that's really great! It just seems like our society values athletes much more than police officers, teachers, and firefighters. I feel like I'm going to get a lot of crap for that comment, but if I'm wrong, then why don't we pay the men and women who keep us safe, educate our children, and rescue our families more money? Should we pay more taxes so we can pay our public servants more? Is privatizing law enforcement and education the answer? I don't know, but just by looking at the figures, I feel like I can say our priorities might be a little mixed up.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi