In Brady's Case, More is Less

Details regarding Tom Brady's contract extension continue to come out and Tuesday afternoon, we learned that although the deal reduces his base salaries for the next three seasons and significantly lessens the Patriots' salary cap numbers, the amount of guaranteed money Brady will receive over the next five years dramatically increases.

According to Ed Werder and Field Yates over at ESPN.com, the $30 million in guaranteed money owed to Brady over the next two seasons is now $57 million to be spread out over the next five. That's a lot of cake.

When news of the extension broke on Monday, it was being reported that Brady would be taking less money to play for the Pats for these next five years. Not so, according to today's reports.

But who really cares? Regardless of the increase in guaranteed dollars, Brady's salary cap numbers for the next five years are all significantly lower that what he would have carried into this year and next by far. The $22 million he was supposed to count against the cap for the 2013 season was reduced to $13.8, That's an enormous drop off.

That hasn't stopped folks like ProFootballtalk.com's Mike Florio from using snark to point out that Brady is actually getting a raise, while literally making zero mention of the incredible cap savings the new deal means to the team.

Florio is a noted Pats' disliker. He was among the most vocal, pushy, judgmental voices in the wake of Spygate, routinely sneaks veiled (and sometimes not so veiled) cracks at the team into his posts and even went to this extreme at the Super Bowl:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Thanks again to the 2001 Patriots for forever screwing up the Super Bowl player introductions.</p>&mdash; ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProFootballTalk/status/298207183684902914">February 3, 2013</a></blockquote>

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And then followed up that gem with this one:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>For those who forget, the decision of the 2001 Patriots to be introduced "as a team" brought SB individual player introductions to an end.</p>&mdash; ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProFootballTalk/status/298207675416711170">February 3, 2013</a></blockquote>

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Florio obviously dislikes the team concept that has been at the root of the Pats' organization since their first title in 2002. Why can't we just focus more on individuals, he seems to be asking. It would seem this is his rationale based on those imbecilic tweets.

Which is why when he led his post detailing the terms of Brady's deal earlier Tuesday, he led with the remark, "So much for less money."

Florio then laid out all of the numbers, including, to his credit, all of the cap charges to be found next to Brady's name over the duration of the deal.

But not once is there a single mention of how much those new cap charges will save the Pats. Not a single sentence is devoted to pointing out what a huge boon to the team's ability to both re-sign any of their own valuable free agents (Wes Welker, Aqib Talib, Sebastian Vollmer, et al) and potentially acquire any others in a quest for another ring.

Florio did have time to end his post by writing, "Less money indeed." This could be perceived as simple sarcasm or the epitome of trolling or somewhere in the middle. That's up to you to decide. Regardless of where you come down on this, it was still jarring to see someone with a platform the size of Florio's choose to decry/ignore how vital the concept of team is to an outfit like the Patriots. It's what makes them who they are and is as big a reason as any why they are able to contend for championships year in and year out.

Perhaps Florio would like the Pats better if they were the kind of "look at me!" circus constantly perpetuated by the Jets. Or maybe if they hadn't started that silly, so much less fun, get-introduced-as-a-team thing back at Super Bowl XXXVI, he could have gotten his giggles by once more watching Ray Lewis dance like a deranged lunatic for the 764th time just before this year's big game.

No matter, the bottom line here is that Brady may well be getting paid even more handsomely than he would have been prior to signing this extension. But he's still managing to do that by helping the team as a whole in a major way.

In this case, more is actually less.