Tom Brady's new contract

Most of the time when a player says it's not all about the money the statement is taken with a grain of salt.  Unless of course that player in Tom Brady.

The New England Patriots reached an agreement with their star quarterback on a 3 year, $27 million extension that will keep Brady with the team through the 2017 season.  The team friendly deal saves the Patriots millions in cap space, which can be used to fill in other holes on the roster to give the team the best chance to win another ring while Brady is still in his prime.

To be clear, contrary to popular belief, Brady isn't actually losing any money from his previous contract.  Brady still had two years remaining on the four year, $72 million deal he signed back in 2010 that made him the league's highest paid QB at the time, with an average annual value of $18 million per season.  He was scheduled to have a cap figure of $21.8 million in each of the next two seasons.  This extension spreads some of that money over five years instead of two, reducing the cap hit to $14.8 this year and $13.8 next year.  With the league's salary cap not expected to rise in the next couple of seasons, the $15 million in cap savings over the next two years will help the Patriots spend that money on the rest of the roster. 

The extension includes a $3 million signing bonus along with salaries of $7 million in 2015, $8 million in 2016 and $9 million in 2017.  That's a very team friendly deal when you consider what other top QBs are making.  Peyton Manning is making $18 million a year and Drew Brees is up around $20 million.  Despite a fairly mediocre career, Joe Flacco is now seeking that kind of money on his next deal following his team's Super Bowl victory.  The list of the highest paid players in the league includes QBs that have been in sharp decline, like Philip Rivers ($15.3 million), or ones that have yet to earn that type of salary, such as Sam Bradford ($15.5 million - the last #1 overall pick to sign prior to the league's new rookie pay scale).  Even when you factor in some of the bonus money from his last contract that has been pushed back into those final three years, he won't be making that kind of money.  However, there are other factors to consider. 

First of all, Brady's new contract is fully guaranteed.  Some of the other names on that list won't necessarily receive all of the money their contracts say they'll earn if their team decides to cut their losses and move on.  Under the old contract, Brady was guaranteed $30 million over the next two seasons.  This deal increases that guaranteed figure by almost double, to $57 million over 5 years, giving him greater financial security to protect him in the event of a career ending injury or substantial erosion of his skills as he ages.  Brady will be 40 years old when this new deal expires.  He expects to be able to play until then, but that doesn't mean he'll still be playing at his usual high level by then.  He looks like an extreme bargain at that salary now, while he's still a viable MVP candidate, but that probably won't be the case by the end of the contract.  He may not even be at that level in two years, when the extension officials kicks in.  That's why it's so important to free up cap space in these next two years to give the Patriots a chance to win now before Brady's inevitable decline.

Brady got the sweet taste of success early in his career, winning three Super Bowl titles in a four year span after becoming the starter in New England.  Since then he's felt the sting of two Super Bowl losses that still eat away at him.  He wants nothing more than to turn his playoff fortunes around and cement his legacy with a fourth Super Bowl ring, but he's wise enough to know that at this point in his career he can't do it alone.  His trust that the team's brain trust of Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick will use the extra money he saved them to improve the roster around him is what made this deal possible.  The Patriots would have been hard pressed to re-sign all of their own impending free agents, such as Wes Welker, Aqib Talib and Sebastian Vollmer, let alone find additional pieces to improve last year's team that came up short in the AFC Championship game.  Brady has granted them the flexibility to do that.

A player of Brady's caliber could easily have commanded more money on the open market, which may not sit well with the NFLPA (although Brady will counter that by taking less, it means other players can be paid more).  That doesn't matter to him though.  He's made plenty of money in his career already and could make a lot more in endorsements if he wanted to (he turns down plenty of offers).  Plus, it's not as if he's the real bread winner in his household anyway.  When Brady says money isn't as important as winning, he means it.

Tom Brady is one of the league's few selfless players, willing to put the good of the team ahead of himself.  That's part of what makes him so great, because all he cares about is winning.  The rest of the league should take note.  Not only is this guy a true class act, he also knows what it takes to win.

In the end, winning is all that matters.  Money only lasts for as long as it takes to spend it, but a legacy lasts forever.