Running back Le’Veon Bell made the bold decision to turn down a one-year deal for $14.5 million to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year, costing him $855,000 a game.
Bell also reportedly turned down a five-year deal for $70 million with $33 million guaranteed.
Bell has decided to sit out the 2018 season, hit free agency in 2019, and try to get the contract he thinks is commensurate with his talent, as not just as an elite runner, but a skillful receiver.
To understand Bell’s gutsy decision to turn down all this money, you need to understand the man spearheading Bell’s contract negotiations, long-time NFL agent Adisa Bakari.
He’s more than just a lawyer and number’s cruncher for his clients, but also kind of history professor.
In a recent feature on Bakari by The Undefeated’s Jesse Washington, the agent told the reporter he gives a gift to his clients after they sign with him.
“Bakari gives a copy of ‘Forty Million Dollar Slaves’ to every rookie who signs with his agency,” Washington wrote. “A classic by Undefeated writer-at-large William C. Rhoden, the book argues that despite their high salaries, black athletes remain trapped on figurative plantations controlled by whites, with little influence or power in the multibillion-dollar industries built on black labor.”
In back of Bakari’s desk in his office something Washington describes as a “blackdrop,” with an array of books and photos about the African-American struggle in the United States. There are photos of legendary black athletes Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Muhammad Ali along with a plethora of books, including, “Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.”
Bakari wants his clients to see this display when they visit his office.
“It’s a history of perseverance,” Bakari told Washington. “It’s a history of courage. It’s a history of operating on faith. It’s a history of self-determination and belief in oneself. It’s emboldening, it’s strengthening, it’s empowering, and when our clients come to the office, I want them to feel those things.”
And Bakari also has no issue with his clients protesting during the National Anthem, even if it costs them money. When former San Francisco 49ers safety Antoine Bethea told his agent he was going to raise his fist during the anthem in 2016, Bakari was supportive.
“He was all for it,” Bethea told the Huffington Post in 2017. “He was like ’man, you should do something.’ He said that it was great, and he commended me for it.”
Bakari said about Beathea and other players decision to protest: “They’re in many cases putting their careers in jeopardy to bring awareness to a very longstanding and a very real issue and that’s the issue of social injustice.”
And Bakari clearly feels the Pittsburgh offers were an injustice to his client, whose considered one of the NFL’s most talented running backs.
Clearly Bells agrees, and is willing to sit out the season rather than take less than the money he believes he’s worth, a reported $17 million-a-year.
“He’s amassed records and statistics that are unparalleled,” Bakari told Washington. “Why should not his compensation be unparalleled?”
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