The Washington Gridlock – – As A Placeholder…

Last week when writing about the pressure on the Washington NFL team to change its name, I suggested Washington Gridlock as a possible name to reflect the traffic in and around the city as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of the Congress and the Administration.  Now that the team has embarked on a “process” to get a new name, I will use “Gridlock” as a placeholder name until there is an official one.

It seems that this story is fading on the national scale as well it should, but here in the nation’s capital, it continues to be a big deal for reasons that confound me.  The Washington Post sports section has shrunk to a maximum of 3 pages in the daily editions; sometimes it is only 2 pages long.  Even with that limited real estate on the pages, the Post continues to grind this story into the ground.  This area has 3 sports radio stations – – apocalyptic, I know – – and every time there is a local program on the air, you can bet that at least 2 segments per hour will focus on the new name for the Gridlock.

One of the latest angles on this story goes like this:

• As late as July 1^st, the team had done nothing regarding a name change or a rebranding.
• Early on, Coach Ron Rivera said that the team would consult with Native Americans about a new name as part of “the process”.
• [Aside:  I know that Ron Rivera is part of Danny Boy’s inner circle today, but he is there to coach a football team and not to pick a brand for the damned team.  Or is that just me …?]
• Now there are “reports” that the team wants to be rebranded by the start of the NFL season but that the league wants all of this done by the start of Training Camp if possible.  [Training Camp opens in 13 days…]
• The sense you get from these inside reports is like the final few moments of a Benny Hill sketch.

I have exactly no experience with marketing and branding; I tend think many of the actions and pronouncements made in the name of “branding” to be over-wrought.  However, I have the feeling that the Washington Gridlock needs to get their rebranding right even if it is not gotten quickly.  In the world of development and engineering, there is a statement of warning that folks need to remember when something goes wrong and needs fixing to maintain a schedule.  Here is that warning:

• If there is time to do this over, there is time to do this right.

Get it right, Gridlock…!

I have heard some sports commentators suggest that Patrick Mahomes’ deal with the Chiefs (10-years for $500M with about $150M guaranteed) provides a template for the negotiations between the Cowboys and Dak Prescott.  I have thought about this for a couple of days now and I do not understand where those commentators are headed with this.

Dak Prescott is a franchise QB in the NFL; only the most virulent “Cowboy-hater” would deny that.  He has signed his franchise tag contract for this season meaning that in the absence of a long-term deal, he will make $31.4M this year guaranteed.  This will be his 5^th year in the NFL and in his first 4 seasons, he earned approximately $4M.  So, please do not shed tears for Dak Prescott and liken his situation to slavery; he is making a ton of money this year and could easily be an unrestricted free agent next year.  [I believe that he will have to make a minimum of $37.7M next year if the Cowboys use the franchise tag again.]

Having said all the above, I still do not understand the idea that the “Mahomes Deal” is a template for a “Prescott Deal” down the road.  Dak Prescott is not Patrick Mahomes in terms of stats or in terms of accomplishments; that is not to diminish Prescott’s accomplishments; it is simple an acknowledgement of reality.

According to reports, the Cowboys offer to Prescott is 5 years for $175M with $105M guaranteed.  Let me take those numbers as Gospel because I have no inside information to offer up here.  In addition, according to reports, the “sticking point” in the negotiations is the length of the contract; the Cowboys want 5 years and Prescott wants 4 years.  Again, I will take that information at face value.  So, if these are the conditions on the table in the Cowboys/Prescott contract talks, I do not see how commentators can say that the “Mahomes Deal” offers a template.

• Mahomes signed for 10 years.  The Cowboys and Prescott are squabbling over a fifth year.  Neither side seemingly wants anything that goes on for so long.

Here is the only way I can look at the “Mahomes Deal” and say that it offers anything that might guide the Cowboys/Prescott negotiations:

• If you take the Cowboys’ offer and scale it up to 10 years in length, it will have a salary total of $350M with about $210M guaranteed.
• Those numbers – compared to “Mahomes’ numbers” – tell me that Prescott might be ever so slightly underpaid over the course of these imagined 10 years but that his guaranteed money would be far too much.

Finally, Dwight Perry had this observation about another set of NFL contract extension negotiations in the Seattle Times recently:

“The Browns are talking contract extension with defensive end Myles Garrett.

“Team negotiators are hereby advised to keep their chin straps fastened.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………