MMQB (cont.)

Quote of the Week I

DeMaurice Smith was elected the new NFLPA executive director last month.

Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post

Peter King's Mailbag

Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition.

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"I have tons of questions. The beauty of being an outsider is I can hear people in the league say, 'Well, this is the way we've always done it.' And I can ask, 'What's the best way of doing it, not just the way you've always done it?'''
-- NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, to me last week in Washington

Quote of the Week II

"I don't think he was a nuisance at all to anyone. But the competitive nature that he has is he wants the ball. Now, the way he goes about it is a little different and a little bit hard to handle for people sometimes. That is the way he is. That is Terrell. So with the group of guys we have, we are going to be able to spread the ball around as a unit.''
-- Dallas wide receiver Patrick Crayton, to Randy Galloway on ESPN radio in Dallas

Quote of the Week III

"[Bleep] you. You can't open my [bleeping] door.''
-- Unemployed wide receiver Plaxico Burress, as quoted by a Florida police officer, after the officer pulled Burress over for speeding and reckless driving and then opened the driver's door of the car Burress was driving because the window was so tinted he didn't know if he was getting Burress' attention

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

Granted it's still two weeks before the draft, but what does this say about the idiocy of the top of the NFL draft, and what a burden having one of the tops picks is? As of Friday, not one of the first six teams in the first round -- Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Seattle, Cleveland or Cincinnati -- was entertaining a serious trade proposal to move down in the draft ... and these six teams won 16 of their 96 games last year.

Enjoyable/Aggravating Travel Note of the Week

Just before Amtrak Acela Train 2172 left New York Penn Station on the continuation of its trip from Washington to Boston last Tuesday, a sultry, Barry White-type voice came over the PA system, and after a long exhale of breath, the voice moaned, "Ohhhhh baby,'' as though the voice belonged behind a closed door and not on a crowded train. My seat neighbor looked at me incredulously and said, "Are we on a train?''

There have been a few travel notes that you just can't make up over the years. The farter on the plane from Newark to Providence comes to mind, as does the yipping dog halfway across the country on the redeye from Seattle to Newark, and the woman clipping her nails on the jam-packed New Jersey Transit commuter from Montclair to Manhattan. This one joins the club.

Stat of the Week

One of the issues for new NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith is something I'd call "hidden seasons.'' It's an issue getting no attention out there, but I can guarantee you after talking to Smith that it's on his radar for the collective bargaining process facing the union.

(I'll have more from Smith at the top of my Tuesday column, and I'll have a good chunk about my time spent with him last week in Washington in the Scorecard section of Sports Illustrated this week.)

Let me preface this by saying I remember about 10 years ago talking to a prominent player about his team's marginal playoff chances late in a season. This team wasn't a great team, and this player didn't seem all that excited about making the playoffs. I asked why, and he said it's because in the playoffs he got paid a fraction of what he got paid during the season, and he hated the risk he'd have to take in the playoff game because of his non-guaranteed contract.

We never think of that, but I'm going to give you an illustration of that. Let's take the New England Patriots over the past eight years. In that time, they've played 17 playoff games -- an extra season. No one's crying for the Patriots; it's why you play the game, obviously, and playoff veterans see their careers advance in ways they wouldn't have had they not been successful in the postseason. But check out the money the players make in the postseason compared to what they make in the regular season, looking at the Patriots' year-by-year playoff résumé since 2001:

Year	Playoff level	Payoff per player per game
2001	Divisional	$17,000
	AFC Champ.	$34,500
	Super Bowl	$63,000
2003	Divisional	$18,000
	AFC Champ.	$36,500
	Super Bowl	$68,000
2004	Divisional	$18,000
	AFC Champ.	$36,500
	Super Bowl	$68,000
2005	Wild Card	$19,000
	Divisional	$19,000
2006	Wild Card	$19,000
	Divisional	$19,000
	AFC Champ.	$37,000
2007	Divisional	$20,000
	AFC Champ.	$37,500
	Super Bowl	$40,000
Eight-Year Total: 17 games, $570,000.
Average per game: $33,529.

Let's look at how that compares to a player's regular-season money. I'll take Tom Brady and Mike Vrabel, for example. Brady's cap number this year, which combines the pro-rated portion of past signing bonuses and this year's salary and roster bonus, is $14.626 million. That means he played playoff games, including four Super Bowls, for $33,529 per game and will play for $914,125 per game in the regular season this year.

For his 2009 regular-season games, Brady will make 27 times what he made for playoff games.

Vrabel's cap number this year in Kansas City is $4.393 million, a per-game average of $274,563. That's eight times as much, per game, as he made in the 17 playoff games he was eligible to play in New England.

Vrabel was New England's player rep to the union, and a member of the 10-man Executive Board of player reps. The payout issue is something he's been bothered by for years.

"In the postseason, obviously, you're playing for the championship, the will to win, the love of the game,'' he said last week. "But the reality is that the most valued part of our season is when we're paid the least by far, and when the injury risk is greatest. It's a fine line we walk as players.''

CONTINUE STORY