Child's play

Silly contract squabbling cost McKinnie most of rookie year

What we have here is a funny way of drawing a line in the sand. Since July, Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs had been told what it'd take to sign No. 1 draft pick Bryant McKinnie -- a $9.3 million signing bonus wrapped around a five-year contract, something in the neighborhood of what the Dallas Cowboys gave the draft's eighth overall pick, safety Roy Williams.

So how did McCombs react? He pitched a hissy fit, according to those close to the situation, low-balling McKinnie with an offer of a $8.1 million bonus until recent days. His tactics were such that a collusion investigation kicked off, after the NFL Players Association accused the Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs, which drafted Ryan Sims sixth overall, of exchanging negotiation details this summer.

Sims got a $9.87 million bonus on a six-year deal just before the season-opener. McKinnie, sandwiched between Sims and Williams in last April's draft, sat 98 days before McCombs caught on to this slotting business, agreeing to a five-year deal with bonus money totaling $9.6 million.

The first reaction is McCombs blinked late in the game. But why? This was a deal McKinnie would have signed in a heartbeat months ago. Here we’re into November, the season likely a waste for McKinnie and by all accounts the Vikings paid more than the asking price.

Some hardball tactics, huh?

It makes no sense. It's bad business at the very least.

Sure, the Vikings were pressed to sign McKinnie by Nov. 12. If not, he couldn't play this season and the club would have been forced to trade his rights in the offseason or risk his re-entering next year's draft.

So you're left wondering if the Vikings didn’t just buy their way out of a potential collusion fix. We're aware Jim Steiner and Ben Dogra, McKinnie's agents, were in New York on Monday to give depositions in the matter. And the Vikings let it be known they wanted the investigation dropped as part of a settlement, even though NFLPA general counsel Richard Berthelsen insisted earlier this week that the union would press on.

From here, it's very interesting that with McKinnie's signing comes word that the NFL and the union have resolved the collusion issue.

But this has been an odd deal since the Vikings snagged the huge left tackle to protect quarterback Duante Culpepper's blind side. The agents entered negotiations with a reputation for driving a hard bargain. McCombs played the role of frugal owner, operating this year with one of the league’s lightest payrolls.

The rub is McCombs may also be close to unloading the club. People in the league portrayed McCombs as too entrenched in his position. Earlier in the week, a longtime general manager told us: "In today’s slotting method it just seems like this should have been resolved."

But then McKinnie, 6-8 and about 345 pounds, also didn’t endear himself to the boss when he struggled to get through minicamp last spring. After four 40-yard sprints he threw up. "He's the first guy I've seen who's out of shape and not overweight," Vikings head coach Mike Tice cracked at the time.

So what becomes of McKinnie? Well, his rookie season is likely a waste, with him heading to Minneapolis on Friday night and the Vikings off to play in Tampa this weekend. But long-term, he'll be just fine.

"I'm sure he has a lot of catching up to do," says Art Kehoe, his old line coach at the University of Miami. "That is why they go through that five or six weeks of training camp and the preseason games. I know he's been down here, and he's been lifting and running pretty hard, doing the best that he can to stay in shape. But I'm sure Bryant is very concerned about it.

"Once he gets in there, he's not only making the transition from being off, but the transition of going to a much improved level of play. He's a heckuva player, though. He may have some adjustment problems early, but I don't think it'll last that long."

Make no mistake, big No. 74 will play, and play soon.

"You pay him $9.5 million or whatever, you better get his butt on the field quick," Kehoe cracked.

And you can't help but wonder how this deal finally came together.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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