Dispute Between Sheldon Brown And The Eagles Escalates

Posted by Mike Florio on April 22, 2009, 9:24 a.m. EDT

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with the draft approaching and the servers exploding, the Eagles and cornerback Sheldon Brown continue to do battle over Brown’s contract, which has four years remaining.

And Brown is trying to drag some of his teammates into the fray.

“Without a doubt there are going to be more problems,” Brown said, according to Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer.  “I’m not the first guy and I’m not going to be the last guy.  What’s the incentive for guys like Trent Cole and Mike Patterson to play above their heads?  Everybody’s situation is different and everybody handles their business in a different way.  This situation could have been handled in a different way.  I was forced to put it out there.”

The rest of Brookover’s article contains a lengthy back-and-forth between Brown and Eagles president Joe Banner.

The bulk of the dispute?  Whether it’s about the money.  Brown says it isn’t.  Banner says it is.

“I saw that Sheldon said this wasn’t about the money, but I think it has always been about the money,” Banner said.  “We’ve asked the agent if there was anything else we could do for Sheldon and we were always told it was about the money.  I’d love to hear what it is about if it’s not about that.”

We’ll defer further analysis of the dynamics of the situation to one of the PFTV segments we’ll be shooting later today.  For now, though, we’ll leave you with this observation.

On the surface, it’s about the money.  At a deeper level, it’s about the respect Sheldon Brown commands in the locker room, where the size of everything matters.

My take is that this is definitely about the money.  Sheldon is just substituting the word "respect" for "money".  He knows he is aging.  He knows that we will most likely draft another CB.  He knows his window for closing a big deal is becoming narrow.  He also knows that he would be contradicting all of his "straight talk" over the years if he were to come out and complain about money issues, so he is masking this whole ordeal with a demand for "respect".  Banner sees right through this, and clearly he will not give in.  Sheldon needs to shut up and play.