Bodden noddin’, Millen still illin’

By Os Davis  |   Sunday, July 27, 2008  |  Comments( 8 )

Detroit Lions
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Please feel free to write your own dark cloud/silver lining lead for this article. Such a task becomes more and more impossible with each day that passes, with each new irrationally bloated contract signed, with each proof that the ol' neurons just aren’t firing in the fiefdom of Detroit Lions Football Inc.

Case in point: New Lion Leigh “Money Guy” Bodden’s spiffy contract extension granted by Matt Millen and the Lions' “brain” trust. No matter what Bodden does on the field in 2008, his agent has already put up more impressive numbers, “coercing” Detroit management into $27 million over four years for his client.

Stats to back up that claim? Bodden will be making $4.7 million in 2008, apparently guaranteed, in salary and bonuses. For comparison’s sake, that tops the salaries of Antonio Cromartie (2007 stat line: 44 tackles, 39 solo, 10 interceptions and a TD) and Al Harris (37 tackles, 33 solo, two picks), at $4,674,200 and $4,356,720, respectively. And it puts Bodden in a financial league with $5 million men Ty Law (47 tackles, 39 solo, two picks) and Antoine Winfield (70 tackles, 61 solo, one interception run back for a TD).

By the way, Bodden has an $8.6 million option bonus coming in March. He might be with the Motor City Kitties ‘til 2013. And his average season looks like this:

Um, actually, Bodden can’t be said to have an “average” season as, despite five years in the NFL, he’s only put in two nearly full campaigns (in his third year in the pros, Bodden started 11 games for the Cleveland Browns and played 13, grabbing three interceptions along the way). Admittedly, he played well enough for Cleveland in 2007: The statistics say he rounded up 88 tackles, 76 solo, and an impressive six interceptions.

But is this guy really one of the top 15 cornerbacks in the league? Seriously, is he really to be mentioned in the same breath as, say, Cromartie, Harris, Law, Winfield, Nnamdi Asomugha, Champ Bailey, Ronde Barber, Nate Clements, DeAngelo Hall, Chris McAlister, Terence Newman, Asante Samuel, Marcus Trufant and/or Charles Woodson?

Wouldn’t you want to at least see how the guy performs within your scheme in an actual game situation before you, like, triple his salary for the year and agree to perhaps keep a heretofore fairly mundane talent around until into the second Obama administration?

Here are a couple more dollar figures to compare to Bodden’s: Firstly, $4.25 million, $17 million over three years. That’s what standout defensive tackle Shaun Rogers -- a former Lion who was traded to Cleveland -- would have been making with Detroit this year. Secondly, 2008 will bring Fernando Bryant, essentially ejected to make way for Bodden and now with the New England Patriots, $730,000. Do you suppose Bill Belichick & Co. believe Bryant to still be a viable option as a starter, having totaled some 69 tackles and two interceptions for the Lions last year, despite seeing sporadic playing time for most of the season’s second half?

No matter. Because all is said and done now, and while Rogers and Bryant may well be enjoying the first playoff appearances of their careers come January, the Lions will have yet another undersized, overpaid “character guy” (puritanically posing Detroit p.r. will surely look past that whole disorderly conduct/resisting arrest thing of last September) happy he got the career deal he so desperately craved.

Again, you have to ask: How do Lions fans make it through year after year of this money-throwing nonsense?

Oh yeah, the Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers.

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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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