Raiders Were Brilliant Not to Promise Antonio Brown a Single Dollar Until He Played a Game

While Mike Mayock, Jon Gruden and the rest of the Oakland Raiders organization have deservedly received a lot of flak for the way they handled the entire Antonio Brown situation, one decision they made regarding AB's contract was, in hindsight, complete genius.

One clause within the fine print language of AB's contract involved the fact that if he refused to report, practice or play with the Raiders at all, the guaranteed money in his contract would be voided.

Essentially, while Brown's contract did have $29 million in "guaranteed" money, none of it was actually guaranteed if he didn't behave himself. And as evidenced by his subsequent release by the team, the inclusion of that clause in his contract was absolutely justified by the Raiders.

Props to the Raiders for protecting themselves from the substantiated risk that came with trading for a player with Brown's personality and character issues, although Brown won't go down in this ugly divorce without a fight.