Friday, August 17, 2001
Glenn drops $9 million ball
What would you do for $9 million? To what lengths might you go?
Who wants to be a 9-Millionaire? Everyone. Everyone who's not Donald Trump or the Sultan of Brunei. What would you do?
If you were told not to do drugs for $9 million, would you do that? If being tested for drugs randomly, frequently and without warning was part of your deal, might you agree to that, too?
If you knew that because of your rocky past, you were walking a ledge for your $9million, might you do everything but stand perfectly still and ingest nothing stronger than Yoo-Hoo until you got paid?
Terry Glenn, wide receiver, New England Patriots, is out $9million in signing bonus money, for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. It could rise to nearly $11 million if the Patriots can force Glenn to give back $1.62 million they've already paid him.
Glenn's agent, Cincinnati-based Jim Gould, says his client was set up. The Pats didn't want to pay their best offensive player, so they found a way not to. As for the Patriots, chief operating officer Andy Wasynczuk told the Boston Globe, “We've been real clear on what was expected, and he's ignoring it.”
Behave yourself
Regardless, here in the classroom of Real World 101, today's lesson is pretty basic: If you stand to make $9 million, don't screw it up.
Isn't it amazing? It's extraordinary how some jocks throw it all away. Terry Glenn, ex-Ohio State, is a very good receiver. Good enough the Patriots signed him in November to a six-year, $50 million contract. That's $8 million-plus a year, to catch passes, be a good guy and show up on time.
Give most of us $8 million, we're sipping rum drinks somewhere. If there were any doubt about where we needed to be to assure our glorious and ongoing wealth, we'd stay at home or get ourselves an airline schedule.
Glenn is not a perfect citizen. Last spring, he was arrested for assaulting the mother of his 5-year-old son. Charges were dropped, but an investigation continues. Glenn entered the league's drug-testing program in January 2000, after testing positive for marijuana. He has been clean since, but the Patriots loaded his contract with behavior clauses.
Glenn's side of story
The NFL suspended Glenn for missing a test in April. Less than a week earlier, Gould says Glenn tested negative. Two days later, he went to Texas to see a track meet. When he called to say where he was, Gould says the communication broke down. The following Tuesday, when Glenn was not at home for his next test, the league suspended him four games, for violating its substance abuse policy.
Gould appealed the suspension and lost. Glenn left training camp after that, Aug. 3, and hasn't returned.
“He wasn't running; he didn't test positive; he didn't fail to communicate,” Gould says. “They set him up. They took his money improperly.”
I'm not sure why the Patriots would want to run off their best receiver, a player to whom they'd recently committed millions, or how they'd rig a conspiracy with the drug testers to achieve that. But let's assume they did. Still: If you stood to lose $9 million, would you be in Texas when you needed to be in Ohio?
Someone once said half of being successful is showing up. It wasn't Terry Glenn.
E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.
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DAUGHERTY: Glenn drops $9 million ball
