Exactly why the Pats keep winning super bowls...

[elltrain22]

Tom Brady is going to take a paycut for his team, so that they will have more cap space. This to me is an ultimate team first approach, and is exactly why this franchise is so successfull. So many NFL franchises are a mess b/c players are greedy, and all they want is to get there ends. Brady is one of the best qb's in the league, and if he wanted to, could've really put NE in a bad spot by demanding big bucks, but he did a very commendabe thing. I hate the Pats, but that is class.

[justasportsfan]

Drew did the same thing, does that mean we'll win the sb?

[Dr. Optimist, SB]

Drew did the same thing, does that mean we'll win the sb?

u beat me to it :)

[Ickybaluky]

Tom Brady is going to take a paycut for his team, so that they will have more cap space. This to me is an ultimate team first approach, and is exactly why this franchise is so successfull. So many NFL franchises are a mess b/c players are greedy, and all they want is to get there ends. Brady is one of the best qb's in the league, and if he wanted to, could've really put NE in a bad spot by demanding big bucks, but he did a very commendabe thing. I hate the Pats, but that is class.

He didn't take a paycut.

He did a simple restructure. That reduces his base salary to the minimum, converting the balance to signing bonus which is spread over the rest of his contract (through 2006). That lowers his cap number this year and raised it over the next two years, but he received the same amount of money.

It is pretty common practice to do this for all NFL teams.

Brady has real high cap numbers the next couple years ($10M in 2005 and $14M in 2006), so he will likely be signed to an extension in a year or two. When he does, he will receive a boatload of money. He won't get Manning money, but he'll likely get more than Pennington. He deserves it.