An issue has come up in the NFL with contract clauses. My own Minnesota Vikings signed Steve Hutchinson, a highly regarded offensive lineman of the Seattle Seahawks, to a big contract while he was a restricted free-agent for his team. Seattle did not match it because the Vikings put a clause in the contract that would guarantee a complete contract with Minnesota if Hutchinson was not the highest paid offensive lineman on the team.

The Seahawks already had tackle Walter Jones making a lot of money on the line, so Seattle was not prepared to give Hutchinson $49 million over the next seven years. I don’t blame them; in a sport like football, careers are ended every season and the risk is huge.

The Seahawks responded by signing Vikings wide receiver Nate Burleson to a similar deal, citing two clauses of their own which have earned the term “poison pill.”

The poison pills for this deal concluded that Burleson’s contract was a guarantee if he played more than five games in Minnesota.

That right there is one of the most ridiculous contract clauses I have ever heard. That immediately made that Vikings question how much Burleson was really worth.

The other poison pill in the contract was a guarantee that Burleson’s average salary would be higher than the average salary of the highest-paid running back on the team.

In Seattle, this will never be a problem because they have MVP Shaun Alexander at running back and Burleson’s contract won’t come close to his contract numbers.

Are these contract clauses good for the NFL?
Well, the Vikings started it, but the Seahawks took the poison pill to another level. Burleson was a good player but there was no way he was worth $49 million to the Vikings.

The problem is that this idea of putting poison pills in contracts could really hurt the NFL.

Both of these players were restricted free agents, which means that the team they played for the season before has the right to match any offer. When poison pills are thrown in, the idea is that the player’s original team will not match it.

After all, these two guys had built their careers on two franchises and the franchise, in the end, is the one that loses. They’ve invested time in the development of their player only to lose the chance to keep them.

I had to bite my lip a bit because I was more than happy when I found out the Vikings got a great all-pro guard in Hutchinson, but the league will have to monitor these situations better from now on.

Both of these contracts favored the new team and restricted free agency is supposed to favor the current team of the player. The advantage teams have will be lost if poison pill clauses like these are allowed to be inserted into contracts.

Already this subject has been brought up in league meetings and one person who is not in favor of them is outgoing comissioner Paul Tagliabue. He said such loopholes were “not in the spirit” of the NFL’s agreement with the players’ union.

The important thing is that hopefully this is over. In the end, the Vikings got the guard they wanted and also received a third-round draft pick for Burleson. Let’s just hope NFL teams don’t make this a normal trend.

Andy Weise is a junior print journalism major and a sports editor of The Spectator.