Who would have thought that a fax machine could end up being a major player in a multi-million dollar deal? Elvis Dumervill was perfectly happy living in Denver and playing for the Broncos… never even thought of leaving. But when his agent, Marty Magid, did not fax the paperwork for Dumervill’s contract to the Broncos front office on time… they released him. Nobody in the Broncos organization seemed to want to cut him from the team… but they did.
John Elway, the Broncos head of football operations, said Tuesday from the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix, Ariz., that, “We’ve offered Elvis a contract. We’d like to have Elvis back.”
The word cluster somehow comes to mind. Dumervill fired his agent….with just cause…..and told the Broncos just what they could do with their new contract… in fact… he gave them a million reasons.
Dumervill will take a million bucks less over the next three years just to let them know back in Denver that he did not appreciate the way that he was treated… the utter lack of consideration that the Broncos front office showed toward him over an unfortunate timing issue.
Elvis Dumervill is a three time Pro Bowler and he is still only 29 years old. The Broncos front office has been accused of “buffoonery” in the press for flubbing this deal and losing one of their key players over a loop hole time limit faux-pas.
So now Mr. Dunervill will be moving to the Baltimore and playing football for the world champion Ravens. That could be called “landing on your feet”. He has a five year deal with Baltimore but his extension could end up being $17 million for the next three years. He would have made $18 million has the fax gotten to Elway and company on time… but not anymore.
The salary cap rules put in place by the NFL Commissioners office have been bad news for older players. When a team is getting close to their specified limit, they start looking around for anyway at all to save some money. Older guys are the first to go.
Now Elvis has contracted with the Ravens via his new agents Tom Condon and Ben Dogra. It came out looking like a win-win situation for all concerned. The Ravens got a top quality defensive back at a relatively bargain price and Dumervill gets to join last year’s Super Bowl Champs. Good Luck Elvis!
