Shemar Stewart's agent COMPLETELY wasted three months of his life...

AtoZ Sports

John Sheeran discusses the terrible advice Cincinnati Bengals first round pick Shemar Stewart was given after he finally signed his rookie contract.

Transcript

00:00Shamar Stewart's holdout from the Bengals officially ended this weekend, and while it's

00:03great that he's going to start practicing with the rest of the team, I can't get over about how this

00:06ended from his side of things. So in this video, I'll explain how the Bengals completely won this

00:11beef. What's up, Bengals fans? John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here, and I want to read

00:18you a quote from Shamar Stewart's father. This is not a now money thing. And when I say now money

00:25thing, I mean, this is not, hey, we're disagreeing over funds that is going to come in today or

00:30tomorrow. These are things that we're disagreeing on that can affect him later on down the road.

00:35And I think a lot of people miss out on that because of, hey, if I sign this deal, I get this

00:40right now. But this is a longevity game. He's a human being. There is a life after football and

00:45down the road, sometimes a lot more important than what's right in front of your face. All of that,

00:52everything that I just said was bought for $500,000, less than 3% of the contract that

01:00Shamar Stewart agreed to on Friday night. When it was first reported that Stewart came to an

01:04agreement with the Bengals on his rookie contract, it was said that he was going to agree to default

01:09language that he and his entire camp has not wanted for three months. And there was only one

01:15logical concession that would get him to agree to this language that he's been contesting publicly

01:19for weeks. And it was getting more of his signing bonus money up front now instead of waiting until

01:23getting half of it at the end of the year. And when I saw that being reported, it made sense to

01:27me. It felt like this was the natural conclusion to this entire saga. But then I saw the amount of

01:32signing bonus money that he'd be getting up front as a concession. And again, it was $500,000.

01:38And immediately I thought to myself, what an absolute joke. There has not been a rookie contract

01:45holdout this explosive for the Bengals or really for the NFL in years. And the reason why we don't

01:51see these very often is because these guys have very, very little leverage. And that definitely

01:57remained the case here. But there was at least some ground for Stewart's camp to stand on because

02:02changing precedent in contracts means that there is a give and take involved. And it seemed inevitable

02:07that Stewart was going to get the Bengals to change their signing bonus principles instead of being a

02:1150-50 payout where 50% is now and 50% is later. It seemed like he was going to get significantly more

02:16than just 50% now. But he's not. He's getting about 5% more now compared to later. 5%? 5% of your

02:23signing bonus was worth a three-month explosive holdout? 5%? Was that really worth the three months

02:29of public backlash that you received? Did all those principles about securing your money in the future,

02:35was that really all bought for not even a million dollars? This is undoubtedly one of these

02:40stupidest holdouts in the history of the NFL. And I think Duke Tobin is right on the money here.

02:45I don't blame Shamar Stewart. I entirely blame his agent and the terrible advice that he was given.

02:51Because if you're going to do this, if you're going to do this entire charade with a franchise

02:54that never blinks in these situations, you can't just sell out for 500 bans. It's the main reason why

03:00many people thought that this was going to prolong until right up to the regular season. The longer that

03:04he held out, the more money he was likely to get from the Bengals. And to shell out for $500,000

03:09of an $18.9 million contract, that is just terrible work from the agent. And I truly do feel bad for

03:16Shamar Stewart. The last three months of his time have been completely wasted. And he publicly attacked

03:20the organization for essentially nothing. And I know a lot of fans still carry some resentment.

03:24They think he's entitled and everything like that. But again, he's just a kid who got terrible,

03:29terrible advice. And for that reason alone, I really do hope that it was his idea, Shamar's idea,

03:35to just get this done and over with. Because while he is just 21 years old, he's ultimately the boss

03:39and his relationship with his agent. And if he came to the realization that the stance that his

03:44camp was taking against the Bengals was never going to work, I'm glad at least he got something out of

03:48it. But regardless of that, I do hope that he gets new representation for the next time that he

03:52negotiates a contract.

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