NFL Media's Mike Garafolo reported that Kansas City initially insisted on Berry paying for a disability insurance policy that would have named the Chiefs as a beneficiary. "Given everything that he's been through," said Garafolo, "that didn't go over so well."

The Chiefs later pulled the clause and insisted Friday that they plan on "resuming" negotiations.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300...ise-tag-friday

Decision making is good but the optics are terrible.

I disagree.

After everything he's been through, with much financial and emotional support from the team and players it should have gone over better IMO

People are going to fixate on "omg greedy team asked a cancer survivor to pay for an insurance policy that benefits them!"

Those people are ****ing stupid.

My wife had cancer. She missed a ton of work. Other than 2 weeks, she wasn't paid during the time missed and had it not been for a Disability Policy that WE paid for, her income would have been lost.

True, but after studying this, the Chiefs are just looking out for their best interests here. The real threat comes in other player's opinions of how they feel the Chiefs are as an organization when a guy like Berry can't get a long term deal. The Chiefs were in a lose/lose situation here.

It's an emotional reaction to a perfectly sane business action, really.

say the team gives him a huge guaranteed contract that spans five years. A year or two in cancer comes back, which looks better? "you buy an insurance policy to pay us back and keep all the rest of your money" OR "ok YOU pay us back the prorated portion out of your pockets" like when players retire.

Basically the same situation at that point

I was very surprised he didn't sign. Looks like KC made a good faith effort and berry wasn't as invested in the team and community as might have been expected.

The Chiefs have more than proven that they can, will and do take care of their own.

Tamba Hali never hit Free Agency, nor did Derrick Johnson or Jamaal Charles. They took care of Dwayne Bowe but he failed to reciprocate.

They took care of Allen Bailey at a time when that was questioned by some (I was for it) and gave Jaye Howard $6 million per. They just rewarded Travis Kelce with a huge extension that pays him more than Gronk and made Houston the highest paid pass rusher in the league (albeit, briefly) and smartly signed Ron Parker.

They locked up West and Ware, Alex Smith and signed Maclin to a huge free agency contract.

Personally, I'd be surprised if any players had a problem with not coming to terms on a long term deal with Berry. They didn't cut or trade him and he's still the second highest paid safety in the league.

It's a business.

I also can't blame him for wanting to get every dime he can as soon as he can. He knows how fast it could be taken away.


It's a tough deal

I don't fault Berry for wanting to look out for his interests in the least. It would just appear that he and his agent overvalued his worth. He's better than Harrison Smith, but even Harrison Smith is wildly overpaid. Berry might have well taken it personally when the Chiefs told him he'd have to pay for his own insurance if the cancer came back, who knows?

I'm not mad at the Chiefs on this one. I'm not mad at anybody, it just is what it is.

Good post.

I think I was getting at the "a person is smart, but people are blind panicky animals" angle with my comment. Get enough people bitching about the Chiefs not being loyal to Berry, and the next thing you know the Chiefs are ran by assholes and nobody wants to play for them anymore. That's obviously extreme, I just hope the Chiefs don't have to deal with silly shit like that.

Yup, not mad at anyone either......but perhaps a bit disappointed with Berry after all of the goodwill showered on him by the Chiefs.

Absolutely. Seems like signing for a good chunk of gauranteed $ now would have been the best way to capitalize unless the offer was completely low ball.

I don't envy the front office in these kind of negotiations.