Who is the most overpaid athlete of all-time? (1 Viewer)

[Chemical X]

can I vote family?  I say staal.

 

[Zow]

What makes his deal better than getting the $ right away?

He also got above market rate interest on it. His 8 mil turned into like 30 mil. 

 

[Native]

Aaron Hernandez

 

[The Gator]

Aaron Hernandez

Saw your reply and was disappointed it wasn't Eden Hazard 

 

[Native]

Saw your reply and was disappointed it wasn't Eden Hazard 

You ---> Me

 

[encaitar]

What makes his deal better than getting the $ right away?

He had a $5.9 million buyout left coming.  By deferring it, he will get $1.18 million a year for 25 years.  If you think he would've invested that $5.9 mil wisely enough to beat that return then you're probably the only one.  It was a shrewd bit of negotiating by his agent and basically makes Bonilla the first ever MLB player with a pension.

 

[baymen]

Wade Redden's contract with the Rangers has to be up there.

 

[fantasycurse42]

He had a $5.9 million buyout left coming.  By deferring it, he will get $1.18 million a year for 25 years.  If you think he would've invested that $5.9 mil wisely enough to beat that return then you're probably the only one.  It was a shrewd bit of negotiating by his agent and basically makes Bonilla the first ever MLB player with a pension.

I stated in the OP he wasn't bad, but the contract was awful! 

Good read - The Worst Team Money Could Buy

 

[Deepster]

Mo Vaughn. 

It's possible the mets are still paying him. 

I don't think this is true.  I recall reading that an insurance clause kicked in because of his knee injuries and they only paid him like 25% of his contract.

 

[Mr. Mojo]

Practically every free agent my Redskins have signed in the past decade.  :(

 

[Andrew74]

On the lower end of the scale, but even worse from a "bang for the buck" side...Jerome James got $30 million from the Knicks which was still a big chunk of money in the NBA at the time ($6MM/year). He averaged 2.5 points a game as a Knick. That was a big drop from the 5 pts/2.5 rebs per he averaged the year before. 

Matt Flynn made about $17.5MM after that random start in GB where he threw 6 TDs. He started 5 games after that. 

Flynn was the first to mind for me. He got a ton of money for one game. 

 

[Zow]

I don't think this is true.  I recall reading that an insurance clause kicked in because of his knee injuries and they only paid him like 25% of his contract.

I may have gotten him mixed up with Bonilla.  I remember both signings were a disaster though. 

 

[lod01]

JaMarcus Russell and Ville Leino

You gotta go with J-Fat. I mean the guy cleaned up and did absolutely zero. 31 games played. Now he didn't steal the most but he definitely has to be at the top as far a lack of ROI.

 

[Todem]

Jamarcus Russell

Rob Johnson

Johnny Manziel

Ryan Leaf

Andre Ware

We could go through lists and lists of overpaid bums across all the major sports. But these came into my mind really fast.

 

[Kiddnets]

As a Jet fan I have nightmares of Vernon Gholston.....awful

The sixth overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft by the New York Jets, defensive end Vernon Gholston signed a five-year contract worth $32 million. If Gholston reached all of his performance clauses, the deal would have maxed out at $50 million. His contract included $21 million in guaranteed money.

In three seasons with the Jets, Gholston collected exactly 16 tackles. He failed to record a sack. And he was cut following the 2010 season.

He was signed to a contract by the Bears in July of 2011, but he was waived a month later.

 

[RUSF18]

The Mets traded for Mo Vaughn, they didn't sign him. Kevin Appier went the other way. Vaughn still hit 26 HRs in his first year with the team so it's tough to say he was too horribly overpaid that year. He barely played in 2003 and didn't play at all in 2004 but I guarantee that $17MM a year was picked up by insurance.

As for Bonilla, I think the only reason that got as much play as it did for being so outrageous, despite not being very unusual in baseball, was because it was directly tied to Madoff. They were basing what they would be willing to pay him in deferred money against the returns they were receiving on their own investments.

The Red Sox are paying Manny Ramirez about $2MM a year for 16 years instead of the $8MM they owed him. Bobby Bo turned $6MM into just short of $30MM but he had to wait like 10 years to start collecting. Think Manny started a year or two after the original payment was due making the Red Sox deal much worse. 

A bunch of other good (bad) ones here: http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2015/07/01/bobby-bonillas-isnt-the-only-deferred-money-deal-in-the-game-and-isnt-even-the-worst/

Never even heard of this one and it's gotta be the worst:

Bruce Sutter was to receive payments totaling $44 million over the next 36 years from his new club, the Atlanta Braves . . . Sutter will receive a $750,000 salary for each of the next six years and a minimum of $1.12 million a year for the remaining 30 years of the contract. In addition, he will get the $9.1 million in so-called “principal” at the end.

 

[grateful zed]

joe flacco

not the top of this list, but i thought his post superbowl contract was waay overblown.

 

[fantasycurse42]

joe flacco

not the top of this list, but i thought his post superbowl contract was waay overblown.

Flacco played lights out and had a great run to their Super Bowl, anyone who has done that gets a pass IMO.

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

Wade Redden's contract with the Rangers has to be up there.

but he actually had to ride buses and play in the AHL all that time.

 

[Parmcat]

David Clarkson

Dion Phaneuf

Phil Kessel

Jeff Finger

See the trend?

 

[Brendon1215]

I almost forgot...

Sam Bradford & Derrick Rose

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[Warsteinner]

I think it has to be a baseball player since all money is guaranteed no matter what. After signing for 8 years and $121 million he was crap. 

 

[Sister Havana]

Eddie Robinson (NBA) is right up there. Talk about a waste.