Westbrook Wants LT Money

Eagles RB Brian Westbrook is being very vocal on his desire for a new contract. In a recent article by Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Westbrook voices his opinion on the matter.

“The contract thing is a sour point for me because when you deserve something you deserve something,” Westbrook said. “What’s right is right, and what’s fair is fair.”

“To me, it comes down to whether the team respects you,” Westbrook said. “I look at it in dollars and cents. If you think you have a coach who is doing a great job, you pay him - the same way they did with Andy Reid a couple of years ago and the same way with [vice president of player personnel] Howie Roseman a few months ago. They respected him. They saw what he was doing, and they moved him up in the organization, and they paid him. I see that happening in the organization, and I wouldn’t see why it wasn’t happening with me as well.”

One question that always comes up in any contract situation, is how much does the player want? According to Brian he is looking for LaDanian Tomlinson money. In fact he thinks he should get more.

“If LaDainian [Tomlinson] got paid $25 million guaranteed in 2003 and now it’s 2008, the next person needs to be paid $30 million guaranteed,” Westbrook said. “It works its way up. You can’t sit here and say, ‘I’m as good as LaDainian right now, and I’m getting paid five years after him. . . . So I’ll take $15 million.’ That doesn’t make any sense.”

While it is hard to argue his points, it is just disheartening to hear this. Money is the root of all evil, and it just gets sickening when you realize that sports are a business more than anything else.

Hell will freeze over before the Eagles hand Brian Westbrook a $30 million signing bonus. They just will not put that much money into the RB position, even if that RB is great like Brian Westbrook.

Knowing that the Eagles will not cave into that demand, a lot of questions start to surface. How far is Brian willing to take this fight for a new deal? Will he show up to training camp? Will he continue to speak about his displeasure with it to the media? Is there a solution in sight?

Only time will tell what will happen, but we know that both sides(Eagles and Westbrook) are very far apart from getting a new deal done.

This very quiet off season is turning ugly fast.

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