Browner 1 year suspension is for substance abuse per NFL

[danbogart]

Guy I work with drew this today. Funny guy.

 

[FreshlySnipes]

Cut him. Cut Thurmond too. There has to be consequences when a team gives you multiple chances. On top of that, the FO gave BB a raise this fall to unofficially cover the money he lost during his suspension last year. So what does he do? He screws his team that took him off the street and made him a Pro Bowler. I never want to see him in a Seahawk uniform again.

No. No. No

NFL is full of this kinda thing. You don't go cutting some of your best players cuz of it

 

[mikeak]

And as far as all the moral outrage, save it.

Hardly seen any moral outrage whatsoever.

People are arguing that he shouldn't have smoked weed because it is an illegal substance in the NFL. He got busted twice for it and should have known what was coming next. Don't give a rip if my friends smoke it but doesn't make it right for Browner to smoke it

 

[mikeak]

If this was a Niner, Cowboy or Patriot. They'd drop this crap before it even comes out.

If it was a Niner, Cowboy or Patriot there would be a thread here with 95% of the people bashing the team and the player for being so stupid and nobody would support him.......

 

[plyka]

Why should these overpaid, pampered babies who do for a living what most of us can only dream of, be any different? Just because there are more dollar signs involved with their paycheck doesn't mean squat. At least he made enough that he shouldn't have to worry about losing his house or putting food on the table like real people do when they screw up.

Just want to point out that Browner is making around $750,000 this year. This is with his "raise." He will lose 1/4 of that if the suspension is upheld. He was making league minimum before that. I understand this is still a huge amount of money to an average joe, but you lose half of that in taxes and the earning window for an NFL player is extremely short. My guess is that what he's earned in the NFL isn't exactly going to set him up for the rest of his life.

Not really trying to argue you overall point, but this notion that all NFL players are obscenely rich and pampered is off-base.

At NFL minimum an NFL player is in the top .05% and wage earners in the world. That mean he's richer than 99.95% of the world's population.

I think that makes me obscenely rich.

And they are pampered. Even more so than others making similar money. Because not only are they wealthy, they are famous and athletic. They are wealthy and still don't have to pay for much of what they get, because fame has its perks.

You're confusing two very different topics --wages earned per year and total wealth (or "obscenely rich"). I assure you that Browner is no where close to being in the top .05% wealth wise. He is most likely upper middle class, IF THAT. The guy earned the league minimum for a few years, half goes to taxes the other half the expenses, etc. Someone in the work force who is pulling down $100k is much better off, because the guy in the work force can pull that down yearly for 50 years while Browner gets his 700k for 2-3 years, this is assuming he does not play in the NFL again. Even if he does play in the NFL again, he will not get anywhere near the .05% you quoted. I haven't crunched the numbers, but I doubt there is any NFL player that is currently in the .05% wealth wise (how much they are worth now, not yearly salary).

 

[plyka]

Ths sheds some light on things:


http://www.examiner.com/article/the-backstory-on-brandon-browner-s-suspension

It's unconscionable of the NFL to proceed with this without taking those extenuating circumstances into account. If they don't rescind his suspension on appeal they will wind up paying a monster settlement for lost earning capability and NFL fans will have been deprived of one the leagues more entertaining members in the interim.

I really hope you're right, but I'm not sure. Remember, we are not talking about a normal business here, we are talking about the NFL. The NFL is a monopoly, a cabal of sorts that has worked out a deal with the government. No other legitimate business could get away with it, as we remember the government hassling Microsoft for its "monopoly" which wasn't a real monopoly. The NFL has a deal with Government, they have the ability to run a monopoly/cabal, but the players get some say through a union. I'm not sure how court cases are handled with cabals such as the NFL.

And as far as all the moral outrage, save it.

Hardly seen any moral outrage whatsoever.

People are arguing that he shouldn't have smoked weed because it is an illegal substance in the NFL. He got busted twice for it and should have known what was coming next. Don't give a rip if my friends smoke it but doesn't make it right for Browner to smoke it

I think you're a little late on the news. Browner has never been busted twice on it, and this is not his third "bust." Browner was no longer in the NFL, he was not even in the stinking country. He was in the CFL, and thus no longer took tests. This somehow bumbed him to "stage 3" even though he never failed a test. Now that he has failed 1 test they suspend him for a year, while Dwayne Bowe gets a DUI a couple weeks ago, putting other people at risk of injury or death, is busted BY THE COPS for having weed in his car --and he plays the next week, and he will play this week as well. Yet Browner due to technicalities in the rule book which make no sense is going to lose his career over this 1 mess up? Are you Fing kidding me?

 

[mikeak]

I think you're a little late on the news. Browner has never been busted twice on it, and this is not his third "bust." Browner was no longer in the NFL, he was not even in the stinking country. He was in the CFL, and thus no longer took tests. This somehow bumbed him to "stage 3" even though he never failed a test. Now that he has failed 1 test they suspend him for a year, while Dwayne Bowe gets a DUI a couple weeks ago, putting other people at risk of injury or death, is busted BY THE COPS for having weed in his car --and he plays the next week, and he will play this week as well. Yet Browner due to technicalities in the rule book which make no sense is going to lose his career over this 1 mess up? Are you Fing kidding me?

You are correct - I didn't see the part about being in the CFL before. Doesn't change my opinion on he knows that he shouldn't smoke pot while in the NFL. I have zero moral outrage about it - it was a really bad business decision and it hurts the team.

I do agree though after reading the newslink you had that it should be max of 4 game suspension but we shall see how it is applied

 

[McGruff]

Why should these overpaid, pampered babies who do for a living what most of us can only dream of, be any different? Just because there are more dollar signs involved with their paycheck doesn't mean squat. At least he made enough that he shouldn't have to worry about losing his house or putting food on the table like real people do when they screw up.

Just want to point out that Browner is making around $750,000 this year. This is with his "raise." He will lose 1/4 of that if the suspension is upheld. He was making league minimum before that. I understand this is still a huge amount of money to an average joe, but you lose half of that in taxes and the earning window for an NFL player is extremely short. My guess is that what he's earned in the NFL isn't exactly going to set him up for the rest of his life.

Not really trying to argue you overall point, but this notion that all NFL players are obscenely rich and pampered is off-base.

At NFL minimum an NFL player is in the top .05% and wage earners in the world. That mean he's richer than 99.95% of the world's population.

I think that makes me obscenely rich.

And they are pampered. Even more so than others making similar money. Because not only are they wealthy, they are famous and athletic. They are wealthy and still don't have to pay for much of what they get, because fame has its perks.

The average length of an NFL career is three years. They don't get this salary for 20-40 years, so to compare annual salaries at a 1:1 ratio lacks logical thinking. And why are you using global numbers? Most of America is making significantly more money than the world average.

The vast majority of America is obscenely rich.

 

[mikeak]

Why should these overpaid, pampered babies who do for a living what most of us can only dream of, be any different? Just because there are more dollar signs involved with their paycheck doesn't mean squat. At least he made enough that he shouldn't have to worry about losing his house or putting food on the table like real people do when they screw up.

Just want to point out that Browner is making around $750,000 this year. This is with his "raise." He will lose 1/4 of that if the suspension is upheld. He was making league minimum before that. I understand this is still a huge amount of money to an average joe, but you lose half of that in taxes and the earning window for an NFL player is extremely short. My guess is that what he's earned in the NFL isn't exactly going to set him up for the rest of his life.

Not really trying to argue you overall point, but this notion that all NFL players are obscenely rich and pampered is off-base.

At NFL minimum an NFL player is in the top .05% and wage earners in the world. That mean he's richer than 99.95% of the world's population.

I think that makes me obscenely rich.

And they are pampered. Even more so than others making similar money. Because not only are they wealthy, they are famous and athletic. They are wealthy and still don't have to pay for much of what they get, because fame has its perks.

You're confusing two very different topics --wages earned per year and total wealth (or "obscenely rich"). I assure you that Browner is no where close to being in the top .05% wealth wise. He is most likely upper middle class, IF THAT. The guy earned the league minimum for a few years, half goes to taxes the other half the expenses, etc. Someone in the work force who is pulling down $100k is much better off, because the guy in the work force can pull that down yearly for 50 years while Browner gets his 700k for 2-3 years, this is assuming he does not play in the NFL again. Even if he does play in the NFL again, he will not get anywhere near the .05% you quoted. I haven't crunched the numbers, but I doubt there is any NFL player that is currently in the .05% wealth wise (how much they are worth now, not yearly salary).

To further this point more. There is a nice chart out there about how UPS drivers makes more than many doctor's over a lifetime...... This is without accounting for the fact that while the Doctor is earning money they will pay more taxes and not have many of the deductions that the UPS driver has.

It all comes down to earnings over a lifetime and Browner has less than many people on this board. Regardless it doesn't matter to the case. He was told what the requirements are for the job and will pay the price for being deemed to have broken the rules

 

[Galen96]

Why should these overpaid, pampered babies who do for a living what most of us can only dream of, be any different? Just because there are more dollar signs involved with their paycheck doesn't mean squat. At least he made enough that he shouldn't have to worry about losing his house or putting food on the table like real people do when they screw up.

Just want to point out that Browner is making around $750,000 this year. This is with his "raise." He will lose 1/4 of that if the suspension is upheld. He was making league minimum before that. I understand this is still a huge amount of money to an average joe, but you lose half of that in taxes and the earning window for an NFL player is extremely short. My guess is that what he's earned in the NFL isn't exactly going to set him up for the rest of his life.

Not really trying to argue you overall point, but this notion that all NFL players are obscenely rich and pampered is off-base.

At NFL minimum an NFL player is in the top .05% and wage earners in the world. That mean he's richer than 99.95% of the world's population.

I think that makes me obscenely rich.

And they are pampered. Even more so than others making similar money. Because not only are they wealthy, they are famous and athletic. They are wealthy and still don't have to pay for much of what they get, because fame has its perks.

Not when the average football career lasts 3 years or less. Yes, top tier players can be considered famous and/or celebrities. But 99% of the population wouldn't recognize Brandon Browner in public... People may know his name, but he is no Tom Brady or even Marshawn Lynch. He will be forced out of his career having made a fraction of the income you seem to think all NFL players make, and all because of, what it turns out, is his first offense.

 

[Teqneek]

^ ok I agree.. I still dont see why he needs to pay such a stiff price for testing positive once for marijuana.. Seems a bit.. ridiculous?

 

[Crabhawk]

You're confusing two very different topics --wages earned per year and total wealth (or "obscenely rich"). I assure you that Browner is no where close to being in the top .05% wealth wise. He is most likely upper middle class, IF THAT. The guy earned the league minimum for a few years, half goes to taxes the other half the expenses, etc. Someone in the work force who is pulling down $100k is much better off, because the guy in the work force can pull that down yearly for 50 years while Browner gets his 700k for 2-3 years, this is assuming he does not play in the NFL again. Even if he does play in the NFL again, he will not get anywhere near the .05% you quoted. I haven't crunched the numbers, but I doubt there is any NFL player that is currently in the .05% wealth wise (how much they are worth now, not yearly salary).

To further this point more. There is a nice chart out there about how UPS drivers makes more than many doctor's over a lifetime...... This is without accounting for the fact that while the Doctor is earning money they will pay more taxes and not have many of the deductions that the UPS driver has.

It all comes down to earnings over a lifetime and Browner has less than many people on this board. Regardless it doesn't matter to the case. He was told what the requirements are for the job and will pay the price for being deemed to have broken the rules

To further the derail... Yes there is a difference between salary and accumulated wealth. Assuming BB's salary is at $700k,that puts him at >12x the median US household income of ~$56, and that is in the top ~1% of income earners.

To put that into perspective, if I've been at my job for 10 years and roughly earned the median household income, I would have made $140k less than BB made in one year. Even at $100k/year, in 10 years I would have made $400k less than BB made in 2 years.

To normalize the numbers you have to consider the present values of BB's earnings vs a $100k/year salary earner, AND remember that BB has salary earning potential after football. Even assuming he only makes the median household income after the NFL, the front loaded years earning $700k are worth so much in PV that it would take decades for the two curves to even get reasonably close.

tl;dr BB definitely isn't set for life on $700k/yr, but is worth more than the middle class as a function of his present value in the NFL and it's not even close.

 

[HawkWow]

Its too bad we lost Browner for our SB run, but going forward, he wouldn't have been worth his (predicted) asking price and would likely sign with someone like the skins next year. This way, we now don't have to face him.

IF any members of our FO read this, please consider, going forward, to spike similar players Gatorade with heroin, then ask the league to piss test them. Boom. 2 birds one stone. We rid ourself of player and never have to face him and his quest for vengeance against us. It's not like we destroy him, Canada is a beautiful place to work and live.

 

[IBleedBlueAndGreen]

How can an business require a former employee to continue with it's own company's drug testing?

 

[Blitzer88]

Awful lot of high horses telling others to get off theirs.

^^^
Pretty much this.

I do like and remember what Browner has done for the team. But if the 1 year suspension is legit, then Browner knew what he was risking and risked it anyways.

If a normal joe fails to meet job drug testing requirements he or she gets fired. Nobody sits around remembering all the good stuff we did, we just lose our job. That's how life works when you're not a privileged athlete. It doesn't matter how "fair" it is or if you were "just smoking weed, what's the big deal?"

When you know the consequences and do it anyways it is both stupid and selfish. It is selfish by definition, you're choosing personal short term pleasure against your own long-term self-interests and the long-term self-interests of the team.

Stupid and selfish are not evil, and I don't hate Browner for his actions, but to deny that either of those adjectives apply is to lack understanding of the dictionary definition of the words.

Very well said sir!

 

[mikeak]

To further the derail... Yes there is a difference between salary and accumulated wealth. Assuming BB's salary is at $700k,that puts him at >12x the median US household income of ~$56, and that is in the top ~1% of income earners.

To put that into perspective, if I've been at my job for 10 years and roughly earned the median household income, I would have made $140k less than BB made in one year. Even at $100k/year, in 10 years I would have made $400k less than BB made in 2 years.

To normalize the numbers you have to consider the present values of BB's earnings vs a $100k/year salary earner, AND remember that BB has salary earning potential after football. Even assuming he only makes the median household income after the NFL, the front loaded years earning $700k are worth so much in PV that it would take decades for the two curves to even get reasonably close.

tl;dr BB definitely isn't set for life on $700k/yr, but is worth more than the middle class as a function of his present value in the NFL and it's not even close.

You are ignoring his tax rate and your tax rate. You are comparing net vs his contract rate. You are ignoring his costs to agents, lawyer to look over contract and other moving costs etc trying to have a career.

You are assuming that he will earn average later - based on what? He will start at ground zero he has not skills related to performing work.

He may live the rest of his life with pain throughout his body, issues with memory loss etc - items that people kept saying these guys gets paid for. However you just said the extra he got paid was for being pampered not for the toll on his body for the rest of his life.

Yeah I get it construction worker may have similiar issues etc but they don't get hit in the head continously. Give me back pain all my life if I have a healthy mind

of that $700k / year he is not putting more than $350k in the wallet. He earns that for a couple of years - it will most definately not put him in the 1% category for life

 

[mikeak]

How can an business require a former employee to continue with it's own company's drug testing?

The US requires former citizens and green card holders to pay taxes for an additional 10 years after leaving the country......

 

[Grahamkrackker253]

Browner getting popped seems pretty irrelevant to me I don't think he was going to play for the rest of the year with that groin injury and I really couldn't see us bringing him back next year for the kind of money he would have demanded. Now the decision becomes easy very easy. Browner is gone and we will give Thurmond an extension on the cheap and draft another cb prospect in the later rounds. I think we will still come out on top and get the # 1 seed we just might have to work a little harder to get it wich might be a good thing to help us to start firing on all cylinders just in time to make our playoff run. Go HAWKS!

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Ths sheds some light on things:


http://www.examiner.com/article/the-backstory-on-brandon-browner-s-suspension

So, Browner doesn't take NFL drug tests during his CFL years, and that gets counted as a violation of NFL policies and an automatic kick up to Stage 3. Years later with the Seahawks, he gets stupid, lights up, and then viewed as a Stage 3 violator. I don't know how clear NFL rules are, but my layman's view doesn't think it's legal to discipline a guy for violating the rules of a corporation he left years ago. Either there's more to this, or Browner's got a decent case.

Between this and the fact that Seattle didn't put him on IR weeks ago, the NFL feeling the need to leak the news of the suspension DURING appeals takes on new meaning for me. It's feeling more and more like the NFL not being confident in their case and trying to shut him down to save money and PR costs.

To wade further into conspiracy waters, it might also explain why the Seahawks seemingly get singled out so much on substance issues when everyone knows that players on EVERY team are getting into the hemp. A relatively small-market team with an unpopular head coach would be the best avenue for the NFL to elbow their way into bigger legal stature in the PED/drug arena.

 

[ceej22]

Has anyone seen an actual report of confirmed marijuana use here? I have seen a Seattle Times article speculating marijuana but that is all.