"In the National Football League, contracts are a one-way street. Management has all the power, all the options, and can wield that power on a whim.

You tore your Achilles tendon walking down the street? Goodbye. You're cut; no more cash for you.

You lost a step-and-a-half this summer and can't beat younger cornerbacks anymore? Thanks for your Hall of Fame career, now please enjoy your lovely parting gift.

If this was baseball, basketball or hockey -- where contracts are contracts and both sides are held to the same standard of compliance -- I would be ripping on Indianapolis Colts minicamp holdouts Reggie Wayne and Robert Mathis. In those sports, where a team must pay for five years on a five-year contract, the idea is that if you sign the deal, you willingly trade the power to renegotiate for the prize of long-term security.

If a baseball player signs a five-year deal, he can hit an anemic .234 in the third year and not have to worry about being cast asunder.

That's not the case in football, where players always are one serious injury away from being gone.

One of the things that makes the NFL great for fans is that there aren't guaranteed contracts. One of the things that makes the NFL player the least secure and most underpaid athlete in major American sports is the lack of guaranteed contracts.

When it comes to money, management has the hammer and players are the nail. The only thing guaranteed is the signing bonus up front. Beyond that, nothing."