Tom Brady's Not as Selfless as We Thought

There seems to be a misconception that Tom Brady took one for the team when he restructured his contract to accommodate Randy Moss, who was acquired last weekend for a fourth-round pick. As commenter Luz pointed out at the time, just because a player restructures doesn't mean he's losing any coin ... in fact, he's guaranteeing part of his contract that previously wasn't:

When a player restructures their deal they are often NOT taking a pay cut. They are merely moving unguaranteed salary into a guaranteed bonus. It actually isn't a selfless act since Brady still gets all his money and if anything it helps him since if he tears both of his Achilles tomorrow he'll get all of his bonus money but none of his salary (after he gets cut that is).

So while Brady's gesture makes for a heart-warming after-school special, it's not like it'll cost him anything. And in today's Boston Globe, Mike Reiss's reiterates as much:

The Patriots took Brady's $6 million base salary for 2007 and paid $5.28 million of it to him in the form of a signing bonus... Brady's base salary remained the same for 2008 ($5 million) and 2010 ($3.5 million).In 2009, Brady's base salary increased to $5 million. He had been scheduled to earn $2.3 million in base salary.

Brady did not take a pay cut as part of the restructure.

This doesn't mean that Brady's still not a super swell guy, just that he's not dumb enough to take a pay cut for Randy Moss. And I don't blame him.