Hmmm…It’s another year and ya boy is at it once again banging these keys. I’d like to give my homie Ben aka B- Holcomb and my wife a shout out b/c they provided TDRS with some info that just sparked the fingers to walk it out on the keyboard like the Andre 3000 remix of the song. Ben sent me an article on ESPN.com, which is discussed in detail later on. My wife, on the other hand did a really simple thing last week which I’ll discuss first to get this edition started. At least once or twice during the week, my wife wakes up and cooks breakfast, which for the most part consists of eggs, toast or waffles, and bacon. Last week, she cooked 5 pieces of bacon. I know that seems insignficant in the grand scheme of things, but at the time it really got me thinking. I thought because I was married, the right thing to do was to split the fifth piece in half. The thought made sense, but in reality things don’t necessarily happen that way, that is splitting things 50/50. For those who are wondering, I ended up getting the other half of the bacon, b/c (a) I wanted it more and (b) she either wanted it less or (c) she was more than likely being sweet.
Anyway, so I know the title is somewhat interesting given that I just got married back in October. Before the rumors swirl, all is well in married life. For those who are married, I think you know what that means…no divorce filings, private investigators, etc. Just kidding. Anway, I am not sure if everyone caught a recent story on ESPN.com regarding Michael Strahan and his recent divorce, but it is very good reading. We at HollaAtYaBoys understand you’re too lazy to find the story, so we have included the link for you…. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2730126
For the ladies who don’t follow football, Michael Strahan is a pro-bowl defensive lineman for the New York Giants, which means he’s pretty darn good and has probably made a few chips during his lifetime. To be more exact, he’s stacked a little more than $30 million, net of his liabilities. Unfortunately, for Mr. Strahan, he’s deep into a messy divorce settlement that will leave his ex-wife with $15.3MM, which is more than half of his $30 million chips PLUS $200K per year in child support for their TWIN children. The interesting point about this whole fiasco is that Michael Strahan and his attorney basically wrote this into the pre-nup, except for the child support. I mean was Mr Stahan listening to little Scrappy’s Money in the Bank song. It’s like he literally walked up to her at her part time job and said, “I got money in the bank, Shawty what you drink?”. I’m sure Shawty thought Strahan was crazy, but took a drink of whatever kool aid Strahan was buying. At the end of the day, Mrs. Strahan had a CONTRACT and as my girl Trish Hinton, Esq would tell you, contracts are BINDING!
Yes, I understand that contracts are binding, but for Ms Strahan to receive more than half is just plain ridiculous. Mrs Strahan actually said, “I never asked for a penny more than the prenup that Michael and his lawyers wrote and made me sign. And all I ever asked for was that to be upheld." Are you kidding me? They made you sign the prenup? What, did she not ask for a penny more b/c she felt it was the right thing to do? The right thing to do would have been to just walk away and insist on no prenup, but that wouldn’t have been smart huh?
In this age of corporate greed, I have to say that divorce settlements should be lumped in with these unbelievable CEO packages. Yes, I will admit that on a “regular” people level, divorce settlements are probably fair b/c the wife acutally does contribute to the net worth of the family, whether directly through cash or deferred fees, like taking care of the children in lieu of day care. Yes, I know there are some cases where the wife actually brings home the bacon (no pun intended), but we know that is less frequent in the sports world. However, in the case of Ms. Strahan, I’m going to guess that she did not clean the house, take care of the kids, or perform any of the stay at home spousal duties. Notice I didn’t say housewife, b/c my wife has promised to make me a stay at home dad, so I am not “hating” on housewives. Anyway, Mrs Strahan and all the other “plaintiffs” (Paul McCartney’s wife for example) are nothing more than a modern day Kenneth Lay. Yeah, Ebony, I’m talking about your boy at Enron. What’s the difference between Mrs Strahan and let’s say Bob Nardelli at Home Depot. Both joined their companies (yes, atheletes are like corporations these days), at their prime, stuck around for 6-8 years, and left with a package that seems a bit unreasonable given the performance of their corporations over that time or better said, their contributions to said corporations over time.
Because I’m in the business of using data to sell deals, let’s break down Strahan’s numbers. Mr. Strahan gets paid the big bucks to tackle or sack the quarterback, so basically the more sacks he gets, the more he gets paid. Anyway, you have to think that Micheal was making peanuts upon entereing the league b/c (i) he was a rookie, (ii) it was 1993, and (iii) he was drafted in the second round. In fact, he didn’t start making money until 1996 when he signed a 4-yr $12MM contract that included a $3MM signing bonus. Note this was a contract based on Michael’s potential, sort of like the equity markets giving value for future cash flows or business prospects that increase future cash flows.
Let’s look at the financial return for Micheal’s potential. From 1997-1998, Micheal Strahan had his best back-to-back seasons since entering the league in 1993. In the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Strahan had 14 and 15 sacks, respectively, so he was definitely a force in the league. But then came 1999 and boom, his sack total fell to 6 and you guessed it, this was the year Mr. Strahan married the now ex-Mrs Strahan. Before anyone tries to think of reasons, let me just say that Stahan played all 16 games that season, so don’t even try to give me the injury excuse. Was he in love? Did he lose focus? Maybe, but at the end of the day, he didn’t do well in the sack category that year.
Based on the numbers, Micheal Strahan did have a couple of great years after the 1999 marriage, as evidenced by the 23 sacks he had in 2001 and 19 in 2003. However, since 1999, Michael Strahan has had only two seasons where he beat his sack totals in 1997 and 1998. All this being said, Michael did break the bank with his second contract that basically paid for his past performance and not so much potential b/c he was over 30 and playing a position (Defensive End) that required speed and strength. The 2nd contract was great for Mrs Strahan, but bad for Micheal. The problem was that his pre-nup was drafted a few years before the 2nd contract, so in essence Mrs Strahan got a bargain.
The point of all of this is that Mrs Strahan didn’t contribute to Michael’s greatness. He was great before her and if anything struggled a bit with her…just like Home Depot and Bob Nardelli. I can understand paying the child support and something reasonable with respect to alimony, but paying her half of what he earned w/o her help is just WRONG. At the end of the day, TDRS is not “hating” on Mrs. Strahan, I am really “hating” the game.
At the time of writing this TDRS, I was alerted that other atheletes are having the same problem, like Jason Kidd and Michael Jordan. I have the opinion that Stahan’s situation is different than let’s say Juanita Jordan b/c she tried to get out a few years ago. Michael Jordan figured out that it was cheaper to keep her and they reconcilled. Unfortunatley, Michael Jordan kept on with his allegedley “cheating ways” and Juanita basically said that was it. While there aren’t any reports to prove my theory on why Juanita finally said enought, ya’ll know Mike was running serious game before, during, and after retirement. For all of those brothers that are single, the most eligle bachlorette is somewhere in Chicago waiting for Mike to pack everything in a box and to step to the left.
At the end of the day, TDRS thinks that Mike Jordan, Jason Kidd, Michael Strahan, Barry Bonds and all of the other atheletes should listen to the sage advice given by Johnny Taylor and that is it’s cheaper to keep her.
HollaAtYaBoy
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