I came across this article and was able to agree with most of the players on this list, but having Sam Bradford at #3 and the only football player on there caught me off guard
Top 5 Worst Sports Contracts
5. Nicklas Bendtner
There's so many stories floating about when it comes to Bendtner's Arsenal contract.
Here is just a selection.
- He says he deserves his £50,000 salary because he makes "big sacrifices"
- Hull City manager Steve Bruce would have signed the Dane, but his salary is "an issue"
- Arsenal will pay Bendtner £3m to end it all (the contract)
- Bendtner refuses a pay cut despite Arsenal making it clear they're desperate to sell him
When a club can't get rid of you because you're on a thoroughly excessive contract, you know you're getting a good deal.
4. Amar'e Stoudemire
Stoudemire was once a dominant presence in the NBA. The key word there was "once".
Signed on July 8, 2010 to a monster five-year $99m deal, the New York Knicks gambled on his injury record. And it's a gamble that has backfired and then some.
He hasn't played a full 82-game season since he joined the Knicks, and has featured in a combined 95 regular season games since the end of the 2010-11 season.
His knees are made of glass, and even when he's on the floor, his production is nothing like his good old days with the Phoenix Suns.
The Knicks guaranteed Stoudemire $45m as part of his initial contract - and he's the proud owner of the third largest cap hit in the NBA.
What a terrible error that looks now by the Knicks.
3. Sam Bradford
This one is not strictly Bradford's fault because circumstance dictated his salary.
But it's a gargantuan six-year $78m contract with a massive $50m guaranteed. Bradford, the 2011 number one draft pick, was the beneficiary of the old rookie collective bargaining agreement - basically a deal that guaranteed huge salaries to the rookies drafted highest in the league.
Now, if Bradford had gone on to prove himself as one of the NFL's best quarterbacks, there would be no problem here.
Don't get me wrong, he's perfectly serviceable and certainly an NFL-calibre starter. But he's not top 10, possibly not even top 15. And that's a problem when you're earning this kind of money.
Because the Rams can't really shift him, even if they wanted to - next year they could cut him for $10.2m but that's a huge amount of dead money on your books.
Add his injury problems to the mix, and you have a recipe for a terrible contract.
2. Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez is the proud owner of the world's largest sports contract - a ten-year $275m mega-deal signed in 2008.
But a lot has happened since then. And most of it has not been positive. PEDs, suspensions, injuries and poor performances have bundled together to basically render this contract a colossal waste of money for the New York Yankees.
Granted, many of you will argue that if any MLB can afford it, it's the Yankees. But that doesn't change the facts - A-Rod is due $27.5m a season until 2017.
With a 211-game ban currently hanging over the third baseman (he is appealing the suspension), that could be a problem.
1. Dario Conca
Dario who? A fair question.
This Argentinian journeyman is actually one of the highest paid players in the world.
His $12.5m annual salary at Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande puts him in the same kind of bracket as Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi.
To be fair, his goals record isn't too bad - a respectable 33 in 65 league appearances. Then again, he is playing in China.
A ridiculous contract, but one that will probably become more common as football in China, the UAE and other smaller markets grows spectacularly off the back of local money.
http://www.givemesport.com/411919-to...ssional-sports
12-19-2013, 05:09 AM
