On the NFL: The Grass isn't always Greener

By John McMullen
The Phanatic Magazine

It's always sad when a great NFL player leaves the team he defined his career with.

That happened twice this past week when a pair of local institutions jumped the fence to see if the grass truly is greener on the other side.

Brian Dawkins left the City of Brotherly Love for Denver and Matt Birk fled his hometown Vikings for Baltimore.

It's all too easy to blame free agency for this phenomenon but historians of the game know the league's history is littered with the enduring images of legendary players finishing their storied careers in unfamiliar uniforms.

Whether its Joe Namath with the Rams, Franco Harris with the Seahawks or Johnny Unitas wearing the lightning bolt of the San Diego Chargers, this
kind of thing has been going on for decades. More recently it was Emmitt Smith with the Cardinals, Jerry Rice with the Raiders and Joe Montana with the Chiefs.

It's simply hard for great athletes to give up when the finish line is near.

It may be even harder for their fans to admit they have seen better days.

Dawkins is certainly on the last legs of a brilliant career. The 35-year-old safety enjoyed a renaissance late last season when they brilliant Jim Johnson
revamped his entire defense to feature Dawkins as a sort of hybrid linebacker.

Unable to cover even the most pedestrian of receivers, Johnson stationed BDawk near the line of scrimmage and let him focus on blitzing and blowing up
running plays -- things he still does well.

When the Eagles had opposing offenses in obvious passing situations, Johnson actually pulled Dawkins from the field and used rookie Quentin Demps.

That said, Dawkins did bring intangibles to the table. The unquestioned leader of the Birds defense, BDawk was also the franchise's most popular player.

Despite that popularity, MSNBC's Chris Matthews would have been proud of Birds president Joe Banner. Banner played hardball with Dawkins, offering the seven-time Pro Bowler a one-year, $3 million dollar deal.

The Trenton Times' Mark Eckel even claimed Banner wanted Dawkins to include a clause in the contract in which he would have to pay money back to the
franchise for every game he missed.

Of course, Eckel was mistaken but only in semantics. Per the NFLPA, no contract can require any player to pay money back but an increasing number of
contracts, especially for older players, now include "per-game roster bonuses," which tie compensation to the number of games played. And that's
what Banner tried to pull on Dawkins. The Broncos, in turn, offered Dawkins a five-year deal with over twice as much guaranteed money.

Make no mistake, the green stuff is still much more important than legacy so Dawkins has a new home in the Rocky Mountains.

In Birk's case, it wasn't greed that led him to Baltimore and it wasn't the crab cakes -- it was another of the seven deadly sins -- pride.

A St. Paul, Minn. native, Birk had been with the Vikings since the 1998 season, married a Twin Cities native, sired four kids and owned a stake in two
local restaurants that bore his name, Matty B's.

In other words, the six-time Pro Bowl selection laid down some roots in the Land of the 10,0000 Lakes.

Behind the scenes, however, Birk and his head coach, Brad Childress, often clashed and, at the end of the day, there was only room for one stubborn,
hard-headed personality at Winter Park.

Both Birk and Childress were classy after the center decided to move on.

Asked point blank if his problems with Childress caused him to exit, Birk called on his Harvard education and became a diplomat.

"The thing about coach Childress is I felt like we worked through our differences," Birk said. "We had differences but we've been honest and forthright about it and at the end of the day agreed to disagree. My relationship with Brad Childress is not the reason I'm a Raven. The reason I'm a Raven is because I want to be one. It wasn't like I left the Vikings disgruntled and upset or anything like that."

Childress was similarly political in a statement released by the Vikings.

"The Minnesota Vikings thank Matt for all he did for the organization both on and off the field over the past 11 years," Childress said. "Matt has done a great job and we wanted him to return to the Vikings in '09, but at this point Matt wanted a change of scenery. We wish him the best and know that he will
always be a part of the Vikings family."

I'm sure both Dawkins and Birk both think the honeymoon will be sweet in their new cities.

I can't help picturing a limping Namath in the Los Angles Coliseum and thinking the grass isn't always greener on the other side of that imaginary fence.