For eight years I was on a local radio station in Calgary, Canada as Sports Freak. Whenever something remarkable happened in the world of sports, I would be on the radio, and bellow out the phrase, “that is absolutely humungous!” So, when Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs signed the remarkable 10-year, $503 million extension on Monday, my initial reaction was ‘that signing was gigantic’. However, that adjective was already used by Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated. So, I thought now is the time to reuse a catchphrase from my radio days to describe the contract the NFL’s best mobile quarterback agreed to.
At this time, $63 million is guaranteed. Mahomes gets that money just by exercising his wrist and using up droplets of ink from a pen on paper. However, $477 million of the $503 million, is part of guaranteed mechanisms.
One must realize Mahomes’s contract comes with a catch. Remember, the entire contracts in the National Football League are seldom guaranteed. This is why the Chiefs’s term of the phrase “guarantee mechanisms,” within the contract, has led many to ask, ‘what on Earth does this particular, revolutionary term actually mean?’After a significant search, according to Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, guaranteed mechanisms are the ability for Mahomes “to have outs if the mechanisms are not exercised.”
To make things even more confusing, Mahomes has a no-trade clause, but an opt-out clause, if certain guaranteed mechanisms are not met. At this time, you are not the only one who has a headache in trying to figure out all of the terms and legalese that are part of Mahomes’s new deal. Right now what I think is guaranteed is that Mahomes, who is the 2018 NFL MVP, and 2020 Super Bowl MVP, will be a member of the Kansas City Chiefs for the long term. If Tom Brady, Brett Favre or Peyton Manning can switch teams, then there is simply no guarantee that Mahomes will remain a Chiefs player for life. It is safe to say Mahomes will be the Kansas City quarterback for a while. The biggest clue came from a tweet which simply said, “Here to stay.”
