One of the knocks on collective bargaining is that employers should be able to pay people what they are worth. An interesting example of this phenomenon came in the realm of professional football. In January 2011, Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha's contract was voided because his contract included a little-known clause allowed the team to void his contract if he didn't achieve his not-likely-to-be-earned incentives in 2010 -- and he didn't. One reason for his failure to earn his incentives was that he was so effective that quarterbacks would not to pass to someone near him. Consequently, he did not have any interceptions.
This says nothing about merit pay. This is a knock on incompetent agents / negotiators. Darrell Reavis is a great cornerback, and what gets noticed over and over is how rarely the man he's covering catches a pass. It's been known to football aficionados for a long time that it is usually the weaker of a team's cornerbacks who gets the bulk of the interceptions.
ReplyDeleteThis does appear to illustrate the cliche that no good deed goes unpunished.
ReplyDeleteManagement lops off the best and stretches the least to make operations uniform at least from a Peter principled manager's perspective. Procrustes bed rules.
--ml
In 1917 Eddie Cicotte had a contract with the White Sox giving him a $10,000 bonus if he won 30 games. After he won 28, Comiskey benched him for the remainder of the season. Not surprisingly, Cicotte went along with the gamblers who put the fix in for the 1918 World Series.
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