Re: Steelers reach terms with Roethlisberger on six-year deal
He's still, in my opinion, the best QB drafted this year.
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Steelers reach terms with Roethlisberger on six-year deal
Aug. 3, 2004
SportsLine.com wire reports
LATROBE, Pa. -- No Pittsburgh Steelers rookie has ever made as much money as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He didn't take long to start earning it.
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Roethlisberger, the 11th pick in the draft, signed a six-year contract Tuesday that could be worth as much as $40 million.
The contract includes $22,269,500 worth of salaries and various bonuses and $17,730,500 in incentives -- including $4,875,000 in playing time bonuses easily reachable for a starting quarterback.
The deal, reached following lengthy talks that began early Monday and extended into Tuesday morning, includes a Steelers record $9,009,000 in bonuses: $600,000 (signing bonus, payable immediately), $1,172,000 (roster bonus, payable by Aug. 10) and $7,237,000 (option bonus, payable March 5).
Three hours after arriving at camp, Roethlisberger attended a quarterbacks meeting. He will be on the field for two practices Wednesday, one at a high school before a crowd that could reach 10,000.
"I'm excited, nervous, all the same feelings I had at minicamp," he said. "Once I get out and throw the first couple of passes, it will be a relief and I'm sure it will come back to me."
Ben Roethlisberger signs an incentive-laden six-year contract with the Steelers.(Getty Images)
Roethlisberger was the third quarterback drafted in April, behind the Giants' Eli Manning and the Chargers' Philip Rivers, but Roethlisberger's agent, Leigh Steinberg, predicted he will be the best.
"This is a franchise quarterback," Steinberg said. "I think he's a Troy Aikman, John Elway type of quarterback. He's that good."
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Roethlisberger completed 854 of 1,304 passes for 10,829 yards at Miami of the Mid-American Conference, with 84 touchdown passes and 34 interceptions.
The negotiations finally progressed when the Steelers agreed to pay Roethlisberger a larger bonus than the $8 million Houston gave cornerback Dunta Robinson, who was drafted No. 10 overall, one spot ahead of Roethlisberger.
To get a larger bonus, Roethlisberger agreed to play this season for the minimum salary of $230,000. Previously, the Steelers' largest bonus was $8.1 million to former starting quarterback Kordell Stewart in 1999.
"We felt that quarterbacks deserve a premium, and the Steelers ultimately agreed," said Steinberg, who flew to Pittsburgh on Sunday night to get the talks moving with Steelers negotiator Omar Khan and team president Art Rooney II. "A potential franchise quarterback always is a special sort of player to deal with."
Roethlisberger's base salaries will be $230,000 (2004), $305,000 (2005), $655,000 (2006), $1,026,000 (2007), $1,356,000 (2008) and $1,707,000 (2009), which is payable on March 5, 2009.
His bonuses include $250,000 for rookie of the year, $500,000 for the Pro Bowl and $4,750,000 for finishing in the top five in various QB statistical categories. His playing time bonuses increase with time played and could reach as much as $975,000 a year if the Steelers make the playoffs.
Roethlisberger was the first quarterback drafted by the Steelers in the first round since Mark Malone in 1980. He is expected to back up Tommy Maddox this season but could move into the starting job as early as 2005.
Earlier this year, Maddox signed an incentives-driven contract extension through 2007 that included a $2 million pay hike this season. Maddox will go back to making backup-type money if Roethlisberger becomes the starter.
Roethlisberger's deal leaves five NFL first-round draft picks unsigned but gives the Steelers a full complement of quarterbacks in camp, which opened Friday. Coach Bill Cowher suggested Monday that the three quarterbacks in camp might be getting too much work and he was thinking about bringing in a fourth to relieve the workload on Maddox, Charlie Batch and Brian St. Pierre.
Roethlisberger wound up missing four practices -- one Sunday, two Monday and one Tuesday.
"Every meeting, every practice is invaluable, and hopefully he'll get caught up as much as possible," Cowher said. "Obviously, he'll need to spend some extra time getting caught up on the things we've put in, because there are new things every night."
Roethlisberger plans to use some of his bonus money to aid the police and fire departments in his native Findlay, Ohio, to fund a scholarship at Miami, and to aid youth football in Pittsburgh.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
Copyright 2004, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
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By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
Cornerback Ricardo Colclough, the second-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the first player chosen from Division II Tusculum College, has reached agreement on his first NFL contract, a four-year deal worth $3.27 million.
A small-school standout with big-time cover skills, Colclough is the fourth of Pittsburgh's eight draft choices to come to contract terms. But his signing is almost as significant from a league-wide standpoint, given the ponderous pace of negotiations this year.
The 38th prospect selected overall, Colclough is the second-highest drafted player to date to reach an accord. The only higher pick with a contract in place is linebacker Jason Babin, the latter of the Houston Texans' two first-round picks and the 27th player taken overall in the draft. Colclough is just the third player in the second round, and the sixth player chosen in the first three rounds, to come to terms.
Overall, as of Sunday morning, only 44 of the 255 draftees have completed deals. And 26 of those players are in the sixth and seventh rounds.
While negotiations with first-round choices figure to remain slow, there should be a spate of signings in the middle and late rounds this week, as the opening of camps gets closer.
Colclough, 22, will receive a signing bonus of $1,892,800 and minimum base salaries of $230,000 (2004), $305,000 (2005), $385,000 (2006) and $460,000 (2007).
Despite being very raw and having performed in a small-school program, Colclough is a superior athlete and is expected to contribute quickly for the Steelers, who are shaking up their secondary after two seasons of surrendering too many big plays. He will compete for either the No. 3 or No. 4 cornerback spot, behind starters Deshea Townsend and Chad Scott, and could also be used on returns.
"He's definitely got a lot to learn, but he is going to help us this year," said Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau earlier this spring.
Colclough moved quickly up draft boards around the NFL after he demonstrated at the Senior Bowl all-star game that he could hold his own against top-level wide receivers. He was a true shut-down corner in Division II, but it was critical for him to convince scouts at the Senior Bowl that his talents projected well to the professional level.
He played two seasons at Tusculum, following a stint at Kilgore (Tex.) Junior College, and started in all 20 of his appearances. Colclough finished with 15 interceptions (11 as a senior), 106 tackles and 25 passes defensed. He also averaged 28.7 yards on 23 kickoff returns and 14.4 yards on punt runbacks and scored four touchdowns on special teams.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.-07-20-2004, 07:52 AM -
Pro Bowl Receiver Ward, Steelers Finally Agree on Deal
Veteran Reaches Terms on Four-Year Contract With Pittsburgh
By ALAN ROBINSON, AP Sports
PITTSBURGH (Sept. 5) - Wide receiver Hines Ward and the Pittsburgh Steelers reached terms Monday on a four-year contract, ending months of wrangling over a restructured deal less than a week before Sunday's opener against Tennessee.
AP
After making the Pro Bowl in each of the last four seasons, Hines Ward held out of the first two weeks of Steelers training camp.
Ward missed the first two weeks of training camp - the first veteran Steelers player to hold out so long since running back Barry Foster in 1993 - and returned only because the franchise held to its policy of not negotiating with holdout players. The Steelers traditionally do not negotiate during the season, either, which led to a busy weekend of talks between agent Eugene Parker and the Steelers.
The Steelers have not played since ending the preseason Thursday, but Ward stayed in Pittsburgh over the weekend as talks progressed, and attended the Notre Dame-Pitt game on Saturday night.
While there was speculation during his holdout he might sit out as long as three months, Ward said he found it impossible to stay away once he saw his teammates practicing and the preseason games starting. He returned to the team less than two hours before its first exhibition game Aug. 15.
"I've been telling them to get this done," Ward said. "I started my career as a Steeler and I want to end my career as a Steeler. I don't want to play anywhere else. This is a great football city. Why would you ever want to play anywhere else?"
Ward had one year left on a contract he signed in 2001 before making the Pro Bowl each of the next four seasons. He was to have made $1.67 million this season, far below what most premier NFL receivers make and a salary barely among the top 40 at his position.
Ward not only is one of the NFL's most proficient receivers - he has four of the top five receptions seasons in club history - he is widely regarded as the league's best blocking receiver.
The Steelers' league-leading rushing offense intentionally structures some plays to run to his side because of Ward's ability to take cornerbacks out of a play and create an upfield running lane once a back clears the line of scrimmage.
Ward, 29, became a skilled blocker despite also being used at quarterback and tailback at Georgia. He became a Steelers starter during his second season in 1999 and has caught at least 61 passes in every season but once since then. He averaged 95 catches over the last four seasons, including a franchise-record 112 in 2002, when he also had a career-high 12 touchdown catches.
He had 80 receptions last...-09-05-2005, 08:38 PM -
Rams | Team offers Faneca a contract
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:38:57 -0800
Ed Bouchette, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, reports the St. Louis Rams have offered a contract to unrestricted free-agent OG Alan Faneca (Steelers). Faneca is expected to make a decision Sunday, March 2.-02-29-2008, 04:30 PM -
Aug. 23, 2005
CBS SportsLine.com wire reports
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Virginia Tech has offered football coach Frank Beamer a new contract that would boost his average annual compensation from $1.3 million to more than $2 million for the next seven years.
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"The university and myself believes that coach Beamer is the one who built this program, and we absolutely want coach Beamer to be here for the very rest of his career," athletic director Jim Weaver said Monday night on the weekly Hokie Hotline radio show.
He said he hoped the deal could be completed before Virginia Tech's Sept. 4 opener at North Carolina State. The holdup is Beamer's refusal to agree to any new contract that doesn't include raises for each of his nine full-time assistant coaches.
"That's all I'm looking for," Beamer said Saturday. "I don't need all the other stuff."
Weaver said Beamer and his agent, Jimmy Sexton of Memphis, Tenn., asked him and other university officials to examine assistant coaches' salaries at other top programs and pay Beamer's aides accordingly. He said that analysis is in progress.
"I'm not sure when we'll get to the end of the line, but we're committed to getting there," Weaver said.
Beamer, 58, who is starting his 19th season as Tech's coach, signed his current contract in 2000. At the time, Beamer's salary and the combined $1.1 million being paid to his assistants ranked among the highest in the sport.
Since then, coaches' salaries have skyrocketed, with several signing deals for $2 million or more annually. Virginia's Al Groh received a new deal last week worth $1.7 million this season and more than $2 million when the contract runs out in six years.
Compared to other top programs, Tech's assistants are being paid below the norm. Seven schools in the Southeastern Conference paid their assistants an average total of $1.3 million in 2004.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
Copyright 2004-2005, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved-08-24-2005, 07:07 PM -
Feb. 14, 2005
By Scott Miller
SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Scott your opinion!
The Minnesota Twins not only avoided an arbitration hearing with Cy Young winner Johan Santana, they locked him into their rotation long-term by agreeing to a four-year deal worth in the neighborhood of $40 million, sources told SportsLine.com on Monday.
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The agreement, contingent on Santana passing a physical examination, further solidifies a Minnesota pitching staff that led the American League in ERA last season. Santana, who emerged as the staff ace, went 20-6 with a 2.61 ERA. By signing Brad Radke to a two-year deal earlier this winter, the Twins now will have their top two starters, Santana and Radke, together for at least two more seasons.
While Radke pitched as well in 2004 as he had in any of his previous seasons, manager Ron Gardenhire said, the veteran right-hander still pitched in Santana's shadow. That was difficult to avoid: Santana went 13-0 with a 1.21 ERA in 15 post-All-Star break starts. During one point in the run, Santana strung together 36 1/3 scoreless innings.
Johan Santana went 13-0 after the All-Star break last year. (Getty Images)
Consequently, Santana collected a unanimous 28 first-place votes in the Cy Young balloting.
All this and Santana, 26, will enter only his second full season in a major-league rotation. If there is any downside to his game, it is that he has a tendency at times to nibble around the strike zone. He averaged about 6 2/3 innings per start in 2004 and threw only one complete game. Gardenhire would like to seem him pitch deeper in games in '05.
"One thing I want to prove is that this is not just something that happened, this isn't lucky," Santana said in November on a conference call with reporters after becoming the first native Venezuelan to win a Cy Young award. "I have to be consistent from now on. We have to prove why we won the award.
"Next season, we have to make sure to keep the Minnesota Twins winning the division title, and going to the World Series. In order for that to happen, we have to perform better than we did this year."
Santana, who would have been eligible for free agency after the 2006 season, had asked for a raise from $1.6 million to $6.8 million and had been offered $5 million by the Twins.
In agreeing to terms, Santana and the Twins avoided a salary arbitration hearing that was scheduled for Tuesday.-02-14-2005, 11:00 AM
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