The contract that Seahawks running back Eddie Lacy signed with the Seahawks contains a clause that pays him $55,000 for complying with each of seven different weight targets. Lacy initially saw it as a challenge. He now sees it as a mistake.
His regret comes from the fact that the results of his initial successful weigh-ins became public, even though he thought the information would remain private. (His agents tweeted that Lacy had passed the first and second weight tests.)
“I hate that it has to be public,” Lacy told Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN The Magazine. “Because it’s like, if you don’t make it, what happens? Clearly you don’t get the money, but whatever. I don’t really care about that. It’s just more the negative things that are going to come.”
The problem for Lacy is that, each time his weight is mentioned (positively or negatively), social media responds with insults and memes and photoshopped images.
“It sucks,” Lacy said. “It definitely sent me into a funk. I wish I could understand what they get out of it.”
As a result, Lacy became indifferent about the $55,000 rewards for making weight.
“You just can’t shake it,” Lacy said. “And no matter what, you can’t say nothing back to them. You just have to read it, get mad or however it makes you feel, and move on. I could be 225 and they’d still be like, ‘You’re still a fat piece of sh-t.”
Lacy’s discomfort with the topic being raised explains why everyone was so tight lipped regarding whether he made weight in August and why his September date with the scale hasn’t even been mentioned. While it’s too late to remove the clause from his contract, other teams, players, and agents should remember Lacy’s experience and think twice about using weight clauses as an incentive to get a guy to do something he already knows he needs to do.
His regret comes from the fact that the results of his initial successful weigh-ins became public, even though he thought the information would remain private. (His agents tweeted that Lacy had passed the first and second weight tests.)
“I hate that it has to be public,” Lacy told Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN The Magazine. “Because it’s like, if you don’t make it, what happens? Clearly you don’t get the money, but whatever. I don’t really care about that. It’s just more the negative things that are going to come.”
The problem for Lacy is that, each time his weight is mentioned (positively or negatively), social media responds with insults and memes and photoshopped images.
“It sucks,” Lacy said. “It definitely sent me into a funk. I wish I could understand what they get out of it.”
As a result, Lacy became indifferent about the $55,000 rewards for making weight.
“You just can’t shake it,” Lacy said. “And no matter what, you can’t say nothing back to them. You just have to read it, get mad or however it makes you feel, and move on. I could be 225 and they’d still be like, ‘You’re still a fat piece of sh-t.”
Lacy’s discomfort with the topic being raised explains why everyone was so tight lipped regarding whether he made weight in August and why his September date with the scale hasn’t even been mentioned. While it’s too late to remove the clause from his contract, other teams, players, and agents should remember Lacy’s experience and think twice about using weight clauses as an incentive to get a guy to do something he already knows he needs to do.