Jason Taylor was cut by the Redskins this week because he refused to agree to the team’s offseason workout clause. The clause would’ve required Taylor to attend 75% of the team’s workouts from mid-March through May. In return, Taylor would receive a $500,000 bonus. Taylor presumably refused this because attending the workouts in Ashburn, VA would’ve meant time away from his family in Florida.
↵↵In a post on his blog titled “JT Hates Money,” Redskins tight end Chris Cooley breaks down the madness of Taylor’s decision: ↵
↵↵⇥For JT to reach his 75 percent requirement of the deal, he would have had to be hear [sic] for 39 days. Had he arrived and worked for the 39 days he would have been compensated $12,820 per day. That is unreal to me! Most people pay their own money to go to the gym, but almost 13 thousand dollars a day is a pretty good membership in the other direction. Again, I will not judge this decision and I have no idea what his bank account could possibly be, but that's a [crap] ton of money. As for my end of the off season, I will be required to make 42 days to reach my bonus. I again would receive a check grossing $100,000. This would pay me $2300 per workout. Still pretty awesome and enough to get me into the gym. ↵↵Obviously, Cooley has a point: That’s an absurd amount of money to turn down just to lift some weights a few times a week (not to mention the $8 mil salary he lost out on by not agreed to the clause). But there are two other factors to consider: ↵
↵1) 39 days away from the family during the offseason -- those few precious months that athletes actually get to spend with the wife and kids -- is a lot to ask, I’d imagine. Of course, I’m a blogger with no family of my own, so maybe that’s not the case. Vinny Cerrato pointed out that Clinton Portis has no problem reaching his 75% quota, and he lives in Florida as well. But Portis is also a single man. ↵
↵↵2) Maybe Jason Taylor just didn’t want to be a Redskin and this was his out clause. ↵
↵↵Either way, as Redskins fan, I’m not one bit sad to see Taylor go and the team keep its $8 million-plus. Although I certainly would like to have back those two draft picks the Skins traded to Miami for Taylor’s half-season of sub-par performance. ↵
↵This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.