The financial rationale for not solving the standoff between Chargers management and top draftee Joey Bosa took a big hit in recent days when both sides compromised on what each claimed was the one large sticking point: time frame on payments of Bosa's signing bonus.
The NFL labor pact, which spells out compensation of high-end draftees, mandates that Bosa's bonus will be $17 million. Also preset are guaranteed salaries that will raise the contract's value to $25.8 million.
The quibbling is over how much of Bosa's bonus is paid before January 1.
It took several weeks, but the gap was whittled down to a sum whose impact, objectively, shouldn't be a deal-breaker.
Team Spanos, finally going to near where the NFL industry, by and large, has gone in comparable negotiations, offered Tuesday to pay 85 percent of the bonus (about $14.5 million) in this calendar year, rather than the 60 percent set forth earlier.
Bosa would get the remaining $2.5 million in March.
Bosa's side, playing ball as well, sliced its request for 100 percent payment this calendar year to a portion above 85 percent.
How far Bosa's side budged, I don't know, but let me assume a 10 percent drop.
So a big chunk of the dispute is this: will about $850,000 of the bonus go to Bosa in December or March?
To say this amounts to a peanut-sized issue is to mistake peas for peanuts.
And yet, the standoff gobbled up two more days and counting.
Bosa's side, per Pro Football Talk, noted that some other players have received all of their bonus by now. So, perhaps one other micro-area of dispute is when Bosa, over the next four months, would get a chunk of the money earmarked for this year.
Again, the payoff is tiny.
While we're way out on the margins, straining to obsess over present-day-value-of-money rewards that are minute next to the overall stakes, take a look at the other side of the ledger. The longer Bosa is unsigned, the less short-term money he stands to make in additional endorsements. And waiting could imperil the gains Team Bosa made in recent talks.
Also negotiable in rookie deals is offset language. In this case, it's not an area of continued contention.
Bosa's agent, Brian Ayrault, has been resolved to concede offset language for months as long as the bonus payout was sweetened to his satisfaction.
When a contractual stalemate ceases to make sense, questions arise.
Here's one that NFL personnel have raised in recent hours:
Did Bosa sustain an injury in recent weeks or months? Was there some sort of physical setback?
While it's true Bosa is guaranteed about $26 million if terms are reached, there is one catch.
He would have to pass a physical exam, per NFL policy. He's avid about fitness, say teammates such as Josh Perry, a former teammate at Ohio State.
At any rate, when Bosa's camp vetoed the offer, which carried a deadline, it knowingly postponed the rookie's return to the team.
Instead of rejoining the Chargers on Thursday, Bosa remained elsewhere, presumably near his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
The standoff continues. It's the longest involving any draftee under the NFL's current collective bargaining agreement, which went into effect in 2011-12.
Bosa's supporters, notably his mother and agent, have implied disapproval over how the Chargers have conducted business.
Team Spanos waited two weeks into training camp to respond to a proposal when a courtesy phone call couldn't have hurt. After talks blew up Wednesday, the team went on the attack. John Spanos called Team Bosa's contractual stance "asinine," a needlessly inflammatory comment. The Chargers, looking to control the message, issued a statement with details of the negotiations. In the NFL, that almost never happens. Touting one aspect of its offer to Bosa, the team statement applied more spin than on a Philip Rivers spiral.
Spanoses gonna Spanos.
The fact remains: the offer from the Chargers deferred all but a tiny fraction of the amount Team Bosa wanted deferred. Accepting would've allowed Bosa _ whose football tape confirms a rare passion for the sport _ to take part in some preparations for Sunday's exhibition (which he could've attended) and get ready for the final exhibition.
He would've been on track, if in good health, to earn playing time as Dareus Philon's backup in the season opener, Sept. 11 at Kansas City.
Seemingly, there's a missing piece to this puzzle.
