ESPN Cribbs Article

[ClevelandRocks]

D'Arcy Maine [ARCHIVE]

ESPN Mobile

January 13, 2010

Comment on this story

Follow D'Arcy Maine on Twitter

I hate hearing athletes complain about how much they make.

As a person who makes roughly four cents an hour after taxes, rent and paying off college loans, I have a hard time listening to athletes whine about multi-million dollar offers.

So when I heard Joshua Cribbs felt "insulted" by the Browns $1.4 million offer, I felt, well, insulted. And kind of sick. After being told I would be interviewing him on Monday, I spent a significant amount of time on urbandictionary.com looking up alternate ways to say "cry me a river". I had no intention of feeling empathy towards him. Or, gasp, actually agreeing with his contract demands.

That being said, I hope Mike Holmgren is reading this. Because Joshua Cribbs deserves a better contract.

I met with Cribbs and his publicist LaTonya Story on Monday in Bristol. He was candid and honest and his hurt feelings were more visible than his flashy three-piece suit, which he assured me he got at a discount.

"I want to stay in Cleveland," he said with conviction. "But I've given in on every other occasion. I have to stand my ground this time. I know what I'm worth."

Cribbs is entering his fourth year of a six-year, $6.77 million deal. My calculator tells me that's about $900,000 per season. The Browns recently offered to up that deal to $1.4 million a season.

And while, a half-million dollar increase is significant, Cribbs, as he pointed out, is the heart and soul of the Cleveland Browns. Despite an ongoing quarterback drama and lingering questions regarding the coaching staff, Cribbs has been the team's top performer and the fan favorite.

"I'm everyone's backup", he said. "I can do it all. You can't just bring in a guy who can do this or do that like I can. I can be plugged in at so many positions."

To put this in some perspective, Derek Anderson, the team's second-string QB, is due to make $7.45 million in 2010 if the team should retain him. It's hard to comprehend that Anderson is worth six million dollars more than Cribbs to the team.

All Cribbs does is return kicks, punts, quarterbacks out of the WildDawg formation and is used as a running back and receiver by the Browns. Did I mention he is also the NFL's all-time leader with 8 kickoff returns for touchdowns. And he's only 26.

Cribbs has been public with his anger and is unapologetic for being so direct with his feelings. He has taken to his twitter account to ensure that his fans were hearing everything straight from him.

"The fans have a right to know how I'm being treated," he explained. "I don't see it as whining. I just want people to know what's going on."

As fans, we tend to believe that NFL players are the toughest of the tough. And on the field that might be true. But talking to Cribbs made me realize that it's not as much about the money as it about his self-worth. He knows he's a talented football player but he needs the validation from the organization to truly believe it.

While it might sound on the surface level as if the Pro Bowl kick returner was unappreciative of being able to play football for a living, this couldn't be further from the truth. Cribbs explained that he would have been happy just to be on the practice squad. But because - and only because- he has been producing at such a high level, he deserves adequate compensation.

If you sell cars for a living and you sell 10 more cars a month than the next guy, it's a pretty safe assumption that you will make more than him. So why isn't that true for Cribbs? Ninety-nine people out of 100 would take Cribbs over Anderson on their team. Maybe even at QB.

Cribbs is willing to sit out next season if the Browns don't up their offer or trade him. This may sound selfish but he understands the NFL as a business and knows the Browns will not let that happen.

Inspired by Cribbs' confidence and conviction, I decided to ask him and his publicist just how I should go about getting a new contract. The aforementioned four cents an hour just isn't cutting it these days.

While I was being partially-facetious, Cribbs gave me the benefit of the doubt. And some pretty great advice.

"You have to have faith in yourself first and foremost," he shared. "You have to know your worth and know your value. You need to make sure that whoever you're working for knows that too."

Unfortunately I stopped taking notes at this time because I was too pumped up about getting a new contract. So I can't tell you word-for-word what other insight he shared but know that by the end I not only knew Cribbs value but was convinced of my own as well.

So naturally I asked Cribbs and Story to come with me to barge into my boss' office with my new contract demands. They seemed fairly amused by my newfound confidence and agreed to come.

But, of course, my boss' door was closed. And I soon realized that if I didn't have the nerve to knock on his door with a professional football player behind me, I probably didn't have the nerve to ask for a new contract either. Cribbs went on to appear on First Take. I returned to my cubicle.

[Gips]

Cribbs is worth a minimal of 2.5 mil and getting rid of DA before march would cover the cap to pay cribbs 3 mil for 3 years and i dont think anyone could honestly think DA is even remotely worth his roster bonus let alone his 7 mil last year payout dam i hope holmgren fixes savages broken contract model soon..

[Dave]

Gips, while we're hoping, i hope you start to use a period and a comma. (and I'm the guy who hates seeing people critique grammar on message boards but damn, your stuff is hard to read sometimes)

[kvozel]

Cribbs has a contract. Live up to it. Get over it. The more this goes on the more I wish he sits out for the next 3 years. Sure we are out a great return specialist (and f you, that's all he is ! ! ! !), but by the time he realizes it is time to take responsibility, he's done.