Yesterday, the San Diego Chargers publicly disparaged third overall pick and rookie holdout Joey Bosa. They did so via an official statement that made public some of the details of their contract negotiations with Bosa, announced that the team was officially pulling its latest offer off the table, and painted Bosa as a spoiled brat who doesn’t know a good deal when he sees one.
After the Chargers released their statement, Bosa’s agent responded:
It is unfortunate the San Diego Chargers have decided to manipulate facts and negotiate in the media. The team surely is not strengthening its relationship with Joey Bosa by taking this stance and making their position public.
We have decided that we will not engage in public negotiations or discuss numbers and/or terms in this negotiation.
We will say, that it is ironic that the team now takes issue with the timing of Joey’s arrival, since the Chargers unilaterally decided to remain silent for the first 14 days of training camp instead of replying in a timely fashion to the proposal we made on the eve of training camp on July 28th.
At this point, all we can do is continue to fight for a fair contract on behalf of our client, as we do for all of our clients. The Chargers can focus on trying to sway public opinion, but our focus will remain on our client and securing a contract for him that is fair and consistent with his draft position.
If you’re still wondering who the irrational actor in this standoff is, consider that one side is making professional public statements while the other is releasing snippy press releases and getting on the phone to screech at the local management-friendly columnist, all because someone has the temerity to not do what they want, immediately.