[sportscurmudgeon]

These "ten year deals" are simply ways to stroke the egos of the players and to give agents something to use to get new players to sign up with them.

The vast majority of long term NFL deals with huge balloon payments in the last two years are not honored. The player becomes a "cap casualty" - - and it happens way more often than not.

It isn't a matter of honoring the contract because the "ten year contract" is in reality a sequence of ten "one year contracts". The reality is that players love the ego boost they get when it is announced that Joe Flabeetz signed an 8-year deal worth $100M. But if he is going to get $20M in year 7 and $25M in year 8, he will probably never see a dime of that money. but it sounds better than a 6 year deal worth $55M.

Agents love these kind of "balloon deals" too because it allows them to turn to other players and say, "I can get you a nine-figure contract..."

Teams don't mind because they know from the start that they aren't going to pony up all of that money unless they REALLY want to in the final years.