So, I reported earlier that Emmanuel Sanders was expected to sign with the Denver Broncos. You could say this came out of left field. As it turns out, Ian Rapoport is reporting that some team officials are crying foul over the way negotiations were handled by Sanders’ camp.
According to Rapoport, one unnamed team official claimed that Sanders’ agent Steve Wienberg “broke every rule in negotiations”. A team source says that Wienberg accepted a deal “in principle” with the Chiefs, but then went on to use that deal to negotiate with Tampa Bay. All the while, never telling Tampa Bay that they agreed to terms with KC.
An executive involved in the dealings was quoted to have said, “This was one of the worst situations in modern football negotiation. Adding, “[It’s] totally wrong. This needs to be stopped.”
Adding perhaps a little more drama to this situation is the fact that Sanders recently changed representation. As it turns out, the agent he switched to is his former agent’s old partner at Woy, Weinberg, & Woy. Weinberg was recently reinstated by the NFLPA after being de-certified in 2003.
While it doesn’t sound like Wienberg did anything illicit here, it’s certainly going to hurt his credibility in future dealings.
