LOVERRO: Everyone’s got a Jimbo Fisher bad contract story

Will Nov. 12 now forever be known as Jimbo Fisher Day?

That’s the day that Texas A&M fired Fisher as their football coach, despite still owing him $77 million on his contract.

“After very careful analysis of all the components related to Texas A&M football, I recommended to President (Mark) Welsh and then Chancellor (John) Sharp that a change in the leadership of the program was necessary in order for Aggie football to reach our full potential and they accepted my decision,” Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said in a statement. “We appreciate Coach Fisher’s time here at Texas A&M and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Good luck, Jimbo. Don’t spend the $77 million in one place.

For starters, let’s dispense with the “Jimbo” name. His real name is John. Anyone who can weasel that amount of money out of a purported institution of higher learning should now be known by his proper name.

I hope John Fisher Day doesn’t supplant July 1 — Bobby Bonilla Day — as a celebration of the worst contract in the history of sports. I like Bobby — he was my favorite ballplayer to cover — and Bobby Bonilla Day is sort of like his eternal flame.

But, let’s face it, Bonilla’s contract, while uniquely special and deserving of recognition — a $6 million deal with the New York Mets that turned into a $30 million deal in deferred money that has paid him $1.2 million annually every July 1 since 2011 and will do so every year until 2035 — is dwarfed by Fisher’s warped contract, especially since it comes from a college and not professional baseball team.

According to The Athletic, the school doesn’t have to pay Fisher all at once, so there’s that. After hiring him in 2017 with a $75 million contract, Texas A&M extended him two years ago to $95 million — all of it guaranteed.

And when I say guaranteed, I mean guaranteed. There is no offset language in the contract, according to The Athletic, which means if Fisher gets another job, his new salary will not offset what Texas A&M owes him — language that it almost universal in such deals. It is not clear where that money will come from. According to the Texas Tribune, A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork says the school’s 12th Man Foundation will pay some of what’s owed and the rest will come from athletic department funds. But The Athletic reported the school — which is a state university, supported by taxpayers — would have to put up the money, not A&M boosters.

Lesson one: always negotiate your exit before your entrance.

Behind every good (or bad, if you are the payee) contract, there is a good agent. Fisher’s was Jimmy Sexton, who represents 11 of the 14 coaches in the SEC and seven NFL coaches. Wonder if any of them have such a sweetheart deal.

Stephen Strasburg’s agent was Scott Boras.

Washington baseball fans probably need to set aside a week, maybe even a whole month, to commemorate the contract Boras squeezed out of the Nationals — a single day would hardly do it justice. Stephen Strasburg Month would be a time for fans to reflect on possibly the worst contract ever agreed to by a team. The Nationals gave Strasburg a seven-year $245 million contract extension in December 2019. Since then, with Strasburg battling injuries that will likely keep him from ever pitching again, the Nationals have eight appearances and 32 innings to show for their investment. 

There’s no need for offset language for a Major League Baseball player. They get it all, although there is an ongoing dispute with the baseball team over Strasburg’s retirement and the money due.

“The medical doctors and the team were all fully aware that his nerve injury has registered him with an inability to throw at the major league level,” Boras said at the recent baseball general managers meeting.

Boras knows the deal very well and the implications of it for the Nationals. He negotiated it with late Washington owner Ted Lerner, bypassing the front office, which is Boras’ modus operandi.

No college president to blame for this one — just another baseball owner played by Boras.

That contract is as bad as it gets.

Washington has a long list of bad contracts across the board — from the football team (Alex Smith’s $94 million contract extension with $71 million guaranteed in 2018 and, of course, Albert Haynesworth’s $100 million deal with $41 million guaranteed in 2009), the Capitals (Jaromir Jagr, seven years, $77 million in 2001), the Wizards (take your pick — John Wall’s four-year, $171 million contract extension in 2017 or Bradley Beal’s five-year, $251 million contract extension in 2022, which Bleacher Report named the worst contract in the NBA). Instead of offset language, the NBA has a system where it seems you can pawn off your bad contract on someone dumber than you.

Everyone’s got a Fisher story — probably enough to fill a 365-day-a-year calendar. Every general manager in sports should have one on their desk.

• You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.