At the beginning of every league year, NFL teams throw hundreds of millions of dollars at free agents, hoping that it'll all work out. And for every Reggie White, Charles Woodson, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Deion Sanders (in Dallas), players who added untold performance value to their respective franchises, there's a Scott Mitchell, Albert Haynesworth, David Boston, Larry Brown and Deion Sanders (in Washington, D.C.) to provide a cautionary tale.
Why do teams strike out at the bargaining table when they should ostensibly know better? Several reasons. Personnel executives will gamble too much on a small sample size (Mitchell), ignore personality quirks (Hayneswsorth, Boston), value a Super Bowl MVP award too highly (Brown) or simply fail to understand that a player doesn't fit their system (most failures).