San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh says cornerback Tarell Brown should be awarded the $2 million in bonus money he was deemed to have forfeited last week by failing to participate in the team’s voluntary offseason workout program.
Brown quickly moved to fire his agent once the mix-up came to light and is hoping to soon have a forum with management in hopes of recouping at least a portion of the money.
The structure of Brown’s contract stipulated that he would be paid the additional sum in the final year of his deal if he participated in the team’s Santa Clara, Calif. based workouts. However, after Brown opted to work out at his Texas home this summer instead team officials moved to return his salary to its original base of $925,000.
“Just think there’s a solution there,” Harbaugh told reporters. “I don’t know that it’s any one particular thing, but you explore all those options and find the solution. It’s there, we just got to do some work and get it done. We’re motivated to do that because he deserves it, he’s earned it. I don’t want to see him playing for the minimum when he’s a starting, top-line player.”
Harbaugh added that Brown has remained professional throughout the entire ordeal. He also made it a point to make it known that the organization was unaware of the consequences of Brown missing team workouts and would have let him know that he was going to lose money.
A 2007 fifth-round draft pick out of the University of Texas, Brown signed a three-year extension with the Niners in 2009 that also asserted he was to receive a $75,000 workout bonus, but that too has now vanished.
Though Brown skipped the voluntary portion of the workout program, he did participate in the 49ers' mandatory minicamp in June. "For me, I wanted to do a different type of training to get my body ready," he told reporters. "Last year, I feel my body broke down a bit at the end of the season."
© Thomson Reuters. All Rights Reserved
