Tackled for a Loss: Trade reviews

[Philadelphia Freedom]

Dateline: 4/10/02
by Linus Scrimmage

Predators GM Mike SantaLucia confirmed this morning his team’s involvement in engineering what has to be considered the biggest "trade" in Feeding Frenzy history last night. "We're a better team, our WR depth is improved, granted we gave up the leagues top WR, but doing so improved our depth at RB and WR when all was said and done," said SantaLucia.

The five teams involved were the Predators, the Dodgers, the Wyverns, the Freedom and the Opihi. There were 6 RB’s that changed team (five were 2001 NFL rookies), 3 WR’s and one defense. The players involved included:

Dominic Rhodes, Kevan Barlow, LaDanian Tomlinson, Michael Pittman, Michael Bennett, Travis Henry, Mushin Muhummad, Marty Booker, Marvin Harrison and the Pittsburgh Defense (not really a player),

Also, included were the following 2002 picks (for a revised draft pick listing for 2002 please see the separate Draft topic):

1.04, 1.05, 1.06, 1.10, 1.11, 2.10, 2.11, and 3.06

As you might imagine the biggest changes will be seen on the Predator’s roster. When the smoke cleared they had added Marty Booker, Mushin Muhammad, Michael Bennett, Kevan Barlow, LaDanian Tomlinson, Pittsburgh defense and picks 1.05 and 3.06 in the 2002 draft.

The Dodgers came away with Dominic Rhodes and pick 2.10. Rhodes seemed happy with the move and indicated that he would be happy to leave his live-in girlfriend behind. When question by a local female reporter about this he said, “Do I have to beat you like I beat her? Whoops, that was out loud, can I have that please.”

The Wyvern’s got Marvin Harrison and pick 2.11. SantaLucia, had the following to say about Harrison, "I know the fans may be unhappy to see a guy like Marvin moved without ever playing a game as Predator, however we felt with the acquisition of WR Jimmy Smith, Marvin and his huge contract were expendable, especially after acquiring Marty and Muhsin."

The Freedom added picks 1.6 and 1.10. SantaLucia’s take on this portion of the deal, "Yes we gave up a lot to acquire pick 1.4 and the Steelers D, however it was a necessity in our opinion to seal the deal with the Opihi for LaDainian. LT's coming off a solid rookie season and we look forward to teaming him with Corey in our backfield. The Steelers D is only looking stronger and at only $110 cyberbucks, their value is understated."

The Opihi got Travis Henry, Michael Pittman and pick 1.04. Jim White, owner of the Opihi was quoted as saying, “Although we felt it was a very fair deal for both sides... the Opihi struggled with having the best runner from the class of 2001 leave the islands. However, the cap relief and acquisition of 1 potential solid RBs for the future (especially with Henry's 3 contract years) pushed us over to make the deal.
In a related note, the owner said that there's no truth to the rumor that Henry is excited about the hula girls down in Waikiki. White has also agreed to find a residence for Mr. Henry clear of any high schools on the island, too!

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In a separate deal, the Freedom have sent QB Chad Pennington to the Dodgers for a conditional 3rd round pick in the 2003 draft. If Pennington is a top 10 QB in 2002 the Freedom will receive a 1st round pick, if he is a top 20 QB the Freedom will get a second rounder and if he falls outside of the top 20 it will remain a third rounder.

Freedom owner, Matt Marshall said, “This deal was inspired by the numerous conditional pick deals orchestrated in the NFL this off-season and maximizes both team’s rewards while minimizing the risks involved. We felt like this was an innovative way for us to create contract space this year and hopefully improve through next year’s draft. We like Chad but with the recent resigning of Kordell Stewart and our inability to put Chad on the developmental squad we really did not have a place for him. However, if he develops and becomes a star in 2002 then we feel that we will receive adequate compensation in return. You can bet we will be rooting for him in 2002.”