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Westbrook on giving back $3 mil

Gotta love that Banner.

bad situation, but westbrook could have easily avoided this by, uh, not cashing the giant check that was obviously given to him in error.

"you mean you're garnishing my wages against the money i basically embezzeled from you? jerk."

In Westbrooks defense he only actually received 1.7 million but somehow has to pay back the ENTIRE 3 million dollar mistake. I can kinda see why he is pissed with this considering he is the only weapon on the team, the very short lifespan for RB's in the league and the front offices propensity for being cheap bastards.

The process of getting the extra cash back from state, fed, and local taxes is going to be a while. So I can understand why he's upset, especially since both sides are close to figuring out how to make this work.

Guess the Birds feel like they're "making his life easier", even if they're trying to have their cake and eat it, too.

I don't understand this whole story...really don't.

First and formost, who's responsibility is it to get the tax witholdings back from the goverment. Maybe I'm simplifying it, but couldn't Westbrook cut a check back to the Eagles for $1.7 million and have them chase the taxes on it from the IRS or is that an over-simplification?

The King of Crisco Foreheads said on his show yesterday that the Eagles and Westbrook came to some kind of agreement on resolving this matter and it was approved by the NFL, but at the last minute Westbrook refused to sign and left everything in limbo.

If I had to guess, the Eagles probably aren't allowed to pay him right now because from the NFL's perspective, this is as likely to be an under the table bonus meant to circumvent the cap as it is a "bank error in your favor: please collect $3 million".

Still, another example of the "Gold Standard" showing what they really are..."above average standard" and "close but no cigar standard". They might be the first team to have ever screwed up so badly with this. They are one of about 3 teams ever to be forced to deactivate a player they couldn't manage. They are constantly complaining about players who leave in free agency "not giving them an opportunity to match" instead of getting off their asses and making an offer without pure fear setting in that they might pay a penny higher than the market would bear out.

Let's face it...when it's all said and done you can break down this Reid era (at least to date) to 3 critical decisions: Drafting McNabb, drafting Westbrook, Signing Runyan.

All of their success is tied to those 3 guys OR the impact players/starters that they inherited (Tra, Dawk, Trot, Troy, Dawk, Duce, Bobby Taylor, etc.).

In Westbrooks defense he only actually received 1.7 million but somehow has to pay back the ENTIRE 3 million dollar mistake.

please explain that.

and the fact that he is the eagles only weapon or whatever seems pretty irrelevant to this situation.

The IRS took $1.3 million, I'm guessing.

bad situation, but westbrook could have easily avoided this by, uh, not cashing the giant check that was obviously given to him in error.

Now this reminds me of the Sanford and Son episode where Grady receives an extra Social Security check by mistake.

please explain that.

Taxes ate up a lot of it, but getting the taxes back will take time. He's still responsible for the repayment of the whole amount, and it looks like he'll have to fork it over before the taxes rework themselves back. If they ever do.

They are constantly complaining about players who leave in free agency "not giving them an opportunity to match" instead of getting off their asses and making an offer without pure fear setting in that they might pay a penny higher than the market would bear out.

Or they just try to discredit the guy entirely. Imagine how LJ's feeling right now...

That's my q, FD - is Westbrook responsible for chasing the money down (since he couldn't have cashed the whole amount, obviously), or are the Birds, since they cut the check in the first place?

And has the league basically said "Don't pay him until you come to an agreement", and shouldn't Westy's issue be with the league instead of the Eagles?

In Westbrooks defense he only actually received 1.7 million but somehow has to pay back the ENTIRE 3 million dollar mistake.

guess i still don't his how this is in "westbrook's defense". if my employer accidentally cut me a check for $2000, which is $1200 after taxes, why would i expect to only have to pay them back $1200?

the bottom line is, there is no way that westbrook or his people didnt know that this money wasnt theirs, and they chose to take it and invest in anyway. they have to deal with the consequences.

I'd be willing to bet the entire paycheck that Westbrook never cashed anything. I hear a lot of people talk about this as though Westbrook received a publisher's clearing house check for $3 million, twirled his mustache, and walked it over to the county bank to fill out a 5' by 3 ' cardboard deposit slip.

His pay gets deposited in an account each week and I'd be shocked if he checks that account. I'd also be shocked if that account doesn't automatically disperse funds into investment accounts immediately. I wouldn't be surprised if $1.7 spread over a few investment accounts didn't raise any eyebrows with Westbrook or his people.

There's also a chance he noticed the deposit in his account right away and basically said "Okay...I'm going to put this in an extremely low risk interest-bearing account and not touch it until they ask for it back. it's their mistake and I'm not going to spend it, but I might as well take advantage of it for a few months".

In that case, he probably figured it was no-harm no-foul and made 5 figures in interest, but when the Eagles came calling they didn't ask for the $1.7 million...they asked for the $3 million (which he probably wasn't expecting).

All of those are plausible scenarios, IMO.

Let's face it...when it's all said and done you can break down this Reid era (at least to date) to 3 critical decisions: Drafting McNabb, drafting Westbrook, Signing Runyan.

i might add andrews to this list.

You're telling me he didn't get the check and go to a cash-checking place on Broad? Homer.

if my employer accidentally cut me a check for $2000, which is $1200 after taxes, why would i expect to only have to pay them back $1200?

Because the check would only read $1200

guess i still don't his how this is in "westbrook's defense". if my employer accidentally cut me a check for $2000, which is $1200 after taxes, why would i expect to only have to pay them back $1200?

the bottom line is, there is no way that westbrook or his people didnt know that this money wasnt theirs, and they chose to take it and invest in anyway. they have to deal with the consequences.

Possibly.

The main issue here has to be the IRS. Whether Westbrook alerted them to the mistake immediately or the Eagles found it later on, the taxes were already gone and Westbrook never received $3 million.

Any chance a billion corporation (Eagles) and their army of bean counters could work out a deal with the IRS here on Westbrook's behalf?

The whole thing is a bit of a joke. As Ted Danson would say:

"This isn't a gift...it's an inconvenience"

One stop shopping, KB. Carton of butts, couple 40's, and a few scratch off lottery tickets to boot.

f-d, i guess i just don't see how your scenarios absolve westbrook.

in the first, i don't know what westbrooks base salary is, but 1.7 mil after taxes is a lot of money and i can't believe it went unnoticed, even if directly deposited. if that's the case, i could see him being pissed about the taxes, i just think its highly unlikely.

your second scenario really baffles me: its ok to knowingly take millions of dollars that isnt yours (as long as you invest in a low risk mutual fund, of course) and then cry foul when you are called to pay it and the taxes back?

i'm starting to see the taxes issue now.

basically, even if he was totally honest from the beginning, he'd be getting screwed on that.

its the taking it in the first place i still have a problem with.

Flesh, he never had the opportunity to "take it" or refuse it.

The check was deposited into his account minus taxes. From that moment forward, those taxes were in the hands of the IRS.

Whenever he realized the error (5 minutes or 5 years later) those taxes were gone.

The Eagles give him a call with a "my bad" and request he repay the $1.7 they overpaid him AND the $1.3 million they gave the goverment. Money he never saw. Money that could take years to get back. Money that could cost him tens of thousands of dollars to recover, not the mention the $1.3 million of his own money he has to pay out of pocket to the Eagles while he waits to get the money back the IRS.

Between the lost interest on the $1.3 million out of pocket and all the money he will have to pay attorneys and accountants to work on his behalf with the IRS, this is an extremely, extremely expensive problem the Eagles dropped in his lap.

Your assuming the money just went right into his account automatically, right?

Yeah. If that's not he case, the scenario gets more complicated.

I just can't believe someone drops a $1.7 million payroll check in Westbrook's locker Friday afternoon and he swings by the bank to deposit it, so I'm assukming it's directly deposited into one or several accounts.

Flesh,

My point is we as regular joes get cut a check and are treating this like a normal pay situation. I am not defending Westbrook for taking the money, it appears to be a honest mistake. We don't know if came as one bulk 1.7 million payment in a single account or what happened. A lot of details are sketchy. What we do know is that there was a 3 million dollar error on the Eagles and part and because of it Westbrook and his people have to go chasing it down and make heads or tails with taxes etc. Have you ever had to deal with the goverment on a tax issue? I can assure its not something that gets worked out over night. But in the meantime Westbrook has to get his checked garnished or completely held while everyone tries to figure out what to do. So in that insist I can understand him being pissed off. He underappreciated, underpaid and this whole fiasco adds to it. Is it fair? No. But try to see it from his side.

I just can't believe someone drops a $1.7 million payroll check in Westbrook's locker Friday afternoon and he swings by the bank to deposit...

I'm not sure why that absurd scenario is the only other possibility.

There's a very good chance he has a money manager or agent that receives these checks for him, then invests for him. Especially in the case of a bonus check.

If someone saw that it happened right away, the Eagles could have cancelled the check.

I don't know, I think there are 100 possibilities out there. Not saying he's a bad person or anything, but I do find it hard to believe it was deposited like that without him knowing. Doesn't he look at pay stubs or bank statements or anything? Just weird

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