Happiness, Bags and Free Agency? 🤷‍♀️

I can’t remember who said this, but I saw it on Twitter and wish I could give the original author their credit:

You are the bag. Secure yourself.

It might’ve been Cardi B. Can’t remember.

If there were ever a more appropriate motto to describe the free agency world in sports… sheesh. This post is probably a month too late, but it’s been heavy on my mind lately and provided some much needed clarity for myself.

We are all in pursuit of happiness and that word holds a lot of weight.

The most basic description of “happiness” is a sense of well-being, joy or contentment.

Happiness is defined in different ways by many different people. For some, it’s about how much money they can earn in a lifetime, for others it’s reaching a certain status in their company by a certain age, for some it’s being able to do what they want when they want and for others it’s simply finding two red starbursts in a row. I think the measure for happiness definitely changes with age and changes in life stages, but the point still remains that it’s unique to each individual.

During free agency in sports, whether NBA, NFL or MLB, there’s always a lot of chatter around who can get the most money for their position from whichever team is willing to pay. For some talking heads, their advice to players is to get as much money as possible as quickly as they can and that may be the mindset at a young age, not knowing what the future holds, but it certainly might not be the case for veterans in the game who have seen it all and done it all.

Two high-profile examples this off season were Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, both in two different circumstances, but both whom took their careers into their own hands… whether we liked how they handled it or not doesn’t really matter. Bell essentially walked away from $14.54 million dollars last year by sitting out for a season and not earning the one-year franchise tag. He accepted that he would have no earnings for that year with the rationale that he would make more in free agency in 2019. He felt he was worth more than what he was being offered. He passed on a deal from his team and took what turned out to be a lower deal in totality in free agency, but with significantly more guaranteed money immediately. While his motives have been questioned ad nauseam, people are failing to understand that instead of the $10 million guaranteed he walked away from, he walked into a situation that guarantees him $25 million immediately. By my calculations, I’d say that’s a win. It’s more of a win because he is happy with it. And that’s all that matters.

That’s all that matters for all of us.

For some, money is the key — or one of the keys — to their happiness, and that’s okay too. Athletes dedicate their entire lives to their sport, putting their bodies through physical, mental and emotional pain for years beyond their playing careers. They train year-round to compete and entertain the masses and when they move in ways to collect a salary that they feel they deserve, they’re often told that they are asking for too much. The truth is, it’s fine to know your worth and demand that others recognize it as well. It’s also fine to walk away from situations when your worth is undervalued.

In sports, loyalty among players is stressed — you should remain loyal to the team that pays you. You should be grateful for the position that you are in (and trust me, they are) and because you are making millions of dollars playing this game, there should be absolutely nothing that you should be unhappy about.

In reality, the only person you should remain loyal to is yourself.

You can be grateful, but not naive and at the end of the day, you are still a human being with real human issues.

Your family isn’t immune to financial and health issues. Your children don’t miss you less because you’re a millionaire. Your relationships don’t suffer less because you have more money in the bank. Even us folks with “regular” jobs are presented with these same irrational expectations when it comes to our careers — be loyal, be grateful for what you have and where you are. Put your head down, work hard and do what’s best for the good of the organization.

Do you ever question what’s best for the good of you?

Do you prioritize what gives you peace of mind? Do you demand what you want and need from people and things that demand your time and talent in return? Are you taking control of your career — and life- and operating in a way that serves you? Are you willing to get up from the table when love is no longer being served?

Your (and my) happiness should be priority and sometimes that means making moves that people might not agree with. Sometimes it means walking away from familiarity and everything you know to explore whether the happiness you seek is elsewhere and sometimes it means making a decision to no longer compromise your own happiness for the sake of someone else’s.

When others see “greedy” athletes or people “chasing a bag,” I see people who know what they want in life and understand their worth. I see courageous people who won’t let anyone else define what happiness, or the bag, means for them.

Which leads me to another point… mind your own bags.