Jefferson's contract talk conjures memories of Anthony Carter's legendary opener
Jefferson's contract talk conjures memories of Anthony Carter's legendary opener
In the late 80s, Carter sent a message to the team about his contract with a huge performance to start the year. Will JJ do the same?
By Matthew Coller and Collin Giuliani
Follow Collin’s terrific NFL history YouTube channel here
On Saturday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Jefferson would not be coming to a long-term contract extension before the start of the season. While that does set up for a potential contentious summer next year, for now things have been calm. In his last media session before the start of the season, the superstar receiver mostly left things to his agent and the team rather than campaigning for a new deal.
“Of course I would want a contract to be done,” Jefferson said. “But at the end of the day, it is all up to them and what the ownership want to do with that.”
Jefferson missed OTAs but participated in every practice throughout training camp and appears to be heading into the season with a business as usual approach.
Back in 1989 another Vikings Pro Bowl receiver took a different tact.
Prior to the ‘89 opener, Anthony Carter told the media that he was not going to play hard if they didn’t sign him to a new deal. Then he absolutely went off.
A little background: Carter is one of the greatest receivers in the history of the Minnesota Vikings franchise. He racked up 478 receptions and 7,636 receiving yards to go along with 52 receiving touchdowns over his nine years as a Viking. He ranks third in franchise history in receiving yards, only behind two Hall of Famers in Cris Carter and Randy Moss, fifth in receptions, and fourth in receiving touchdowns and he played an instrumental part in some of the very good Vikings teams throughout the late 80s and the early 90s. One of the best games of his career came on opening day of the ‘89 season against the Houston Oilers, when he absolutely shredded Houston’s defense.
The Oilers entered 1989 as one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl after they ended the 1988 season with a 10-6 record and an appearance in the divisional round. It was expected to be a tough game for the Vikings to start things off, so if they were going to start 1-0 it seemed they were going to need a great offensive performance.
Simply having Carter on the team gave them a good chance to match the Oilers point for point.
Carter was coming off of the best year of his career when he finished the 1988 season with a career-high 72 receptions and a career-high 1,225 receiving yards, which was the first time ever that he recorded over 1,000 yards in a season, although that does come with a slight asterisk. He finished ‘88 with the ninth most receptions in the league and the fourth most receiving yards in the league, only trailing Henry Ellard, Jerry Rice, and Eddie Brown in that category, so the good news for the Vikings was that he was one of the best receivers in football.
Naturally, Carter wanted to be paid like one of the best receivers in football. He was entering the ‘89 season making $400,000, which was just slightly above the league-wide average of $300,000. He wanted a 150% pay raise, and wanted to be making $1 million, putting him in a comparable tier to Jerry Rice. Carter held out of camp for 28 days in hopes that the Vikings and general manager Mike Lynn would meet his demands. Said Carter, “my intention is to hold out until I get what I want. If I don’t get what I want, I’ll sit out. I’d like to play and be there and be part of the team, but a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”
After holding out and getting fined $1,500 for each day missed ($42,000 total or more than 10% of what he was scheduled to make in 1989) Carter finally reported, albeit, without a new deal. On ending the holdout, Carter said, “the idea was just to get here. General manager Mike Lynn wasn’t going to do anything till I got here. There’s going to be bitter feelings if I don’t get what I want.”
By no means was this water under the bridge, especially after Carter said, “it doesn’t matter what uniform I’m wearing. I just want to get compensated for what I do in any uniform. I can still leave if I want to.”
Having exhausted the “pay me or I’ll sit out” option, Carter went a different route leading up to the season opener against the Oilers: If you won’t pay me like a top receiver, I won’t play like a top receiver. If you play me and make me risk my body without a new contract, I’m just not going to try.
Carter said: “I’m still upset because nothing happened and with the way I’ve been treated. If it’s up to me, I won’t put my best foot forward. They might as well bench me.”
Carter continued throughout the press conference, making it clear that he was not going to try. He said: “I’ll play, but I won’t put my best foot forward. So they might as well bench me. Don’t expect me to play up to the expectations of what they expect of me with the way I feel. They might as well bench me.”
General manager Mike Lynn thought that Carter was bluffing, saying that Carter was too good of a competitor to not try and to not put his best foot forward.
Lynn was right.
Carter showed why he was one of the best wide receivers in football and why he was asking for a seven-figure contract. He led the Vikings with seven receptions and 123 receiving yards and with the Vikings trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, he scored a 32-yard touchdown on a pass from Wade Wilson, setting the tone for the entire afternoon.
The Vikings smashed the Oilers 38-7. Minnesota forced three turnovers while committing none of their own and they more than tripled Houston’s total yardage, winning that battle 343-104, thanks in part to a ferocious defensive line recording seven sacks.
After the game, Carter seemed surprised with how well he played, saying, “I had no idea I’d catch that many. I guess people wanted to see if I was going to put my best foot forward.”
Quarterback Wade Wilson said, “I can’t imagine him playing better than he did,” with cornerback Isaac Holt asking, “can anybody stop him one-on-one? I ain’t seen it yet. He’s the gospel, man,” and head coach Jerry Burns echoing the praise, saying on Carter’s performance, “he played out there like a guy possessed.” And even tight end Steve Jordan joked and said that he thought Carter was going to drop a pass intentionally just to see whether people would think he wasn’t really trying.
This would be a sign of things to come for Carter in ‘89. He finished the season with another Pro Bowl appearance after picking up 65 receptions for 1,066 yards, and he was rewarded before the start of the 1990 season with a four-year contract worth more than $1 million per year, making him one of the highest paid receivers in all of football. Even if he had to wait a year, Carter eventually got what he wanted.
There have been many great performances on opening day for the Minnesota Vikings. From Fran Tarkenton’s iconic four-touchdown, no-interception performance on opening day in 1961 against to Hassan Jones catching two touchdown passes in Week 1 1998 in an overtime win against the Green Bay Packers to Sam Bradford crushing the Saints in 2017 to Jefferson going off against Green Bay last year. Anthony Carter in 1989 is another one of those guys who did just that, even if he may have said that he was going to do otherwise.
After weeks of negotiations fell flat, Jefferson did not take the Carter route of making public comments about his frustrations but he may very well take out any ill feelings on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the same way Carter once did against the Oilers.
Resources:
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