Raiders settle $3M lawsuit with Jamarcus Russell

Jamarcus Russell is now finally done taking money from the Raiders for terrible performance rendered. Thankfully the one good thing about his tenure was that he had failed so horribly that his outrageous rookie contract was the last straw for NFL owners. They would instill a rookie pay scale in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Unfortunately for the Raiders the contract they gave Jamarcus was already set in stone, but that never stopped Al Davis from laying down the gauntlet. Jamarcus has finally gotten all the way through that gauntlet though and reached a settlement regarding the $3M in guaranteed money still owed that Al refused to pay.

The Raiders had been fighting the amount owed saying that his contract had changed after it was originally signed but decided to settle for an unknown amount believed to be close to the $3M that was owed. For those of you keeping a running toll the Raiders had already paid him $36.4M before this settlement making it over $39M paid to him for being arguably the biggest bust of all time .

Considering his previous drama in foreclosures it is most definitely a welcome cash flood coming in for the athlete who is currently working hard at an NFL comeback. He is down to 265LBs and working hard, something he never did in Oakland.

Despite being sickened by the Raiders paying the man even more money for his lackluster career in Oakland I do believe it to be the right move to settle. The contract was guaranteed and fighting the money was more of a statement than anything else.

After the $3M dollar lawsuit was filed the Raiders had filed a grievance against Russell for $9.55M. This just prompted a grievance from Jamarcus against the Raiders in the amount of $9M. It was basically a pissing contest between the two and Jamarcus won by default. Al stopped competing in the competiton leading the Raiders to a position where they would be more willing to move on.

Settling this lawsuit is a needed step in moving on from the dark days. There is no reason to continue battling on something likely inevitable and enough time has gone on. Withholding that money was just another thing connecting those bad times with this current franchise. Moving on is good for us all and with this settlement the franchise can finally really move on from the era of Jamarcus.