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Is Travis Henry a role model (of sorts)?

I know that on first glance, that seems like crazy talk, but bear with me.  When Henry signed with Denver he got a 5 year deal worth about 22.5 million with $12 million in bonuses the first two years.  Due to his legal issues during the season, a portion of the bonus was pushed off until the offseason so the 12 million ended up getting split evenly (6 million paid in 2007, 6 million due in 2008).  In addition, his salaries for 2008-2011 were 730K, 1.375 million, 2.4 million and 3.9 million.  Including that bonus money, Henry was still due $14.495 million (plus other roster bonus due later in the contract)

Now here is why I will call Henry a role model.  He screwed up last season and things did not go as he hoped.  He honestly felt a duty to make things right with the Broncos who had made such a large investment in him.  So he redid his contract in the offseason.  He completely gave up the $6 million bonus and reorganized the contract to be more incentive based.  If the NFLPA site is accurate, his base salaries for 2008-2011 are $1 million each.  So that means that he will get $4 million total instead of the nearly $14.5 he was originally scheduled for.

Granted, if he plays well (I am thinking 1200 yds, 8-10 TD's for a couple years) he will probably get most of the money back in incentives and escalators that boost future base salaries (but he has to actually earn it on the field).  Despite his issues, he could probably have gotten more money by letting Denver cut him and signing a new deal elsewhere.  I think it says something positive about his character that he wanted to right a wrong and was willing to make personal sacrifices to do so.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.