Everett, Rams Agree to Six-Year Contract
In many ways, Jim Everett seems too good to be true. Gifted with a powerful throwing arm and loyal to the team that signed him away from an uncertain future in Houston, the 27-year-old quarterback decided that the money he might gain in a bidding war was less important than preserving the trust he had built in four seasons with the Rams.
“Everyone wonders. Every human wonders,” Everett said after announcing he had skipped free agency and agreed to a six-year deal that will pay him about $2.2 million a year, making him the Rams’ highest-paid player.
“I look at baseball players and what they go through and I think kids out there get the impression they play more for the money than the sport. I wanted to be a Ram. I don’t think more money would make Jim Everett happy. The fact is, I want to be here.”
Still, Everett has yet to prove that he’s good enough to approach the elite level attained by his role model and conqueror in this year’s NFC championship game, San Francisco’s Joe Montana.
Everett will be “right at the top” among NFL quarterbacks in salary, according to his agent, Marvin Demoff. Everett conceded that he’s “closing the gap” on Montana, who this season earned $2 million in salary and $550,000 in bonuses. That monetary gap is there because Everett believed it should be there, perhaps to remind him of how much remains for him to achieve.
“In his own heart, he wanted to be put near the top, but he didn’t want the Rams to make him be No. 1,” said Demoff, who declined to reveal Everett’s exact salary. “He wanted to blend in, versus his need to be the highest-paid quarterback. When the Rams took Jim Everett here, that meant a lot to him. He could still have been behind (Warren) Moon in Houston. He owed something to them. With this, that would be 10 years here for him. They’re even.
“He is going to make more money than anybody ever made in their first 10 years in football and that’s enough. There comes a point where enough’s enough.
“Had he won the Super Bowl, maybe (he could have demanded more money than Montana). To say right now he wants more money than Joe Montana is not right.”
Simply discussing the financial aspects of the agreement appeared to make Everett as uncomfortable as he would have been facing a posse of blitzing linebackers. He had earned a total of $2.8 million in his first four seasons with the Rams.
“I was being fair,” said Everett, whose contract includes a no-trade clause and various incentives. “I saw who the best quarterback is and I’m not that.
“I’m in a unique situation. The Rams have done a lot of things that have put me in an environment to be successful, with (offensive coordinator) Ernie Zampese and receivers like Flipper Anderson and Henry Ellard. I don’t really want to go anywhere else. I don’t mind playing when it’s 70 degrees and still December. . . .
“I thought Joe Montana was the best. The salary I’m making is fantastic and to be able to make it for six years and have a lot of guarantees in there is super. I really don’t care if someone in baseball is making $3.5 million. I’m in a situation where I’m making a heck of a lot of money and I have a heck of a lot of responsibility to the fans and this team to get something done.”
The length of the contract is in line with those lately signed by other NFL quarterbacks. The Eagles’ Randall Cunningham signed an eight-year deal for an estimated $2.4 million a year, Montana is signed for three more years, the Cowboys’ Troy Aikman and the Browns’ Bernie Kosar for five more years and Moon for four more.
“The market for NFL quarterbacks is not going to change until 1994,” Demoff said. “We thought (the contract should be) four or five years and the Rams wanted six. Jim’s comfortable with that situation. He’s not going to be held hostage if he out-performs his contract. I think they’d be happy to win the next four Super Bowls and redo it.”
Coach John Robinson hailed both the agreement and the amicable atmosphere that characterized the talks. That hasn’t always been the case with Ram players. In two of the more recent and acrimonious situations, receiver Henry Ellard held out 89 days in 1986 and running back Eric Dickerson demanded that his contract be renegotiated in 1987, which ultimately led to his trade to Indianapolis.
“The thing was done with dignity. Boy, isn’t that nice,” Robinson said. “It’s not like the Rams beat this guy down. Obviously, we’re all overjoyed about these events. Continuity is the thing that gives you the opportunity to succeed over a long period of time. . . .
“He’ll improve statistically. I don’t know that it’ll be a huge change. He’ll improve in the intangible areas, leadership, consistency and the confidence he brings to other people on the team. The area Jim has to develop in is the intangible part of playing the position, what separates the great from the very good.”
