Before the Bills signed guard Richie Incognito, he’d been exiled from the NFL. The Bills took a chance on him, and it paid off.
Now, a year later, it’s time for Incognito to get paid. And that’s creating more than a little friction between player and team.
Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, the Bills think Incognito should give the team that gave him a second chance a break, accepting less than perhaps what he could get elsewhere. The Bills are getting frustrated, we’re told, with Incognito’s refusal to take what they’ll give him.
Frankly, that’s part of the risk the Bills took when signing Incognito. While many were focused on whether Incognito would change his ways, few believed he’d put together a Pro Bowl season and set himself up for a big payday on the open market.
The Bills could have guarded against that by doing a multi-year deal. They didn’t. Now that Incognito has resurrected his career and rehabilitated his image, there’s nothing wrong with the player getting every last penny that he can on the open market.