After the Raiders cut JaMarcus Russell in 2010, both parties filed grievances seeking money from the other side for failing to fully honor Russell’s six-year, $68 million contract. It appears that Russell is about to come out ahead in that dispute.
Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Raiders have agreed to pay Russell close to $3 million in a settlement of the dispute.
Russell’s viewpoint was that the Raiders hadn’t paid all of the fully guaranteed money on his deal. The Raiders argued that not only had they paid everything they owed, but Russell should have been required to pay back more than $9 million in salary advances. The settlement suggests that the Raiders weren’t as confident in their side of the argument as Russell was in his.
After the Raiders took Russell with the first overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft, Russell held out until after the first week of the regular season before finally getting the Raiders to agree to all the guarantees he and his agent were seeking. Russell was a disaster as the Raiders’ quarterback, and that contract is still costing the Raiders, more than three years after they cut Russell.
