Columnist Dean Juipe: Pros have a singular motivation

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

Lest we forget, 99 percent of professional athletes play strictly for the money and have no real allegiance to the owner who signs their paycheck.

That's not necessarily a complaint, merely an indisputable observation.

Here's a fresh example: No fewer than five members of the Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams have already left the team and signed with other National Football League teams.

Remember the euphoria that enveloped the Rams as they came from 200-1 longshot in Las Vegas to win the NFL championship? It was the ultimate feel-good story, with a previously discarded quarterback taking a team of renegades and supposed misfits and leading them to sport's greatest prize.

Predictably, and rightfully, they went bananas in St. Louis over the Rams and they were beside themselves at a postseason parade through the city that drew millions. The Rams rode in convertibles and waved to masses of people in a party atmosphere that both players and fans had to cherish.

By all appearances that day, there was no better job in football than being a member of the St. Louis Rams.

Less than a month later, two starting offensive linemen (Fred Miller and Mike Gruttadauria), two key defensive subs (Jay Williams and Ryan Tucker) and one potential 2000 starter (linebacker Charlie Clemons) have already accepted better offers and bolted to greener pastures -- or greenback-lined pastures.

Oh well, the Rams lost five players to free agency the previous year so maybe losing five more this year is no big deal. But why would you willingly leave your well-paying job with a strong and vivacious franchise just to make a few dollars more somewhere else where you may not even be happy?

Which, in a roundabout way, leads to the issue of baseball superstar Ken Griffey forcing the Seattle Mariners to trade him, as they did two weeks ago. The laughable aspect of the deal, which sent Griffey to the Cincinnati Reds, is that media and fans are tossing him bouquets because he agreed to a $116.5 million contract that is perceived to be a few dollars less than he could have raked in next year as an unrestricted free agent.

The "Oh, poor Ken," or "Gee, he's a swell guy" accolades are already nauseating.

Griffey, in spite of first-class treatment by the Mariners, was tired of Seattle and initially expressed an interest in being dealt to a team nearer his Orlando, Fla., home. Cincinnati, obviously, is not near Orlando yet the Reds were willing to toss this huge contract at Griffey, and the Mariners -- feeling over a barrel -- reluctantly made a trade in which they clearly got the short end of the deal.

Griffey will make almost $13 million per year for the length of his nine-year contract with the Reds, so he's handsomely paid by anyone's standards. With the Mariners, he had been making a mere $8.5 million per season.

He wanted out not because he preferred to play with a team in his home state and not because Seattle is a dreary place to live, but because he wanted more money and its pursuant attention.

He's a carpetbagger in his own way, following the money trail and feathering his own nest.

Don't be confusing him with some saintly martyr. Griffey, like those guys with the Rams, has a singular interest and it's money.