It's always "about the money" to some extent, but with Ndamukong Suh, it appears to be all about the money.
Assuming the leaked information on the offer made by the Lions is accurate, Suh could have still been the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history by staying in Detroit.
The Lions were willing to overpay for a defensive tackle ($102 million for six years with $58 million guaranteed), but the Miami Dolphins were simply willing to overpay even more ($114 million for six years with $60 million guaranteed).
So Suh's expected to sign with Miami after he officially becomes a free agent Tuesday at 4 p.m.
If he wanted to stay, though, he could have because the Lions -- at least in the end -- made an extravagant offer.
Much has been made in recent days about Florida not having a state income tax and how that made the Dolphins more attractive to Suh.
In reality, though, if that's such a big part of the decision-making process for free agents, then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat and even the Dolphins should be a lot better. Every free agent in every sport would try to sign with a Florida team based on that criteria.
For Suh, that was probably a lot more important simply because he's obsessed with making every dollar possible. That's his right. He wants to be a billionaire.
It's also the right of others to consider him greedy.
Suh spent five years in Detroit, amassing millions and eating up a big chunk of the team's salary cap because he entered the league right before a new wage scale for rookie contracts went into effect.
He built relationships with teammates, supposedly with the intention of trying to get to a Super Bowl together. But a couple months after the team showed major progress with an 11-victory, playoff season, he's bolting for the highest bidder.
On Jan. 4, shortly after a playoff loss at Dallas, Suh broke down in tears during a news conference in which he talked about what a "close group" the defensive line was and how he had "a lot of fun with them dudes."
The Lions were headed in the right direction, with a defense that emerged as one of the best in the league under new coordinator Teryl Austin, and that could have continued. All that was needed was for Suh to be less greedy. If he had done that, the Lions could have kept him and all of the other important pieces in place around him to try to take the next step toward a championship.
You can say that's not the so-called American way and that he has every right to try to make every last penny that he can because he's a very valuable player. That's all true.
But in a salary-cap league, if you want to win, the best way to do that is to take a little less so your team can put more talent around you. You're still going to be filthy rich and have your family set up financially for generations.
Taking a "hometown" discount doesn't make you weak. It makes you smart. It puts you a step closer to competing for a title.
The Lions are getting heavily criticized for the way they handled this whole saga. The first mistake they supposedly made was not offering Suh this contract a year ago.
Wrong.
Until this past season, even with Suh, the Lions had a mediocre defense at best. They had to win with their offense.
How could you justify making him the highest-paid defensive player based on that end product?
It wasn't until 2014 that Suh's impact resulted in a quality overall defense, so giving him $100 million would have been foolish before seeing him play a major role in making it a top-ranked unit.
The Lions are also being slammed for their kick-the-can-down-the-road mentality when it comes to the salary cap -- in other words, restructuring some high-priced contracts to create lower cap hits for an upcoming season, knowing that it came at the price of greater cap hits in future years.
In Suh's case, his restructures left him with a cap hit of more than $22 million in 2014, which -- with a 20-percent raise added in -- meant the price to use the franchise tag and keep him out of free agency would have been $26.9 million for next season.
"Bad money management by Martin (general manager Martin Mayhew) and Tom (president Tom Lewand) is where the blame should be placed," former Lion Lawrence Jackson, a friend of Suh's, said in a tweet. "Years of robbing Peter to pay Paul."
The contract restructures, however, helped add quality unrestricted free agents -- such as receiver Golden Tate, and safeties Glover Quin and James Ihedigbo -- in recent years. Those veteran players brought invaluable Super Bowl-championship experience to the Lions' locker room and were greatly responsible for last year's turnaround.
The one criticism of the Lions management team that's definitely accurate is some bad mistakes in the draft, i.e. taking tight end Eric Ebron in the first round last year instead of getting more help on the defensive line. If they had any inclination that Suh might leave, then they should have been better prepared to go on without him.
But creating cap space to sign free agents was all about trying to win now, which in the process helped create an environment that should have been more appealing to Suh.
It wasn't enough, though, because all he really seems to care about is his bank account.
