Look, players do have freedom.

Byline: Dan Le Batard

MIAMI _ I don't understand why we always turn sports into this sacred cathedral where the rules of business aren't allowed to apply.

In just about any other workplace, what Eli Manning did would be known as shrewd and successful negotiating. In sports, he's being spoiled and pouty and should simply accept his millions and shut up.

Manning is supposed to be grateful and silent just because of the amount of money involved, even though any number of teams would fight over the right to give him millions?

Let's do this in a vacuum. Let's say this isn't sports. Let's say an accountant is coming out of college, and he is widely regarded as the best accounting prospect in the United States. And there are any number of employers out there willing to make him rich. He isn't allowed to have any kind of say in where he works? He just has to go where he's told and like it? Even if the workplace offering him work really, really stinks?

Oh, yeah, the rules, you say? The NFL and the clown players' union agreed to the rules of the draft to prevent chaos free agency at out of college. That's true. But those rules also say that it is Eli's right to sit out a year and be re-drafted, which is what he was threatening to do if the Chargers drafted him against his wishes. Why even have that rule if you are going to object when Eli tries to use it?

What the Mannings did was clumsy, sure, but being anti-establishment often is. There is no nice and kind way for Archie Manning to say, "Hey, the Chargers are going to be awful for the next decade, and I don't want them to ruin my son's career and talent the way the Saints ruined mine." And there is no ...