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NFL: Cleveland Browns terminate contract with Donte Stallworth

Odds & News | Webmaster ( Fri 12th, February 2010 )

Donte Stallworth's tenure with the Cleveland Browns came to an end.

As predicted, Stallworth's contract was terminated by the Browns on Monday, the same day he was reinstated by the NFL after a season long suspension without pay for killing a pedestrian while driving drunk.

Stallworth, was under contract with the Browns through 2014, and is currently free to sign with any other team.

The move ends an unfortunate experience between the Browns and Stallworth, as he was signed by Phil Savage, the former General Manager, to a 7 year, $35 million contract in 2008, with almost $10 million guaranteed.

With 8 years of NFL experience, Stallworth was supposed to be a blockbuster free agent to play with Braylon Edwards, as he had caught 16 touchdown passes in 2007. Stallworth experienced a quad injury most of his lone season and started only 7 games, catching 17 passes for 170 yards. As he earned around $9,605,000 in bonuses and salary, this works out to around $565,000 per catch. Stallworth will not receive the balance of his contract or the $1 million bonus due March 18th.

As the salary cap will most likely be abolished next month, the Browns will not take a cap hit from this move. In the unlikely event that there is a cap, Stallworth will count for only $435,000. The Browns publicized the termination in a one sentence statement, with no official comment coming from the team. Later, Stallworth wrote on his twitter account about Tom Heckert, the Browns GM: "I LOVE TOM HECKERT. He was my man in Philly and he is my man now ... forever ... nothing but devoted from me to him."

The Stallworth ordeal began on March 14th, as he struck and killed a Florida pedestrian, Mario Reyes, while driving drunk. The accident came a day after Stallworth received his second $4.5 million bonus from the Browns.

Stallworth had a .126 blood alcohol level, which is well above the legal limit of .08. He was found guilty of DUI manslaughter and served 24 of his 30 day sentence. Even he reached a secret financial resolution with the Reyes family, supposedly to be the bulk of his $4.5 million bonus.

NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, referred to Stallworth during the Super Bowl press conference last week, where he met with Stallworth and said, "he is at a better place than where he was." He added that the receiver recognized that he did wrong and has gotten himself ready to come back to the NFL.

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