By "extra money" I mean (eg) 100 million dollars vs 80 million dollars. IOW a very good contract (but slightly team friendly contract) vs "best player in the NFL" contract. That "extra money" represents what RW could get if he were to play hardball and that definitely effects the team's ability to pay other players, who may also be deserving, and effects team competitiveness. I mean, 80 million is a lot of money, right? And it's not like Paul Allen will just pocket the difference... the Hawks are going to be bumped up against the cap for the forseeable future.
We're going to lose a lot of good players b/c of RW getting a max dollars contract.
I think a lot of people were hoping RW would take a team friendly deal b/c he's a "team first guy, etc), but it looks like that's not the case. Initially I was disappointed by this, but we really don't know what RW is goign to do with that extra money. He seems like a good guy and maybe he wants to be a generous benefactor. Maybe he figures that the "extra money" can be put to better use in a foundation than staying with the NFL, or team, or with other players. Who knows. Hopefully it's not just about greed, because that would be disappointing.
Lots of top flight QBs are on team friendly deals (but most of them are already extremely wealthy). The Hawks have a lot of players on relatively team friendly deals too.