Jeff Samardzija opens up about picking Cubs over NFL and that special contract

SHARE Jeff Samardzija opens up about picking Cubs over NFL and that special contract
cubs_spring_baseball_37101745.jpg

Chicago Cubs’ Jeff Samardzija throws a pitch during a spring training baseball workout at the team’s practice facility Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Right-hander Jeff Samardzija turned 33 in January and counts his blessings he skipped a potential NFL career to sign a five-year, $10 million contract with the Cubs in 2007.

At that time, Samardzija was a highly touted wide receiver at Notre Dame that some scouts were projecting could be a first-round NFL pick.

To keep him from entering the NFL draft, the Cubs offered an interesting deal for a first-round baseball pick.

“There was value in them having to buy me out of football,” Samardzija told MLB.com in a story published Saturday. “Luckily, I was good enough at football that I carried leverage. But you can also just say you love it, and they’ve got to buy you out of that love.”

MLB.om’s Jon Morosi asked Samardzija an interesting question:

Samardzija was asked how many college football contemporaries he sees regularly on television during autumn Sundays. Marcedes Lewis, Samardzija said of the Jacksonville Jaguars tight end. [Brian] Cushing — I played against him. … Clay Matthews … Donte Whitner — I loved playing against him at Ohio State. Arian Foster was another guy. He’s done. They’re all done. Or if they’re still there, they’re on their way out. And I just signed my new deal. … Knock on wood, my body’s not telling me, ‘Hey, you can’t do this.’

Keep in mind, Samardzija is in third season of a five-year, $90 million contract with the San Francisco Giants.

When his original deal with the Cubs was sealed, Samardzija added his own interesting clause, agreeing to return the contract’s $2.5 million signing bonus if he decided at any point during the life of the contract to pursue any other sport.

Notre Dame receiver Jeff Samardzija (83) reacts after scoring on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Brady Quinn in the second quarter of the Sugar Bowl football game at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007. Defending is LSU’s Craig St

Notre Dame receiver Jeff Samardzija (83) reacts after scoring on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Brady Quinn in the second quarter of the Sugar Bowl football game at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007. Defending is LSU’s Craig Steltz. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

”I never heard of a guy so committed to making this happen that he voluntarily offered to give the money back if he leaves,” Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said on the day the deal was done in 2007. ”He wanted to make it clear there wasn’t any turning back.”

”I didn’t want to put the Cubs in a situation where they felt they had to come up with an extremely insane offer to get me,” Samardzija said that same day. ”The farther into it you get, the more you see the time overlap and see the difficulty of doing [two sports]. The part that really got me was that I didn’t want to be spread out so I wouldn’t be as good as I can in either sport. The last thing I wanted was to be connected to the Cubs but only 70, 75 percent of a baseball player because of the two sports.”

Samardzija, who also pitched for the White Sox, told MLB.com that it was a difficult decision at the time.

This is a football country, he said. I usually get asked in a ‘You’re an idiot’ manner about why I decided to play baseball. People love football, man. They just can’t understand having the ability to do it and not do it. It blows their minds. I made the decision because when I went and played baseball, I loved it. I didn’t know I had that love for the game. But then I went back for my senior year of football [after playing briefly in the Cubs farm system during the summer of 2006]. I was able to weigh the two right next to each other, and it really wasn’t even close. Samardzija said football had been his primary focus from age 7 until college. He attended Notre Dame on a football scholarship. The constant attention to football, Samardzija said, resulted in a ho-hum excitement level for it by the end of his time in South Bend. Baseball offered more excitement every day and a culture in which he felt more comfortable. I like how you’re treated in baseball, he said. You’re treated like a man. Show up on your time. It’s your career. They don’t hold your hand as much as football. That always bugged me about football — meetings and things like that. I know what I’m doing wrong. You don’t need to reiterate it to me that I’m [messing] up. From what I’ve heard, individuality and free-thinking is frowned upon [in the NFL]. Being your own man is not what they want. I think they want people to fall in line, toe the line and not ask questions on why they’re toeing the line. Talking to some buddies, I know a couple guys have been told they’re too smart for the NFL. In that aspect, [baseball] was the right choice for me. I felt like I had a higher ceiling in baseball and more hunger for it.

Check out the MLB.com story here to see what Samardzija, a new father, says about concussions in football.

The Latest
Only two days after an embarrassing loss to lowly Washington, the Bulls put on a defensive clinic against Indiana.
One woman suffered a gunshot wound to the neck. In each incident, the four to five men armed with rifles, handguns and knives, approached victims on the street in Logan Square, Portage Park, Avondale, Hermosa threatened or struck them before taking their belongings, police said.
For as big of a tournament moment as Terrence Shannon Jr. is having, it hasn’t been deemed “madness” because, under the brightest lights, he has been silent.
This year, to continue making history, the Illini will have to get past No. 2-seeded Iowa State.