Dewa sono uchi ni, Fujita-san. Osewa ni narimashita. Kio tsukete, ganbatte ne.

Sayonara, Scotty Badass. With any luck, we'll be seeing you again in a few years. Joe Vitt's gotta hang 'em up at some point, eh?

Hey, the business of football sucks sometimes. We've been here and done this many times before, and we'll be doing it again sooner than we'd like, I'm sure. If it's any consolation, this is one of those rare breakups where everybody's probably going to be better off for it, and nobody's "to blame." Both parties did the responsible thing, and you can only hope that behind the scenes, nobody's feelings are hurt.

Of course, Message Board Guy tends to have a hard time with situations where nobody's to blame. Does not compute. Somebody has to be the bad guy here, it's just a matter of figuring out who. That process usually takes about six or seven nanoseconds. The bottleneck is the time it takes to type it out. Fortunately, there's lots of time to be saved by resisting the urge to capitalize (or, alternatively, just typing in all caps) and proofread for spelling and grammar. The important part is for the internets to know as soon as humanly possible how pissed off you are, and at whom.

In situations like these, Message Board Guy always falls into one of two excruciatingly predictable factions. There's the "Sell out!" faction who blames the player for being "all about the money" and the "Loomis is an idiot!" faction for whom there's never any good reason to let a fan favorite go.

In this case, both factions are wrong, and there's really no reason for anyone to be upset with either party.

Oh, I understand that it's hard. Breakups suck, they're emotional, and Message Board Guy tends to be ruled by his emotions in the first place. It's perfectly natural to wish that it didn't have to come to this, nothing wrong with that. But, to quote one of the best breakup songs of all time: "There ain't no good guy. There ain't no bad guy. There's only you and me and we just disagree. Ooh ooh ooh ooh, oh oh oh."

It continues to boggle my mind how often some people need to be reminded that players are people. As fans, our primary concern is the good of our favorite football team, and it's easy for us to suggest that a guy ought to offer our team a discount in order to come here or stay here. Because it's what we want.

And it's easy to laugh when a guy like Charles Grant talks about how $7MM/yr just won't do because "I've gotta feed my family." We've all been jaded over time by the legions of "me guys" and "just cashin' the checks" guys, what with the obnoxious bling and the big mouths and the smug self-satisfied smirks and all that shit.

But since when has Scott Fujita ever been anything resembling that guy? The massive difference in scale between professional athletes and regular joes like you and I can make it easy to forget that these guys, guys like Fujita anyway, are feeding their families. And yeah, that means something totally different to them than it means to most of us. It's on a whole other level, a generational level. It means doing his best to ensure that his kids never have to worry about keeping food on their table, and if possible, his grandkids. But at the end of the day, it's the same reason you and I go to work. The scale may make it less relatable, but it doesn't make it any less noble.

You've got to be a pretty big douchebag to begrudge a guy that just because you'd rather he continue to play football for your favorite team. Or, as someone somewhere on the internets (sorry, I forget exactly who and where) so aptly put it: that's like expecting the guy at IHOP to turn down a job as an executive at Microsoft just because you like the way he scrambles your eggs.

Scott has a responsibility to his family to not just piss away what might have been as much as TEN MILLION FUCKIN' DOLLARS(!!!!) and it doesn't make him an asshole that his family comes before his employer, and especially that his family comes before your hopes and dreams for the continued success of your favorite football team. Try juuuuust a little fuckin' perspective already, would ya?

Meantime, do you realize how insane it is to give a 31 year old linebacker, who for each of the last four years has started fewer games than the previous year, $14 million dollars over the next 3 years? It's sheer lunacy, and it would have been unbelievably irresponsible for Mickey Loomis to have done that. I don't even think Scott ever expected to get that much money at this point in his career. From anybody.

I'm gonna have to break one of my own rules here. Ordinarily it drives me batshit crazy when Message Board Guy talks about "OMGOVERPAYING!!!" Usually because it's obvious that he has no clue what he's talking about. Yet he uses that word all the fuckin' time.

But in this particular situation, there's just no two ways about it. The Browns overpaid. A whole lot.

Does that mean I think Browns management are idiots? No, it doesn't. Here's the thing about "overpaying." Sometimes you just don't have any other choice. You're dealing from a position of weakness, and overpaying is the only weapon in your arsenal. Hell, we're Saints fans, we're all too familiar with being in that situation.

Wasn't so long ago, we Saints fans were dancing a jig when a free agent would come to town and actually sign rather than taking less money to sign elsewhere. You all remember Roderick Hood, right? Oh how quickly they forget, as they in their newfound arrogance assert that it should totally be worth possibly as much as TEN MILLION FUCKIN' DOLLARS(!!!) to Scott Fujita for the privilege of staying in New Orleans vs. going to Cleveland.

Fortunately for us, the Saints are no longer in a position where overpaying is necessary. For the time being, anyway. Apparently the Browns are. Hey, better them than us. But being willing to overpay when it was necessary was a big part of what got the Saints out of their hole. For the Browns' sake (hey, I wish them no specific harm) and for Scott's, hopefully it'll work out and nobody will get burnt here.

But Mickey Loomis would be irresponsible to let his (and our) fondness for a person lead him to unnecessary risk. And guaranteeing $8 million on a 3 year, $14 million contract for a player who by all indications has been declining from both a productivity and a health standpoint the entire time he's been here is a huge risk.

You don't pay a guy for what he's done. You pay a guy for what he's going to do.

And, no, the uncapped year doesn't make a damn bit of difference. Message Board Guy acts like the uncapped year is some kind of license to print money, and there are no consequences of any kind if you just throw it around like you're Pac Man Jones at a titty bar. You'll just deal with the wife when you get home and she sees the pics on your iPhone, right?

That might work for Daniel Snyder. But, then again, it really never seems to actually work out too well for Daniel Snyder, does it?

Sometimes doing the right thing sucks. Mickey Loomis and Scott Fujita both just made the responsible decision, and both did right by the people they're responsible to. Ideally, you'd like for those decisions to result in staying together instead of breaking up. But sometimes doing the right thing doesn't bring about the result you'd prefer. That doesn't change the fact that it's the right thing.

Don't shed any tears for Scott Fujita. Dude just won the fuckin' lottery. He deserves it. Be happy for him. Hey, things could be worse. At least he's not Kevin Houser. Yikes.

And don't shed any tears for the Saints. They'll be just fine. We all love the Asian Assassin, and for good reason, but you know as well as I do that we'll love the next guy too. Unless he's a chump. And/or an asshole.

But he won't be. Haven't you been paying attention?