Samaje Perine signed two contracts on Monday. The former, the fake one, was unfortunately quite a bit more than the latter, which happened to be real.
The Cincinnati Bengals decided to bring back Perine on a two-year deal worth up to $3.8 million early in free agency, but it's the previously announced (and retracted deal that also captured our attention.
The first rumors concerning Perine gave the veteran back quite a bit more than the $1.5 million he earned last season with the Chiefs. Those rumors were quickly deleted, but not before they found quite the audience on social media.
It'd be easy for most NFL fans to miss the post, especially since it was promptly deleted, but Aaron Wilson, reporter for the Houston Chronicle, contributed to the onslaught of free agent news when he stated that Samaje Perine had been handed a three-year deal by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If that wasn't already eye-opening, he also rewarded Perine with $22 million, including $12.5M in guaranteed money.
Yeah, that made us laugh out loud as well.
We're pretty sure Bucs fans everywhere breathed a sigh of relief when they learned the information was incorrect.
What makes the whole thing so much better (and funnier) is that Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht even made sure to deny the rumor himself via social media. Licht simply retweeted one of the aggregated posts repeating the news with the simple declarative statement: "No we did not."
The good news for Perine is that he'll earn plenty of money in 2025 and beyond while rejoining the team that wanted to bring him back for another couple of seasons. The Chiefs certainly appreciated his efforts and gutsy postseason performance as well. It's just too bad for Perine's sake that he didn't reset the market after all.