Wayne Rooney and the Top 25 Contract Turnarounds in Sports History

Wayne Rooney made news early in October after calling out his current team, Manchester United, but shortly found himself agreeing to a lucrative five-year deal with Man-U soon after that. 

The truth is, we're all entitled to change our minds. Sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment and which we could take it back.

This is nothing new in the world of sports, when emotions oftentimes get the best of athletes and coaches with so much money and possible opportunities to win at stake.

Here are the top 25 contract turnarounds in sports history.

After the Dodgers drafted pitcher Zach Lee with the 28th overall pick in the 2010 Amateur Draft, very few people thought they would be able to sign him.

Lee was expected to pursue a career as a college football quarterback with Les Miles and the LSU Tigers.

Even Lee said he was focused on his college career.  But before the deadline to expire their draft picks arrived, the Dodgers gave Lee a substantial offer he couldn't refuse.

Lee agreed to a whopping $5.25 million signing bonus and left his LSU scholarship offer on the table. 

After winning back-to-back national championships with the University of Florida, basketball head coach Billy Donovan was a hot commodity in 2007.

He was offered a shot to coach in the NBA by the Orlando Magic and offered him a five-year $27.5 million contract on a Friday.

By Monday, he was already conflicted with his decision to leave the college ranks.

The Magic eventually agreed to release him from his contract, and Donovan returned to coach the Gators.

Stan Van Gundy was hired to coach the Magic in his stead.

After 15 seasons in the NFL playing for the San Diego Chargers and the Miami Dolphins as one of the most feared linebackers in the league, Seau announced his retirement.

But it didn't last long.

Four days later, with the lure of playing for a championship and another NFL payday.  Seau agreed to sign with the New England Patriots.

After the Lakers lost to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals, there were plenty of changes in store for the franchise.

First, they didn't offer head coach, Phil Jackson a contract extension and had to decide between keeping Shaq or Kobe.

They brought Pat Riley into Los Angeles, trying to lure him out of Miami with a chance to coach the Lakers once again with Kobe Bryant as his star player.

Riley contemplated the offer but ultimately declined and took back with him the knowledge that Shaquille O'Neal was available to acquire via trade.

He then sent to Los Angeles three players in exchange for O'Neal, who helped deliver a championship to Miami in 2006.

After his first five-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers ended with a loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Championships, Jackson did not return as head coach.

Owner Jerry Buss chose to defer to the wishes of a young Kobe Bryant in deciding to allow Jackson to leave and trade away Shaquille O'Neal.

In fact, Jackson released a book about his time as Lakers head coach called The Last Season which he referred to Bryant as "uncoachable."

After new Lakers head coach, Rudy Tomjanovich, resigned from the team halfway through the '04-'05 season, there was much speculation that Jackson would return to the Lakers after a sabbatical.

Whatever ill-will there was that developed between Buss, Jackson and Bryant was suddenly repaired after he agreed to a three-year deal that made him the highest paid head coach in the NBA.

On September 22, 2009, Rampage Jackson informed the world that he was officially done with fighting and cited maltreatment by the UFC and a budding acting career as the reason.

But he had a change of heart and said that he was willing to honor his UFC contract over the Internet.

He returned to the UFC and lost to Rashad Evans by unanimous decision. 

Did his career end after that?  Nope.  Rampage signed a new six-fight contract with the UFC in March 2010.

According to a Ron Artest interview with the New York Daily News, he was close to signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers as a free agent after the '08-'09 season.

He said the deal was nearly done, and he was ready to play with his "boys" Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James.

But, he says, the Lakers showed more interest.  The Lakers went on to win a second straight championship in 2010, with Artest a part of the team.

Ricky first retired from football at the ripe old age of 27.

He cited a lost passion for the game and left the sport two days before training camp would begin in 2004.

It was rumored that Williams explored his passion for holistic medicine during his absence.  But just over year after being out of the sport, Williams wanted back in. 

Presumably looking to earn more money. 

At the beginning of the '09-'10 season, Iverson was expected to be a starter for the Memphis Grizzlies.  With the Grizzles looking to develop their younger talent, Iverson suddenly found himself playing a bench role for the team.

Iverson was supposed to bring a veteran scoring presence to the team. 

Clearly, unhappy with not starting, Iverson forced the Grizzles to terminate his contract.

He only played three games for the Memphis Grizzlies.  As a free-agent, Iverson received little interest from around the league. 

With his old team, Philadelphia 76ers, one of the few interested, Iverson had to rekindle a once broken relationship with the franchise and signed for the veteran minimum.

As a free agent in 2005, it was widely accepted by Red Sox fans that Damon could leave the team.  But many remember him making the statement, "I will never play for the New York Yankees."

Of course, he did.

Because the Yankees offered him a bigger contract.  It was that simple.  The Yankees offered him a four-year, $52 million deal, while the Red Sox only had a three-year deal on the table.

At the end of the 2008 season, after his third season with the Chicago Bulls, Gordon told reporters, "I guess it's safe to say I've played my last game in a Bulls uniform."

Gordon went on to say that he was expecting to find a new team to give him a new deal and be traded away in a sign-and-trade deal.

But it never happened.

Gordon eventually signed a one year qualifying offer $6.4 million with the Bulls and returned for his fourth season with the team.

A young Roger Clemens once stormed out of Red Sox training camp after winning his first Cy Young 1987 because he was unhappy because the Sox refused to offer him a bigger contract.

Clemens threatened to sit out the entire season until commissioner Peter Ueberroth stepped in and brought both sides together.

Clemens agreed to a two-year deal and won another Cy Young that season.

The Chargers All-Pro wide receiver was all set to sit out the entire season holding out until the Chargers offered him a bigger contract.

The Chargers didn't offer him a new deal.  But because of the new collective bargaining agreement, Jackson was informed by the player's union that he needed to end his holdout in order to acrue another year of experience in the league and ultimately become a free agent next season.

Jackson is expected to end his holdout by October 31.

Drew was known for screwing over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He initially signed a five-year deal with the team that had a player option to terminate the deal after two season. Drew was mostly injured in his first year with the team but had a very successful year in his second season with the team.

At the time, Dodgers management was led to believe that Drew did not plan on exercising his opt-out and would remain with the team for the duration of his deal. But Drew opted out to everyone's surprise and signed a bigger contract with the Boston Red Sox.

This guy is known for screwing the Los Angeles Lakers who were just coming off an NBA championship after the '99-'00 season.

Gill told the Lakers he would sign their $2.25 million salary cap-exception in the summer of 2000.

But later got cold feet.  He instead opted to re-sign with his original team the New Jersey Nets for a $7 million.

Gill later said that it was just a smarter business decision to sign the Nets much larger offer.

Saban has a history of screwing teams over.

He spurned LSU for a big payday in the NFL, but just two years after signing his lucrative coaching deal with the Miami Dolphins, he jumped at an opportunity to coach the Alabama Crimson Tide.

After weeks of saying he planned on honoring his contract with Miami, he finally changed his mind and said his love of college football was too much to pass up a return to the SEC.

His eight-year, $32 million deal made him one of the highest paid coaches in college football.

He was supposed to be a member of the Boston Red Sox.

The deal was all but done.  Then the MLB Player's Association vetoed it because the Red Sox wanted A-Rod to rework his salary so they could afford him.

Although, A-Rod was willing to take the paycut the deal was called off.

So the ever willing Yankees stepped in, and A-Rod has been wearing pinstripes since.

Imagine a Florida Big Three of Tim Duncan, Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady playing for the Orlando Magic, a decade before the Miami Heat put together LeBron James and company.

It was close to happening.

There were rumors out of Orlando that the Duncan deal was all but complete.  Instead, loyal-old Tim just couldn't bring himself to leave his team, the Spurs and his coach, Gregg Popovich.

It turned out to be a good decision to stay-put.  The Magic were never healthy with Grant Hill struggling through injuries and the Spurs have one three championships since Duncan nearly departed.

The guy topped his last contract of $252 million by signing a 10-year $275 million with the New York Yankees.

But there're plenty of those involved with the negotations that feared it may have never happened.

Super agent, Scott Boras, got in the way of negotiations by saying that A-Rod was unsure with the future composition of the team while the World Series was still underway.  It infuriated fans and members of the front office. 

Some feared that the deal would never come to fruition.  A-Rod eventually had to step into negotiations himself without Boras for him to remain a Yankee.

Brand was the cornerstone of the sagging Clippers franchise in 2008.  After being injured most of the season, Brand opted out of the guaranteed $16.5 million in the final year of contract.

According to multiple sources, Brand's intention was to provide room in the salary cap for the Clippers to make more roster moves in the offseason and ultimately re-sign.  In fact, Brand was rumored to be one of the guys that convinced former Golden State Warrior point guard, Baron Davis, to sign with the team.

Davis then signed with the Clippers but Brand all of a sudden changed his mind.  He left the Clippers and Baron hanging after signing with the Philadelphia 76ers with a five-year deal.

His turnarounds have been well-documented.

In the last four seasons, Favre's made himself famous for being one of the most indecisive players in history, with respect to retirement.

After leaving the Packers as a retired player, he suddenly had a change of heart which found himself playing for the New York Jets.

He once again retired, but was suddenly offered a big opportunity by the Minnesota Vikings. With a two-year $25 million deal and plenty of lip service from Brad Childress, Favre just couldn't say no.

Kovalchuk left the New Jersey Devils at the end of the '09-'10 season thinking that he would not come back to the team that acquired him from the Atlanta Thrashers.

As a free agent, he found there to be little interest in his contract demands around the league.  Kovalchuk had supposedly met with the Los Angeles Kings, who were one of the few teams in the league that could afford a large contract. 

Instead of going with the Kings, Kovalchuk re-signed with the Devils who gave him a 17-year, $102 million deal.  But that deal was called off by the NHL because it violated their salary cap rules. 

So Kovalchuk was again a free agent and met with the Kings again and eventually spurned them another time as he then agreed on a new contract with the Devils for 15-years, $100 million.

What a mess.

During the summer of 2007, Kobe Bryant was unhappy with the direction of the team.  With option of opting out of his contract two years early, Bryant asked for a trade.

The Lakers were all but ready to send Kobe to the Chicago Bulls until Kobe decided to enforce his no-trade clause because he thought that the Bulls squad would be short on talent if too many players were traded away to Los Angeles.

He stayed with Los Angeles that season, the Lakers then acquired Pau Gasol midseason and the Lakers have been to three straight NBA Finals since—winning the last two NBA championships.

As for Kobe, he's been a happy camper since, choosing to resign with the Lakers.

The sheisty Boozer pulled a fast one on the Cleveland Cavaliers after the '03-'04 season.

According to the Cavs, they had a deal in place for Boozer to sign with them for 6 years and $39 million, provided that they chose to let him out of his present deal which only paid him $695,000.

But Boozer decided to take other offers after the Cavs declined their team option on his final year.

When he got a bigger offer than Cleveland had to offer, he bolted.

Boozer signed a 6-year, $70 million deal with the Utah Jazz instead.  Talk about loyalty.

Just over a week after saying he didn't plan on return to Manchester United because he wasn't happy with the direction of the team, Rooney re-signed.

His deal was an undisclosed but a lucrative five-year contract extension.

It was a complete 180 for Rooney, who said that the team's financial situation has a reason of concern.

Money talks.