Twitter beefers Odell Willis, Nate Coehoorn both took pay cuts

Edmonton Eskimo defensive end Odell Willis may be facing some heat for his decision to criticize former teammate Nate Coehoorn’s retirement but he wasn’t wrong – about the numbers at least.

Coehoorn called it quits on the weekend after six CFL seasons and Odell took issue with the timing and nature of the decision on Tuesday, while also acknowledging he took a pay cut.

U take ur (30k)bonus and retire then LIE talking bout ur head and ur health. Boy✋🏾, u just mad u took a pay cut! Plus u soft #YeahIsaidit

3:00

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— Odell Willis (@KuntryKane205) April 11, 2017

CFL sources say Coehoorn did indeed pocket $45,000 in bonus money: a $10,000 bonus on February 1, a $25,000 bonus on Feb. 14 and another $10,000 on April 1. All that money counts against Edmonton’s 2017 salary cap, despite the fact that Coehoorn won’t play a down this season.

There’s an interesting caveat though: The last two payments are on a new contract Coehoorn signed with now-departed general manager Ed Hervey which saw Coehoorn take a $15,000 pay cut. That helps explain the Tweet Coehoorn fired off – since deleted – the day Hervey got fired.

“Crazy news out of Eskimo land. I wonder if giving pay cuts to a lot of veteran players had anything to do with it.”

So Hervey asked Coehoorn to take a pay cut, gave him some up-front money to make it a little easier to swallow, but Coehoorn took the bonus cash and subsequently retired. Seems like they’ve stopped selling white cowboy hats in Edmonton.

As for Willis, he took a $30,000 haircut this season as part of renegotiated deal and will get $18,000 less than he was originally due for 2018. Again, that deal was negotiated with the now-departed Hervey.

The Eskimo Way indeed.