Patriots didn't force Reggie Wayne to give up bonus

Outside of getting a Super Bowl ring, Reggie Wayne might have had the greatest Patriots experience of the Bill Belichick era during his 11 days with the club back in 2015.

The Patriots signed the future Hall of Famer to a deal that included a $450,000 signing bonus ... and they didn't make him give it back when he quit after less than two weeks on the job.

"They told me to keep it," the NFL Network analyst told ESPN on Thursday. "If they would have said 'We want it back,' I would have given it back. You find $1,000, and they say you can keep it, put it in your damn wallet."

As someone who would personally prefer the Zen coaching style of Pete Carroll, being able to circumnavigate Belichick's damp personality and contentious teaching methods and still get paid what some hard working undrafted free agents get for an entire season would be an incredible cherry on top of a hall of fame season.

For perspective, here are a few things that cost roughly $450,000.

This 2008 Alvento 77 yacht.

This space rock.

A gold plated bicycle.

Mold removal on a massive corporate annex building.

So as you can see, the world is really open to Wayne thanks to those 11 days in Foxborough. While we would have liked to see him team up with Tom Brady for one season, we were also happy to see someone pull one over on the Patriots for once instead of the other way around.