Hold the phone now, because the Oscar Pareja to FC Dallas fiasco might not be over, despite what that report by the Dallas Morning News said a day back.

The way that the article from there had put it, Pareja going to Dallas seemed to be an inevitability, and it was incompetence or lack of caring from the Rapids front office that was going to send him there. A lowball contract had been all that was offered to 'one of the lowest paid coaches in the league', and as a result he seemed ready to look back to Dallas, where Dan Hunt was waiting.

A source told me earlier tonight that we might not be getting anywhere near the full story out of that, though. In fact, I was told quite the opposite story.

According to the source, it is only the persistence of Dan Hunt that is keeping this going, and not a money issue. Tim Hinchey and Paul Bravo have exercised every option in Pareja's contract and tied him up until 2015. In fact, he'll be earning more next year than Schellas Hyndman did last season. Not exactly a lowball contract, considering Schellas was one of the longer tenured guys in the league before he left at the end of 2013 and was likely making a decent chunk. Reportedly, the team was also in the midst of working on an extension with Pareja before the proverbial S hit the F.

To directly quote the person I was speaking with, "The FO didn't drop the ball on this one it doesn't look like. Looks like Dan Hunt leveraging his friendship with OP to get him away." The Rapids may end up getting the league involved if it continues.



So Oscar Pareja could very well still end up going to Dallas, and the Rapids would likely end up getting a pretty penny for him if he were to get shipped off to his former stomping grounds. Rather than it being as inevitable as it seemed yesterday, we might not want to start discussing the tactics and style of head coach Wilmer Cabrera just yet.

Here's the real question: If Oscar Pareja would net the Rapids a draft pick and $250,000 (the rumored amount for the buyout clause in his contract) for his departure, do you take that deal?