Seriously? The FO really liked Heyward- it simply came down to doing what was in both his best and the team's best interests. How difficult is that to understand? I speak with lateral partners all the time and if the delta in their salary expectations vis a vis our projected salary figures are that disparate, we won't "make the offer" because it's a complete waste of both side's time. That is exactly what happened in this instance; it was made very clear that Heyward wanted to be in a much, much higher range of compensation than we were willing to go and both sides just handled themselves professionally by saying thank you and moving on.
Get over the drama already. I'm telling you what happened.