philippe eko eel is proud to have his honored mentor eko van otter serving as his mentor. there is a strong relationship between the three entities here - philippe eko eel, eko van otter, and the mysterious GM of the atlanta inferno who goes by the name of hotdog. to be specific, the relationship is that they are all three the same guy (me). but for the sake of elaboration and argument lets say they're not all me. in this reality, eko van otter walks the tightrope between team and player - he has a vested interest in his player's salary, of course, so he wants Eel to get paid. But he also has a vested interest in the team's success, being a franchise legend and hoping for the best for Atlanta. So he is in the perfect position to negotiate between the two parties! Philippe eko eel accepts a bit of a pay cut on his contract, known as a home town discount, thus providing the franchise some cap leniency; this makes the team better and more successful, which yields superstar status for eel, which gets him some dope sponsorships, of which Otter reaps a cut too! Everybody wins!!