As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, August should be a time for my attention to turn toward training camp and the start of preseason football. However, this year it has been very difficult to take my attention away from the NFL draft, and more specifically the ridiculous process that rookie signing has become. Records have been set this year. Rams QB Sam Bradford received a contract that guarantees him $50 million dollars. Lions DE Ndamukong Suh received $40 million in guaranteed money…and remember they have as much NFL experience as you, me, and almost every person I have ever spoken to in my life.
On top of that, Bradford, the highest paid rookie in NFL history, only played two games in his last year at Oklahoma. His last “competitive game” was against Texas on October 17, 2009 where he re-injured the shoulder he would later need surgery to fix… and it was his throwing shoulder! I don’t even feel confident drafting him as my back-up fantasy QB let alone guarantee to give him $50 million dollars. It just doesn’t make sense that this process goes on, or that it is even allowed to go on.
Normally I wouldn’t care and it even happened last year when the Lions gave QB Matt Stafford close to $42 million dollars in guaranteed money. This year however, due to a new provision that went into effect in the NFL’s labor contract, no new contract can pay a player more than 30 percent more than their base salary from the previous year. However, since rookies didn’t play in the league before they were drafted (hopefully that’s obvious) this rule puts no cap on their potential salary. But players who do have NFL experience, and whose stats/performance can justify their pay, may not be able to get their fair share. The prime example here is Steelers LB LaMarr Woodley, everyone knows he deserves a contract extension and a pay raise…but if the Steelers wanted to offer one now, Woodley couldn’t make more than $598,000 this season. Woodley is scheduled to make $550,000 on the last year of his four-year contract.
I just don’t understand why NFL players aren’t more vocal about the issue. The under-rated and under-paid players greatly outnumber the over-rated over-paid players…so how could no player bring this issue to the NFL Players Association? I know the Commish Roger Goodell isn’t a fan of overpaying rookies, and I have heard interviews where he mentions making the system “fair” for all players, but in order to make any changes the Players Association will need to “okay” it too.
Now I don’t think all rookies should get minimum salary, because I do think players should be rewarded for college performance, and what teams think they are worth…but there needs to be some sort of a set cap. This might be a certain percentage of the annual salary cap, or an even more structured scale that clearly states the minimum and maximum a player can receive depending on the round they were drafted. Actually, my favorite idea came from my brother. He thinks rookies should get guaranteed money depending on the round they were drafted in the form of a signing bonus, but the majority of their money would be incentive based. That way performance plays a role in determining their pay. That way if a player performs well, he gets rewarded for it and if he is a bust he isn’t — like the Raiders JaMarcus Russell ($ 31.5 million guaranteed…yikes). I mean, it is only fair.
My only point is that without some sort of set cap, I feel the seemingly never-ending trend of a record-breaking rookie contract year after year will continue. I just want the games off the field to work the same as the game on the field. Be fair to every player… or as fair as you can be, because everyone knows quarterbacks will always get preferential treatment on both.
Feel free to post what you think or your idea for how this problem can be fixed.
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