Thank you, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, for recently admitting what many fans have been saying for years. That rookie salaries are out of control.
This year´s first pick in the NFL Draft, tackle Jake Long from the University of Michigan, received a $30 million signing bonus as part of his five-year, $57.75 million dollar contract with the Miami Dolphins. If he never plays a down in the NFL, he is already a millionaire 30 times over!
A rookie salary cap is long overdue and would improve things in the NFL a couple of different ways. First, teams would no longer dread having the first pick in the draft knowing that they are going to have to pay through the nose for an untested rookie who may never reach his potential with the team.
Second, there would be no more missed practices by rookies who hold out for the best deal that their agent can squeeze out of a team. They would already know how much they are going to make that first year based on where they were picked on the draft.
Third, it just might lead to college players staying in college that extra year because they won´t be blinded by dollar signs when they think about jumping to the NFL.
I envision two rookie pay scales, one for the first round draft picks and another pay scale for the other six rounds. For example, the first player selected in the first round would be the highest paid player in the draft, of course. The second pick would get slightly less and so on all the way to the 32nd player, the last pick in the first round. The players taken in the second round would all get the same salary. All the third round picks would also make the same pay, which would be slightly less than those taken in the second round and so on and so forth through the seventh round.
The only negotiations involved would be what kinds of performance incentives to add to the contract, and even those could be standard options on all rookie contracts. A rookie just might set the league on its ear with a stellar performance and he should be rewarded for that. But if he doesn´t perform as well as expected, the team would not be stuck paying an exorbitant salary with little or no return on their investment.
Some might argue that the NFL is pulling down billions of dollars in TV revenues, so they can afford to pay such high player salaries. That may be true, but the money that is now going to some rookie fresh out of college would be better spent going to a veteran player who has proven his worth year in and year out.
Of course the rookies won´t like to see a salary cap on their earnings. Neither will their agents or the players union, but it just makes sense. How much of my $90 ticket price is currently going to that rookie sitting on the bench? How long will it be before a rookie gets a $100 million guarenteed signing bonus on his first NFL contract? Things can´t keep going the way they are.
In 2008, the minimun NFL salary for rookies is set at $295,000. In 2009, it increases to $310,000 and in 2010 it will be $325,000. Who couldn´t live on that kind of salary? Compare those numbers to what you made at your job last year and you will see that a player making the league minimum is still getting paid pretty darn good!
So thank you, commissioner Goodell, for at least stating what fans have been complaining about for a long time. It will not be easy to instiute a rookie salary cap, but other major sports leagues have it and I think it´s something that is definitely needed in the NFL.
This year´s first pick in the NFL Draft, tackle Jake Long from the University of Michigan, received a $30 million signing bonus as part of his five-year, $57.75 million dollar contract with the Miami Dolphins. If he never plays a down in the NFL, he is already a millionaire 30 times over!
A rookie salary cap is long overdue and would improve things in the NFL a couple of different ways. First, teams would no longer dread having the first pick in the draft knowing that they are going to have to pay through the nose for an untested rookie who may never reach his potential with the team.
Second, there would be no more missed practices by rookies who hold out for the best deal that their agent can squeeze out of a team. They would already know how much they are going to make that first year based on where they were picked on the draft.
Third, it just might lead to college players staying in college that extra year because they won´t be blinded by dollar signs when they think about jumping to the NFL.
I envision two rookie pay scales, one for the first round draft picks and another pay scale for the other six rounds. For example, the first player selected in the first round would be the highest paid player in the draft, of course. The second pick would get slightly less and so on all the way to the 32nd player, the last pick in the first round. The players taken in the second round would all get the same salary. All the third round picks would also make the same pay, which would be slightly less than those taken in the second round and so on and so forth through the seventh round.
The only negotiations involved would be what kinds of performance incentives to add to the contract, and even those could be standard options on all rookie contracts. A rookie just might set the league on its ear with a stellar performance and he should be rewarded for that. But if he doesn´t perform as well as expected, the team would not be stuck paying an exorbitant salary with little or no return on their investment.
Some might argue that the NFL is pulling down billions of dollars in TV revenues, so they can afford to pay such high player salaries. That may be true, but the money that is now going to some rookie fresh out of college would be better spent going to a veteran player who has proven his worth year in and year out.
Of course the rookies won´t like to see a salary cap on their earnings. Neither will their agents or the players union, but it just makes sense. How much of my $90 ticket price is currently going to that rookie sitting on the bench? How long will it be before a rookie gets a $100 million guarenteed signing bonus on his first NFL contract? Things can´t keep going the way they are.
In 2008, the minimun NFL salary for rookies is set at $295,000. In 2009, it increases to $310,000 and in 2010 it will be $325,000. Who couldn´t live on that kind of salary? Compare those numbers to what you made at your job last year and you will see that a player making the league minimum is still getting paid pretty darn good!
So thank you, commissioner Goodell, for at least stating what fans have been complaining about for a long time. It will not be easy to instiute a rookie salary cap, but other major sports leagues have it and I think it´s something that is definitely needed in the NFL.
