The Money War Finds New Purpose
MONEY PLOT TWIST!
So last week I was browsing NBA news and I saw the reports of James Harden’s new contract. James Harden is going to make over 200 million dollars. Steph Curry also just got paid similar dough. Suddenly Derek Carr’s $125 “highest contract in NFL History” looks kinda wimpy.
And every time a basketball star gets paid, there rises a small chorus of people who passionately argue that NFL players deserve more. That they deserve to get paid just like these basketball players. On the surface it makes sense. Football players play a more popular sport. More importantly, football players endure more long term damage. They sacrifice their bodies far more than any other sport. Football players are underpaid when it comes to professional athletes in most other major sports.
I do think football players deserve more money, but not the superstars. 125 million is, quite frankly, enough. Does James Harden really need 228 million dollars? That’s more than enough to live if you aren’t dumb. I don’t think the superstar athletes really need these contracts, especially since they also have insane endorsement deals that probably make them far more dough. I’d much rather see the money football players deserve go to the lesser players. The guys who are just dudes, regular starters. Backups. Practice squad people. Those are the people who need it. Those are the guys still out there, getting hurt the same way, washing out with very little to show for it and a lifetime of medical problems awaiting them. Essentially, I want the football minimum wage increased. Or at the minimum, more funds allocated towards taking care of players after they retire.
Football will never be able to pay players like basketball, where teams only have to pay like 12 people instead of 53+. Or baseball, where there is no salary cap and the luxury teams can just throw money at problems. If no contract ever surpasses Derek Carr, I’d be fine with that. But give the little guys more money.
I’ll have to wait for the next contract to see how this develops.
I have maintained for a long time that no player’s total contract should ever be able to be more than 1/3 the annual salary cap– ie, last year was a 155.27M cap, so no contract should be more, over it’s life, than 52M~. I’d also like them to raise the minimum wage by a *lot*– at least triple what it is now– for 1-5 year players, and bump the salary floor to 97% of the salary cap, with anything below that being distributed evenly to all players who were employed on the team and either not traded or cut and picked up by someone else.
I’d also like to see the salary cap dropped by 5% of where it’s at right now, and that put toward a matched owners/NFL-provided medical fund for players, with at least 1/2 going into preventative medicine research, and the remainder going toward insurance and medical costs for every NFL player, for life. You make practice squad, and you’re covered forever. This would mean the NFL dropping a total of close to $500 *MILLION* (between what player salaries are lowered by and what the NFL adds in), *PER YEAR*. That’s $250 *MILLION* toward research (research, by the by, that will help far more than only NFL players in the long term, and thus not only make the NFL enjoyable to watch, but increase its capacity as a benefit to society), and cover their players– and that should be enough, when combined with what’s already provided, to cover current players and veterans on their medical plan. I mean, they got kudos for dropping $40M over five years– let’s make that $250M, every year.
If the owners, as a whole or even individually, can’t soak up that $15M~ year, then feel free to have a provision where their books are independently audited by a reputable firm, and the NFL as an organization can make up that difference– the number of teams that would apply to are going to be *extremely* small.
*I initially thought 10% less to players, matched by owners, but that would probably turn half the teams in the NFL into a money-loss. I would be amazed if more than 12 NFL owners pull in $30M/year profit from the sport.
*correction, because I’m a derp; I’d still be amazed if most NFL teams make more than $15M profit, but it should be 7.81M/year at 5% of the salary cap, not 15%.
The biggest problem, if we’re being honest, is that the NFLPA is useless compared to other player’s associations. The NBAPA was willing to go as far as losing 20 games of the season in 2011 and dissolve itself so its players could sue the NBA. The MLBPA was willing to sacrifice the ’94 World Series and half of the ’95 season to get its players a better deal. Meanwhile, I can’t think of a single time where it seemed like the NFLPA managed to do something significantly beneficial for players. The concussion lawsuit wasn’t by them, it was a class-action started by Jim McMahon. They widely approved the current drug policy and all its nonsensical rules in 2014. They approved the current CBA that let Goodell become judge, jury, and executioner. Hindsight is 20/20, but even looking past the things they’ve done that hurt players, I can’t think of what they’ve done to help. They refused to risk losing a single regular season game over the CBA when other player’s associations were willing to sacrifice championships. By comparison, they’re toothless.
The ironic thing is that the players you’re talking about who don’t make enough to offset the health concerns and who actually need a raise and would benefit the most from an aggressive strike are the ones who would be hurt most by it short-term. Lifestyle creep is a problem everywhere, including in the NFL. Even if you’re a practice squad player making veteran minimum, you end up feeling pressured to keep up with the Joneses, and in this case, the Joneses are multimillionaires making upwards of 10-15 times what you do. If you’re a big-money player who’s able to spend lavishly while still living in his means, or who has tens of millions sitting in the bank saved up, you can survive a six-game strike. If you’re a former fifth-rounder still on his rookie deal who’s been spending to keep up with your teammates, you’re probably living paycheck to paycheck, and a six-game strike would probably get your car(s) repossessed, and maybe start you in the direction of bankruptcy.
What’s coming out of Steph Curry’s (I think I don’t basketball) mouth? Is it a white snake tongue? A really oddly rolled doooob? I am puzzled.
*(I think; I don’t basketball)
It’s his mouthguard
His mouthpiece. He’s known to have it stick out of the side of his mouth like that.
https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/XT7S9.yWAbBAVzJZ84Z5aA–/aD00Mzc7dz02MDA7c209MTthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg–/https://s.yimg.com/cd/resizer/2.0/FIT_TO_WIDTH-w600/1619d8570d6674b80fbf8b22ac1b60d4cd82a411.jpg
Pro sports players already get paid a metric fuck ton for playing a game. Even if you were to make the league minimum 1.5 million, that wouldn’t really change anything in the long run because players would still be living beyond their means.
More importantly is that the players are taught serious financial management under the premise that the money needs go last them for 40+ years after their retirement.
Besides, if the players really do want more money, they have to be willing to give up game checks to get the NBA free agency where the restricted free agent status goes away after a week, all contracts are fully guaranteed, and their is no franchise tag.
Fully guaranteed contracts aren’t required under the NBA or MLB CBAs, they’re just customary in those sports. For mid-level NBA players, the contracts usually aren’t fully guaranteed anyway.
Even though I do agree the NFL should pay more, that would be more difficult. If the NBA had 53-player rosters and 16 games then I don’t think they would have the crazy contracts they earn.
I feel like someday $200 million contracts will become a reality, but how much do these guys really need? You already make millions as is regardless of the sport. And before you hit the pros, who even CARES about how much they make in a given league? They haven’t even reached that point.
My point is people play for the love of the game before anything else, and if you’re earning millions, you’re rich, regardless of however many millions you earn playing.
So Russell Wilson is a scratcher, huh?
(I love the gag of the consistently tiny Wilson)
Baby Russ is the perfect travel back-scratcher in a pinch! He’s so tiny and mobile, he can fit and move anywhere in the pocket!
What say the Ancient Ones? Those who walk on diamonds? Stanton? Cabrera? Cano? Rodriguez? Pujols?
Actuallly Harden’s Adidas contract is only for 200 million vs his new NBA contract (228 mill)
I remember when the Yankees gave A-Rod that albatross of a contract back in 2007 and all the sports reporters said we’d never see a deal like that again
What a world we live in
The average NBA player is worth several times more than the average NFL player
There’s a little part of me that’s happy that Flacco is the uniting leader in all this, as one of the progenitors of the money fort joke.
A quick reminder that Timofey Mozgov will be earning $16 million a year for the next three years. than
He should be giving 3% of that to LeBron and Kyrie. They did as much to earn him that contract as his agent did.
A good start would be for the contracts to be fully guaranteed.
It’s not feasible with a hard salary cap to fully guarantee 53 contracts unless they also put in structured tiers similar to the NBA. Even then, there’s so much variance and injury luck involved that if a max player in the NFL got hurt or caught Matt Schaub Syndrome it would cripple the team, potentially for years.
If you think that’s big you should see soccer players. Ronaldo is currently the highest paid athlete in 2017 along with Messi behind him while lebron earns 86 mil a year Ronaldo earns close to 100 mill a year!!
Soccer pays its top players ludicrously!!!
But that’s offset by all the acting lessons they need to take to be a top level talent.
So does this culminate in MLB pitchers the gods of the NBA money gods?
Can we get a comic about people trying to slay the Browns’ quarterback hydra.
Not gonna lie, still kinda pissed off that Fletcher Cox never got a money robot.
Awwww they did it