Rookie Pay Issue Remains Hot Topic
The issue of rookie pay isn't going away. It promises to be a major topic of debate in the upcoming labor negotiations.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made that clear last week when he spoke out on the topic, calling the escalating salaries and bonuses that teams give to just-drafted players ridiculous.
The franchise owners want to add a mechanism to curb rookies' salaries as part of the labor negotiations, and they have the support of some veteran players who also have voiced their objections to seeing younger, unproven players receive such handsome contracts.
But Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, has said he will not agree to any such mechanism.
To Upshaw, players have limited opportunities to raise the salary bar, and he's not willing to eliminate one of them. In Upshaw's view, a huge deal given to a rookie sets a contract precedent that enables other players to negotiate raises for themselves.
By Mark Maske |
July 2, 2008; 9:43 AM ET
| Category:
League
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Negotiations
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Posted by: capskins Fan | July 2, 2008 1:44 PM
If they want a rookie salary cap like basketball, they will have to offer guaranteed contracts. You can't have your cake & eat it to if your the NFL. A career in football can be over in one play, unlike other sports. This is why top draft picks get PAID!
Posted by: Tony | July 2, 2008 1:44 PM
Sad that the owners need a mechanism to curb rookie contracts, and that the owners cannot control this themselves. The NFL has already had labor strife, the owners just never get it. Sadly, this rookie salary issue is already out of the barn, the NFLPA won't budge on this without a work stoppage, you watch.
Posted by: delOH | July 3, 2008 7:04 AM
Hey Mark,
What if owners got together and simply refused to pay huge salary to rookies?
But it would take every one of them for it to work,so I guess, I just answered my own question....??
Posted by: RedskinRay1 | July 5, 2008 8:09 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Upshaw is just wrong. Put a rookie pay scale in place and limit the contract term to 3 years max. Once rookies have paid their dues and proven their worth, then allow them to offer their services on the open market. The cap isn't going to go down, the money will still be there for those that earn it and I'll wager, the quality of play will go up. Vetrans and teams are being shackled by the enormous contracts which negatively impact a teams cap porition years after the rookie has become a bust and is no longer on the team. IMHO, structuring entry contracts to keep rookies hungry and working until they are able to cope with the speed of the pro game and what it takes to be competitive at the pro level is a good thing. Pay the big bucks to the proven professionals, not to the unproven rookies.