Do Rookies get paid too much?

[aspeck]

Roger Goodell thinks so and wants their salaries smaller, citing Jake Long's 5 year $57.75 million contract with a $30 mil guarrantee - and he has never played a down in the NFL.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080628/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_goodell_rookie_pay_4

What do you think? Should the NFL put a limit on rookie salaries, or let the free market take it's course?

 

[Pony]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

I think they should cap it. If you think about it, it sort of hurts the teams that are already struggling. What I mean by that is that typically the teams that are doing the worst are getting the top picks in the draft. They have a chance at high caliber players, but are also forced to pay a ton of money for guys who haven't played a down in the league. Obviously if the guys you pick that high produce its a mute point, but if they don't the team has really hurt themselves financially. (aka Detroit with Rodgers and Harrington etc.) Then you are stuck paying these guys and you can't get players that you need through trades or free agency. The league is about as balanced team to team as it has ever been...............but capping rookie salaries could make it even better.

I am a firm believer in incentive driven contracts......especially for rookies. Set a base salary (still based on where you were drafted, but not to the extremes we have now) and then put incentives and multipliers in based on performance.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

Cap them. This is way out of hand.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

But isn't it THEIR team? Can't they pay whatever they want?

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

All sports figures get paid wayyyyyyy too much, IMO.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

I agree they are all paid too much. But why do they get that much money? Same reason as Hollywood stars and starlets and top shelf musicians ... we love our entertainment. We are addicted to entertainment. Prices go up and we keep going to events. So, is it the NFL that has the right to tell the team what they can pay for a player, or should the team owners be allowed to determine their own contract parameters? If we stop going to events and watching it on TV, what will happen to the price of tickets, and to the price of these "stars"?

 

[Pony]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

But isn't it THEIR team? Can't they pay whatever they want?

True enough, but I feel the salary issue hurts the league as a whole, so imo the league can take action. They already have a salary cap.......its not like a rookie salary cap would be that much of a stretch.

The problem is that players and managers are smart....they know that as a top pick they can go into a hold out and force the team to pay up.

 

[bjcsc]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

Roger Goodell thinks so and wants their salaries smaller, citing Jake Long's 5 year $57.75 million contract with a $30 mil guarrantee -

Yeah, because Goodell's making 40K, right? I think the rookie pay scale is commensurate with the NFL's role in America...


"Owners of the 32 National Football League teams, for instance, paid league commissioner Paul Tagliabue a $6.4 million salary for the year ended March 31, 2003, according to an IRS filing by the league. "The commissioner's salary is commensurate with the NFL's role in America," says a league spokesman, Brian McCarthy. The NFL has annual revenue of around $5 billion."

 

[JB]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

It should be a free market.

The salary cap restricts a free market, but it does prevent the Jerry Joneses of the world from buying a Super Bowl. I will tolerate a team salary cap for that reason, but capping individual contracts? No way.

Let the team owners take risk and pay non-performers bazillions of bux. A free market has a way of leveling itself.

 

[Benny1963]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

yes most are paid way to much sports used to be about competetion
except for my favorites the combat sport such as wec wrekage and ufc
were quinton jackson made in the area of 500.000 to knock out chuck lidell
in and event that made millons there fighting for a whole lot less than most professional boxers ,and there level of fitness far excells most football players or baseball plyers and most boxers .not to mention you have to be able to take one serious a-- whooping lol ,i think they should combine pro football with mixed martial arts , when you catch the guy with the ball you should have to knock him out for 57 millon

 

[Bass Tracker TX17]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

Excuse me if the figures i give are wrong but there was a kicker in the NFL a few years ago that had a base salary. For every extra point he got something like $1000.00 and for every field goal he got like $3000.00. I wonder what a lineman or linebacker would do if he got like $5000.00 for a sack and his child support payment was coming due.

I think they are all overpaid. Like how much money do you need ???
With the contracts they have you don't even have to play to get paid.
I could live the rest of my life with no worries with the change that falls out of these guys pockets.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

i think the complete system is out of hand. they are pricing themselves out of the entertainment market. i do not go to Jaguar games for this reason. ticket, parking, food, for a Jaguars game totals, $250 per game. ain't none of them that good to me, these are just plain seats nothing special. $250 x 60,000 = $15,000,000.00, per game. ridiculous.

 

[Pony]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

It should be a free market.

Let the team owners take risk and pay non-performers bazillions of bux. A free market has a way of leveling itself.

I agree with this when we are not talking about rookies.
the problem I have is that if you are a bad enough team to get the number 1 pick...............you are going to pay a ridiculous sum for it. You won't be able to trade out of it because of the sticker shock. IMO this is hurting the league, I think it had hurt Detroit and for years is hurt the Bengals.

I don't care if a gm wants to pay a guy whos been in the league a year $50mil, but I don't think they should be paying guys straight out of college that kind of money. If the player is that good, he would see the money the next year.....if he isn't, then that struggling team didn't bargain a few years away on a wasted pick.

If you look at the draft history, trades in the top 5 picks or even top 10 almost never happen because the cost is so high.

 

[JB]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

I still say leave it a free market.

Like, TD, I don't attend big league or NFL games any more. I get better view, better service and greater comfort watching them on big screen HDTV. No driving, no parking, no lousy $5 hot dogs or $6 warm beer.

But as long as they can fill the stadia at $50-$75 a head and get bazillions for the broadcast rights the players are entitled to a goodly share of the bazillions, be they rookies, stars or has beens.

I think the guys who languish in A, AA and AAA for most of their careers, riding busses and sleeping in flea traps are just as entertaining and deserve more money.

 

[External Combustion]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

I would agree that the free market would take care of itself if government did not muck it up. The problem I have is that cities will vote taxes on their citizens to provide for sports staduims, work out facilities, training facilities on top of that, grant tax exemptions to the team and owners and tell the guy on the streets that will never be able to afford a ticket how much money the team brings into the community.

I have heard this several times around and then the local and state governments come up with the bond money to expand over and over again without releasing the fanancial data to show how much money the teams are making the average citizen in taxes.

If it is that good of business then they could afford their own facilities and equipment.

A factory making a product with that kind of goverment help would put more people to work and pay higher taxes. The factory workers would spend their dollars more locally and help the city and state economy more.

Let the free market reign.

 

[angus63]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

I still say leave it a free market.

Like, TD, I don't attend big league or NFL games any more. I get better view, better service and greater comfort watching them on big screen HDTV. No driving, no parking, no lousy $5 hot dogs or $6 warm beer.

But as long as they can fill the stadia at $50-$75 a head and get bazillions for the broadcast rights the players are entitled to a goodly share of the bazillions, be they rookies, stars or has beens.

I think the guys who languish in A, AA and AAA for most of their careers, riding busses and sleeping in flea traps are just as entertaining and deserve more money.

A free market results in the wealthiest teams attracting the best talent. Parity is lost and the league suffers. Capping salaries opens all the talent to all the cities, and puts the weight on team management to pick and choose who they can field and stay within the limits. This fosters competition and eliminates the "he with the biggest wallet wins!".
JB, the days of $50-75 NFL tickets have faded away. NYGiants have instituted seat licenses like Dallas. This way the fan pays for their nice new stadium facilities. Not sure about the rates in Dallas, but in NY it is estimated $200+ per seat per game with the license starting in 2010 in the new 83,000 seat stadium. After 50 yrs of four season tickets in my family, the NFL is pricing me out of attending games in the near future. I am on the 45 yd line 14 rows from field, and these seat locations are being earmarked as "corporate" pushing average Joe's back to the living room. NFL is a business and is targeting entities that exclude the working guy. Wellington Mara is puking in the grave while his sons cave in to greed.
Do rookies get paid too much? They get what the "market" bears, only the "market" is no longer you and me!!!!​

 

[Skiuseme]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

I believe that Salary caps on the teams are just fine, but not on individual players.

I truely believe in the "Golden Rule"

He who has the gold makes the rule!!

We as CONSUMERS have the Gold and we are the ones that make the RULE. All of these businesses cater to what we want or they wont be around. Once WE stop buying the Tickets, the Merchandise, not watching on TV, or listening on the radio then they will finally relise we've had enough.

On the Flip Side

This can be great for the economy. I dont know if there is a group of people that are more Foolish with their money. They feel they are ENTITLED to the fancy cars, big boats, huge houses, and grossly spending life style. When they do this they need alot of people to TAKE CARE OF THEM. (Which in turn takes care of my family due to my own paycheck)

 

[angus63]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

We as spectators have some green, but sponsors, advertisers, and networks have the gold the NFL is mining!!!!!!

 

[aspeck]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

And the sponsors pay the money for the sponsorship because they feel they will get a return on their investment ... if people aren't watching, bye-bye sponsorship. And we are back to the free market and not the league dictating the salaries of the team employees.

 

[angus63]

Re: Do Rookies get paid too much?

In terms we are familiar with, the NFL is fishin', big corporate dollars are the prize catch, and the working mans wallet is the bait!!!