Like the rest of us in the current economy, the NFL team owners are looking for ways to save a buck. They came up with an idea: "Why not pay a few people less money. In fact, let's start with the young players... We'll save them from the perils of sudden abject wealth. Their parents will thank us... Maybe the whole world will thank us? We may even get one of those Nobel Prizes for helping the football playing youth of America dream in smaller $$$ numbers... Plus, "CBA" will look great on a t-shirt... Is it great to be us or what!"
I've thought for a long time the rookie contracts were just the other side of absurd. The Russells and Leafs of the draft have shown me that and more. The more being that the owners actually thought it was smart to pay those ludicrous dollars to unproven college players. I laughed when the new CBA included a rookie pay scale. The NFL owners had to put it in a contract that a player couldn't ask for too much money and a team couldn't bend to the will of an agent no matter how much they wanted...
Agents must be witches. They cast spells over what would appear competent business men to make them think paying jillions of dollars to their clients made sense. The counter spell? Boolah - Boolah - CBA - Boolah and a wave of their Goodell wand... Poof! It was like Voldimort suddenly became a street vendor instead of an agent for the dark side. Agents rolled over faster than a Willy's Jeep. In fact, it is fair to state the need for an agent to negotiate a 1st round draft pick's contract may actually be no longer necessary. While an agent may be needed to find endorsement deals, agents may very well have lost a good deal of their money stream... Wait for it... Nope, I don't hear any fans crying. I mean, it's not like Rosenthal action figures were all that big at Christmas time anyway. Sports agents aren't ever going to garner sympathy. If Dickens had pressed a few orphaned agents noses against a steamy window it would have somehow lacked any literary emotion, though food scraps may have been thrown in their general direction...
Have a look at what this year's rookie 1st round crop will make versus 2010. I applied relative math, meaning a straight division for an average 4 year contract amount. The actual contracts often have varying or escalating yearly payments, but for the purposes of comparison, my way should serve.
The Top 10 of the rookie crop of 2010 had a combined 4 year payroll of $391.8 million. Their 2011 breatheren? $149.6 million... So in the first year of the new CBA, the owners have saved a whopping $242.2 million!!! Over the course of the new 10 year CBA - $2.4 billion and that's just on the Top 10 draftees. The $2.4 billion almost doubles with the rest of the first round picks included.
So the lockout's first CBA benefit for the owners is a savings of close to $5 billion over ten years on the draft alone.
2011 First round payroll (Lists courtesy of NFL.com)
"Contract figures compiled by NFL Network insiders Jason La Canfora and Michael Lombardi, NFL.com senior writer Steve Wyche, and other reported sources."
The fact that the CBA has lowered pay for players isn't all that upsetting to me. Players are still being paid millions to play football. They may have to buys a Porsche instead of a Bentley or struggle through life with five bathrooms instead of ten in their water front shacks.
Free agency will give the NFL owners a Karmic backlash. They will have to manage shortened contract terms and become better gauges of a players useful life. The past tells me they will screw this up in a huge way. The new four year free agency plan will play hell with team accountants and coaches alike.
Whether or not this "New NFL Order" will help large market teams is still up in the air. Every team will have to deal with the fact that taking more than four years to build, let alone maintain a winning team, will not only be the biggest challenge, but is the new reality of the NFL.
Whatever happens, the NFL owners would appear to have scored big with the new CBA. It all comes down to how much of the lower rookie salaries actually translates into money in the pockets of owners. Hopefully this windfall of savings is being spread out among players, both past and present, and the NFL owners. Only time will tell...
Would be nice if some of that money saved could be translated into lower ticket prices for the fans, but then again my bong is still full and the smoke is just starting to flow out of it. Obviously I’m dreaming.
Maybe the way it worked out was unintended, but I think the Rookie pay cap actually protects them…I know this sounds strange, but because of the heavy penalties levied against player holdouts, the pay scale gives a documented guidline to work in so that both sides can reference it to point to what is “fair”.
If this isnt there, I could totally see several instances where a stingy owner says screw you I am not giving you an 80 million dollar contract just because you were the first pick in the draft. You can have 3 million because your a rookie…I am exaggerating but you get the idea. If a new player got this type of “Raw Deal” what is he going to do about it? He has no avenue to protest really.
- And here's the Rams' 2010 season in a series. Incomplete pass, 18-yard run, incomplete pass, 7-yard run, 5-yard pass, 3-yard run, sack, incomplete pass, punt. Shoot me. - 3K
Regardless of how much they pay their rookies, NFL teams still have to be above the salary floor and below the salary cap. This year, those numbers are $108M and $120M, respectively. As such, there is only $12M of wiggle room for any given team to cut costs on player salaries (rookie or otherwise). Generally speaking, spending that $12M seems likely to build more revenue and value for the franchise than not spending.
Now, in 2009, the salary cap was $128 ($8M higher than now), so there may be savings for the owners, but it has virtually nothing to do with the rookie salary scale.
It’s unfair to say the owners are saving all of this money without comparing the actual team salaries to the salaries of years past.
For example (and these are VERY rough estimates): The average team salary:
2009: ~106-107 million
2008: ~113-114 million
So when they constructed the new CBA they took this into account in setting the salary cap and floor. This way owners COULD NOT save money by simply not signing enough players.
If anyone has a further knowledge of the new CBA please correct me if I’m wrong.
"I got to get Dr. Freeze off my twig right now."-Nyjer Morgan
Actual capitalized commitments for revenue outside of salaries haven’t changed all that much (i.e. pensions, healthcare, etc…). That the money being saved on rookie contracts is being reallocated to these commitments or veteran players is not readily evident. Look at FA contracts this year. You are not seeing an increase in FA contract value. Even the blockbuster FA contracts are lower than in past years.
While it may very well be true implicit costs for running an NFL team have risen, so have ancillary contracts such as TV and merchandising. Without detailed knowledge of how revenues are allocated and accounted, it is hard to paint an accurate picture of where any monetary changes in rookie contract values is going. I tend to think the money saved is being spent, but it is taking the place of the capital previously used to pay liabilities, therefore a “return of capital” for the owners on an on going basis may very well be the case.
I would be shocked if the distribution of team salaries w.r.t. the salary floor and cap changes dramatically. Unless it does, the rookie salaries are meaningless. If teams wanted to pay less on salaries, there would be a lot more teams hugging the salary floor rather than hugging the cap, but that’s not the case. FWIW, the floor is actually more restrictive in the new agreement (90% of the cap) than it was in 2009 (87.6% of the cap).
I think we will find in the coming months, or even years that the NFL negotiators did very well for their clients and the player, past and present, got worked in a very big way. I’ve read the available CBA docs and there was a very good reason why the owners voted it in so quickly and it had nothing to do pre-season game revenue.
Rams Fan: Get the 5 biggest Rams stories, hand-picked for your inbox.
Show more info?
We’ve developed a unique email newsletter that delivers the five most interesting Rams stories fans are talking about every week. Each email is curated by an SB Nation editor who follows the Rams the way you do: as a fan. Catch up and stay on top with one email containing stories worth your time.
You can unsubscribe at anytime, and we'll never use your address for evil. Not interested? Make this bar go away forever. You can always sign up later.
by 
Email
Print
