Goodell Feels Even More Strongly About Rookie Wage Scale

BasX · Mar 28, 2009

In a wide-ranging Friday interview with Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan of Sirius NFL Radio’s Movin’ the Chains, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the issue of a rookie wage scale.

It’s a topic he has addressed in the past. And it’s a concern that hasn’t subsided. In fact, it has strengthened.

“I feel stronger about it than I did a year ago,” Goodell said. ”I just think it is the right thing for our players. It’s the right thing in any industry.

“The money should go to the people that have produced on the NFL level or on the professional level. And I just think, though we’ve had a number of great rookies coming in, not everyone makes that transition as successfully and you want to make sure that the system rewards the people who perform and I think that’s what we have to figure out in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. How do we pay the players fairly? How do we compensate them properly after they’ve proven themselves on the NFL level?”

The NFLPA has resisted this notion, even though it helps none of the current members of the union — and never will. The system presently in place grossly overpays the first ten or so college players whose named are called on draft day, and does nothing for the any other NFL player.

But the late Gene Upshaw, long-term head of the union, opposed changing the system. Whether it was merely a bargaining stance or a genuine philosophical belief isn’t known, since Upshaw passed before the negotiations on a new CBA commenced.

It’s also unknown whether new NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith agrees with Upshaw.

On the surface, it’s easy to assume that he will, since the union could get a concession from the league by relenting on a point that the league is pushing. But if Smith aspires to create true unity among the rank and file, he’ll explain to them that a system forcing the worst teams from the prior year to make enormous financial commitments to unproven players serves only to take money away from men who have shown that they can get it done.

It also creates for some teams a perpetual spiral of futility, making it harder for them to emerge from the land of the top five picks because, on average, they end up wasting a bunch money on half — or more — of their first-round rookies.

The real question is whether Smith is willing to risk alienating the handful of agents who benefit from the current system. By having one (or more) clients every year who secure deals with guaranteed money in excess of $30 million and total values exceeding $50 million, the annual budgets of agencies like CAA rely heavily on the ongoing existence of the three-percent fees they receive from such contracts.

Some of those agents have privately advanced arguments in favor of keeping the current system, but none are more persuasive than coming up with a way to prevent the Ryan Leafs and Akili Smiths and Charles Rogerses and Pacman Joneseses of the NFL from draining resources that should go to players who deserve it.
Click to expand...

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/03/28/goodell-feels-even-more-strongly-about-rookie-wage-scale/

huevonkiller · Mar 29, 2009

I have to agree with him on this one, I love the way the NBA does this.

Log in or Sign up

Goodell Feels Even More Strongly About Rookie Wage Scale

BasX I Win

huevonkiller Change (Deftones)

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Goodell Feels Even More Strongly About Rookie Wage Scale

BasX I Win

huevonkiller Change (Deftones)

Share This Page

Useful Searches