for display only
Big Blue Interactive The Corner Forum  
Back to the Corner

Archived Thread

Great article on how badly the owners beat the players

Optimus-NY : 7/21/2013 6:24 pm
Check out this great article on how badly the owners beat the players in the new CBA from today's Boston Globe. Check out this excerpt from the article below:

Quote:
“The NFLPA absolutely failed the NFL players,” said one prominent agent with two decades in the league, who spoke under the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the NFLPA. “It’s the worst CBA in professional sports history. It’s pushing the veterans out of the game and cuts the rookie pay in half. How is that a good deal?”


Discuss...

"Now more than ever, we realize NFL owners won" - by Ben Volin | BOSTON GLOBE STAFF | JULY 21, 2013 - ( New Window )
The head of the NFLPA should lose his job.  
robbieballs2003 : 7/21/2013 7:01 pm : link
The more this plays out the worse it is getting for the players. I wouldn't be surprised to see a strike at some point because of how bad this deal is for them.
boo hoo hoo  
Gman11 : 7/21/2013 7:18 pm : link
Quote:
Rookie contracts got slashed in the new CBA, with Cam Newton, the No. 1 overall pick in 2011, getting just $22 million guaranteed. What’s more, rookie signing bonuses have remained flat for the last three seasons. Kansas City’s Eric Fisher, the 2013 No. 1 overall pick, will get the same $14.518 million signing bonus that Newton and Andrew Luck (2012) did.


Let's take up a collection for these guys so that they can buy their groceries.
Those of us who followed this knew  
nomad1986 : 7/21/2013 7:23 pm : link
immediately that the players got crushed. But look at the hate thrown toward Cruz while he was trying to get paid. Football fans are such suckers that they pay PSL's.

The owners know exactly who they're suckers are and how to play them. 99% of the people who post here side with the owners on labor issues or contract issues. Believe me the shield is very well aware of how football fans will do anything to stick the NFL the needle in their veins.

The only thing they haven't figured out is how to compete with HDTV and WiFi. That's a battle they're going to lose and then the ticket model will change, stadiums will get smaller and tickets will get cheaper because in 10-15 years TV will be so advanced that stadiums will become glorified TV studios.

Mara should have convinced Woody to spring for the roof. The new horrible building is already obsolete.
While "anonymous player agents"  
Enoch : 7/21/2013 7:24 pm : link
are hardly the most impartial of sources, in this case they're not wrong.
What a shame.  
NyquistX3 : 7/21/2013 7:26 pm : link
Billionaires get richer and the guys putting their brains and limbs on the line take less.
Is it really surprising that GB made record profits in 2011-12?  
Big Blue Blogger : 7/21/2013 7:27 pm : link
They had just won a Super Bowl. I'm not sure they are representative of the NFL as a whole. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren't.

And who are all these great veteran players who are being priced out of the League? Name five (It's probably too soon to name any. Let's see what happens in September, at cut-down time.) The Minimum Salary Benefit enables older vets to compete on a level cap playing field with a third-year player while making between $700K and $1MM. As for the guys who had to settle for less money this year, well, Cliff Avril made a fortune last season under the new CBA. He was overpaid. Big deal. Each year, some guys are overpaid, and some are underpaid. If the CBA is so awful for players, why is Mike Wallace smiling so broadly?

I happen to agree with the central thesis that the owners got the better of the new deal, and that the CBA mostly benefits a small class of superstar players; but the CBA did toughen the spending floor, and it shifted money from rookies to veterans overall, which the union wanted. The article seems a bit overstated.
Realistically  
pjcas18 : 7/21/2013 7:35 pm : link
the NFL is what the other sports should be, not the other way around.

No guaranteed contracts, only portions of contracts guaranteed.

rookie wage pools

free agency rules set up to help teams keep their own free agents

hard cap.

however, the weakness of the NFLPA, the billions of dollars of pressure, the lack of any competition, and other factors made it worse than it should have been.
..  
Named Later : 7/21/2013 7:36 pm : link
The Rookie Wage Scale really needed to come under control, that takes the huge downside for the Owners completely out of the picture. The fact that some teams are now insisting on "Offset" language is an embarrassment. In addition, they could have made it easier to keep a veteran around by reducing his Cap Hit even further......Players with 6 or more years service only count $200K against the Cap.
Green Bay's record profits  
nomad1986 : 7/21/2013 7:41 pm : link
had nothing to do with winning the Super Bowl. they had to do with the expansion of Lambeau which was expanded again this off season.

Quote:
When it comes to playing with the big boys, the Green Bay Packers can compete with the best of them.

They've proven that on the field by winning more NFL championships than any other team. And they've done themselves proud off the field with the development of the money-making machine known as Lambeau Field.

Although Green Bay is the smallest city in professional sports by far, its stadium now has the third-largest seating capacity in the NFL.

With the completion of yet another Lambeau expansion, the Packers will play home games in front of capacity crowds of 80,750.

The Packers reported record revenue and profits this week, and their decision to add 7,000 seats to Lambeau beginning this season was shrewd and economically sound.

The team is coming off a remarkable two-decade run of success, and the Packers' season ticket waiting list hovers just above 100,000. So why not maximize revenue streams while inviting several thousand additional ticket buyers to share in the fun at Lambeau? Everybody comes up a winner.


They haven't killed the golden goose in Green Bay yet.
How many Americans  
mikepaz56 : 7/21/2013 8:10 pm : link
Are making an average of 10 million dollars in their career. Don't feel sorry for these players who will have free healthcare and pensions for basically the rest of their lives
Feel sorry for middle class who bust their asses. Get reamed tax wise by our government and support the people who are on federal aid and don't feel like working. Feel sorry for the people who don't and can't afford healthcare. Feel sorry for the people who are unemployed and are begging to work
Don't feel sorry for these athletes who are privileged and don't appreciate it and take what they have for granted
This is why 'winners and losers' for this discussion is dumb...  
Torrag : 7/21/2013 8:11 pm : link
Rookie contracts got slashed in the new CBA, with Cam Newton, the No. 1 overall pick in 2011, getting just $22 million guaranteed.

...if you are blessed to be a professional athlete in the NFL you are a winner.

Over $620 million also into the Legacy Fund for retired players...

The Green Bay Packers made $85 million profit over two years...how much profit did they pay out in player contracts over the same time frame? Teams have the right to make money on America's favorite sport as well. Don't they?
Now many players who get fleeced by family and friends  
wgenesis123 : 7/21/2013 8:13 pm : link
will have less money to burn. For the guys who somehow go broke that pension and its benefits could be huge down the road. I hope they don't have to wait 40 years to collect however. Many of these same guys don't seem to make it to 62 years old.
player's got taken to the woodshed  
Sneakers O'toole : 7/21/2013 8:14 pm : link
that was evident immediately
players  
Sneakers O'toole : 7/21/2013 8:14 pm : link
not player's
Amen to mikepaz56's 8:10 pm post  
Optimus-NY : 7/21/2013 9:14 pm : link
Well said.
De Smith played the NFLPA  
Optimus-NY : 7/21/2013 9:16 pm : link
The players need a guy who is truly fighting on their behalf instead of grandstanding and trying to use the NFLPA as a stepping stone in his career like Mr. Smith did.
mikepaz,  
Default : 7/21/2013 9:30 pm : link
I don't think anyone feels sorry for the players.
They are the ones who agreed to such an awful CBA.

People are merely pointing out how much better the owners did in this CBA.
of course  
PaulBlakeTSU : 7/21/2013 9:50 pm : link
the NFL has the worst CBA. NFL players have the least amount of leverage.

What can the NFL players threaten? Where will they go? There isn't another viable football league around the world that is strong enough to carry the NFL stars and be able to pay them what the NFL was currently offering. Not even close. Plus, nearly all NFL players are American, so another league would require the players to move to a foreign country.

Hockey has a big league in Russia, and other leagues around Europe. Plus, many of the players are from those countries and will get to return home. The same with the NBA players. Europe and China throw a lot of money around, and there are now many European stars. Baseball the same with Latin America and Asia.

And the players can't opt not to play football at all. While some outliers could be generally successful in the real world, most of these players are, to put it politely" "those who strayed from focusing on education."

NFL players had no leverage and I'm surprised the NFL didn't bend them further over the barrel.
Good point above on how  
bignygfan : 7/21/2013 11:41 pm : link
gullible football fans are for siding with billionaire owners.

The same billionaire owners who stick it to the middle class day in and day out. The 'job creators' who can't create meaningful jobs now for the middle class.

No millionaire football player has ever stuck it to me but scum like Jamie Dimon have (I know he's not an owner but you get the point).

You read stuff like this and it really makes you wonder.
Hard to drum up sympathy for the players  
j_rud : 7/22/2013 12:22 am : link
when you say things like "Newton was only guaranteed 22 million" and lament on the unfairness of a 15 million dollar bonus. That's the business and the money is there because we as fans put it there. But an article on the woes of young millionaires making a few less million to play a game isn't going to garner a lot of positive support from the average fan, who busts his ass in the real world and can scarcely afford to take his family to a game.
That's silly anyway...  
Dunedin81 : 7/22/2013 12:28 am : link
the union has limited incentive to care about future players. Present membership is what matters, and obscene rookie contracts were denying that money to present members. Either way, it wasn't "our" fight. Millionaires vs. billionaires, not Steinbeckian by any means.
someone posted this again  
lalalalala : 7/22/2013 12:34 am : link

"the owners will have to learn to deal with HDTV... bwahaahahah"

the NFL TV contracts DWARF their gate revenue. If you are watching NFL games on your 60 inch HDTV, you are not raging against the machine. you are contributing.

Cutting the rookie pay scale helps the veterans  
Ira : 7/22/2013 5:44 am : link
.
If you do not become involved in your union  
MikeN in Ottawa : 7/22/2013 9:18 am : link
and let the people who run the union tell you what to do then you will end up with bad deals.

The top echelon of players will always get taken care of...it is the low end guys and veterans who may have passed their best years that pay the price.

But, is this the same as complaining about paying some guy, who is not producing, a huge contract. I mean, we have seen the other side of the coin for a long time. Is this now bad for the players...i guess it depends on your point of view. In terms of listening to agents complaining, let's face facts...they are only complaining because their fees have probably been reduced. Agents don't give a damn about players...like owners, the players, as far as agents are concerned, are only commodities.

So, I would say this to players...you need to take care of yourself, become educated in things such as the CBA and union dealings. No one to blame but yourself if you do not become involved in these issues. Same on any level of work where unions are involved.
it was pretty clear from day one that...  
Greg from LI : 7/22/2013 9:20 am : link
...DeMaurice Smith was much more interested in getting his name in the news than in negotiating.
Ira  
BigBlueinChicago : 7/22/2013 9:40 am : link
That's not true.

The "trickle down" effect has priced those veterans right out.

We've been talking about this since the beginning of the offseason.

When a large amount of players were only getting 1 year contracts, something was up.

The salary cap is the gross revenue taken in by the league. Yet we are somehow to believe that after years of the cap going up to reflect league revenue that suddenly the revenue has stopped since the beginning of the 2011 season where the cap will only have risen 3 million over 4 seasons?

nomad1986  
BigBlueinChicago : 7/22/2013 9:55 am : link
Quote:
The only thing they haven't figured out is how to compete with HDTV and WiFi.


This is not true. HDTV is the best thing to ever happen to the NFL.

You see the $20 billion the NFL just got from CBS, NBC, ESPN and FOX? The reason they got it is the record ratings they have been getting the last 10 years since HDTV's became commonplace in homes.

This is basically the NFL's stance:

1. You want to go to the game? Sure. You just have to pay us.

2. You want to watch the game at home? Sure. We'll just collect the money from the TV networks.

Either way, the NFL wins.

The folks who have turned to staying home and watching the games have made the NFL laugh all the way to the bank.

Whatever the teams are not getting from attendance at the gate are more than compensated by the TV revenue.

And there is this...if the NFL really wanted to, they could provide a service just like MLBTV where one can pay them $200 and watch every game LIVE on your tablet/PC/mobile phone and just sell it through NFL.com. They haven't even done that yet, but the NFL has most people to the point they would pay for this tomorrow if it were available and make at least $100 million a year on it within 3 years.
Umm, Torrag, profits are calculated AFTER  
Section331 : 7/22/2013 10:42 am : link
salaries are deducted as expenses. So the $85 billion profit was just that - profit.

If GB is making that much money, you can be sure teams like NYG and Dallas are making more. That's fine, but you have to clearly say that management won the last labor war, and won it decisively.

Named Later is spot on in that the Rookie Wage Scale needed to be revised, but the latest CPA really does hurt vets. Some very good players are signing for very little money (comparatively). If you're not paying the rooks, some of that money should go to the vets.
Didn't cost the owners a dime but  
mrvax : 7/22/2013 10:56 am : link
the new rookie pay scale is a huge win for the players/veterans. And it seems just to me. It protects the teams from losing millions on a player that doesn't give a shit and moves that $ to players that do.

I agree this is what should be a blueprint for the other sport leagues. To balance this out a bit more for the players, they probably should have been awarded a larger chunk of the total revenue.

If MLB had a real cap and players could be dropped from their contract, I'd consider watching again.
The CBA also prevents Packers from giving any of that profit  
WideRight : 7/22/2013 10:57 am : link
to the players. Not even a little Christmas bonus for having such a great year. Hard cap restrictions. The number of ways the agreement has hurt the NFLPA is mindboggling.

Those who are unsympathetic should spend more time with ex-players. There are quite a few that can't even play touch football with their kids. They're not even 40 years old.

As far as the millions, its just business, why you wouldn't want these guys to represent themselves well and negotiate well, for the good of their families is beyond me.

If they don't get the $$, then owners keep it, and they are the least talented, most undeserving of all.

I don't get how the players  
BigBlueDownTheShore : 7/22/2013 11:16 am : link
got hosed on this deal. To me, both sides, aimed to make it more like any other business.

If I start a new job with no experience at that level, I do not expect to be paid like someone who has been doing it for 5 years at a top level.

The rookie pay scale doesn't set back teams for draft busts, which makes the league more competitive, allows for the players that deserve the large paydays, their huge pay days (See Mike Wallace).

Players in their prime are going to reap the benefits, and draft busts will be focused even more since they are already playing for a large payday for their second contract.

As for the Vets, they got a better retirement/pension plan, and just like in any other company in America, they are getting pushed out where their value starts to diminish.

Agents are just pissed they don't get big paydays on rookies who haven't proven anything yet. Now they have to do more work to secure the stars, instead of getting paid for hype.

This is going to make the league more competitive. They are bitching and moaning now, but we are only 2 years into the new CBA and the CAP sealing has not even been put into effect yet. Give it 2 more years, and the market will be adjusted and players that deserve the huge pay day will be getting them.



BBDTS  
WideRight : 7/22/2013 11:19 am : link
The supposed goal was to allign owner and player interest in and benefit from future revenues.

The article stated that owner profits quadrupled, and the players income is flat.
Packers as an example....  
WideRight : 7/22/2013 11:23 am : link
65 M increased profits over two years. 32.5M/year.

Roughly 65 players played and did not get any increased income.

That $500,000.00 per player, per year!
See the star players  
moespree : 7/22/2013 11:26 am : link
Making millions and millions of dollars year after year could sit the whole season out. This is really the case in any sport. But that's not every player, obviously. The ones making under a million a year (while still if they were good and careful with their money should have a large savings account) don't want to do that.

That really seems to me to be the problem with all these sports work stoppages. If everyone was earning multiple millions I think he players would be more than willing to sit the whole season out to get what they really wanted. I don't see anyway this ever happens though.
I understand,  
BigBlueDownTheShore : 7/22/2013 11:30 am : link
but to see the full effects of this, you will need to wait 2 more years. The CAP ceiling has not gone into effect. The new TV deal has not gone into effect yet.

Those are 2 big factors that will need to go into effect until you can look at this as a whole.

Plus the CAP is supposed to increase after this season.
It may result in a poorer quality of play  
Go Terps : 7/22/2013 11:33 am : link
Rookies will play more and experienced veterans with tread left on their tires will be left out in the cold. The following are still FA:

Deion Branch
Willis McGahee
Rashean Mathis
Michael Turner
Leroy Hill
Roscoe Parrish
Barrett Ruud (lots of BBIers were hard for that guy a year or two ago)
Rocky McIntosh
Amobi Okoye

That's just a few names from NFL.com's list. Some of those guys don't have 9 years in the league yet. I understand with some guys injuries or other things are a factor, but not all of them can suck.
Sec331 - $85 BILLION in profit?  
njm : 7/22/2013 11:43 am : link
I don't think so.

It was 85 million  
Sneakers O'toole : 7/22/2013 11:47 am : link
billion was either a typo in his post or a mistake, but the article said 85 million
$85 million, not billion.  
Section331 : 7/22/2013 12:47 pm : link
That would be a hell of a lot of money!
BBDTS nailed the key flaw in this article.  
Big Blue Blogger : 7/22/2013 1:15 pm : link
The sources are all agents. The group that lost the most ground in the new CBA was arguably agents who represent non-superstar clients (i.e., most agents).
So some of you are pointing  
Tonyo33 : 7/22/2013 1:38 pm : link
out how we shouldn't feel sorry for the players when the top tier guys are still getting these mega contracts. What about the guys at the bottom of the 53, or on the practice squad who's career earnings won't be more than 1% of the Andrew Luck's or Cam Newton's in the game?

It's ironic that some are cheering how the middle class is suffering, but fail to realize that 1 out of the 32 elite oweners in the game is accussed of directly shitting on local diesel fuel station owners around the country. So to help keep the costs for his football team down, instead of helping out others, he's also screwing those who were promised rebates on his fuel.

Simply put, you can't compare football players to the average person. You're going to make an argument to emotion rather than what the case really is. Just like you, as an average person, should get your fair share for what yuo contribute to a company, these atheletes who drive all of us to the football games and to buy the products should get their fair share of revenue from the game. (Revenue, not the accounting tricks to get you profit)
....  
AnishPatel : 7/22/2013 1:46 pm : link
Quote:
To be fair, the players have better post-retirement benefits — medical care, pensions, transition programs, and more — under the new CBA. The creation of the $620 million Legacy Fund for pre-1993 players helped correct some mistakes of the past. Players also have a better quality of life, with a shorter offseason program, stricter guidelines on contact in practice, and the elimination of two-a-days in training camp.



I wonder if the players were so focused on past players and benefits that the current stuff went unnoticed..
Owners don't care if the players drop two-a-days  
WideRight : 7/22/2013 2:16 pm : link
Their also happy to have 620M in a Legends Fund.

So long as the benefits given to vets doesn't exceed the interest generated by the fund. Another total burn.

People who should  
BigBlueDownTheShore : 7/22/2013 2:51 pm : link
be making the big money are going to start to make it. That is what is going on now. The young vets are going to be the highest paid, not rookies, or vets with diminishing skills.

There are still going to be terrible contracts rewarded. Older vets were still receiving low paying contracts before. They didn't gain much in terms of salary, but as far as post football they certainly did.

The bottom line is that players in their prime that are stars are going to start to get the big paychecks.

We all know Nicks, and JPP are going to get monster contracts, but thats because they earned them. Unlike a QB that has never taken a snap in the NFL that signs a 46 million dollar contract that sets a franchise back another 10 years.

This is going to result in a better on field product for everyone and that's why the fans should care.
section....  
Torrag : 7/22/2013 3:37 pm : link
obviously profits are calculated after paying players. The point is Green Bay still paid more to players than the team itself earned. I don't see a problem with that dynamic either in Green Bay, NY or anywhere for that matter.

The only part of the CBA I don't get is why the salary cap won't be going up with the massive increase in TV revenues going into effect with the new network deals. That doesn't seem to jibe with common sense logic.
BigBlueDowntheShore  
Go Terps : 7/22/2013 3:39 pm : link
Quote:
This is going to result in a better on field product for everyone


I'm not sure this can be said with any certainty.
It's a general Capitalism at its finest  
BigBlueDownTheShore : 7/22/2013 4:00 pm : link
Now that the rookies are not getting paid monster contracts to start, they will have to actually earn their monster contract which will be their second contract. Which will help weed the men from the boys fairly quickly.

No one wants to draft a bust, but if they do, they can cut bait now without it setting a franchise back years (see Oakland).

Being able to weed the players out will definitely help the product on the field allot quicker. Teams won't wait to cut bait (See Gabe Carimi as an example). It should help teams get more competitive quicker.

Plus everyone will be playing their best ball because they want that huge contract pay day. The people that actually get to the point where they can get that huge pay day (which since there is a rookie cap there will be bigger contracts then ever before) will actually be worth the investment.

Yes the vets are getting squeezed a bit, but they also got better retirement plans and pensions.

The end product is a younger squad of more motivated then ever players.
Torrag  
Sneakers O'toole : 7/22/2013 4:09 pm : link
there will be a year delay because the cap is always determined by the previous year's revenue. So, there needs to be a year played under the new TV contracts before that money will be reflected in the cap.

There is also the fact that nobody knows exactly how those TV contracts are structured, and when payments to the league are made and in what amounts. People assume it's going to be this large jump in money, it may be more gradual. We don't know. We know that the total value of those contracts are high, but not the manner in which that value will be paid
Well, in the previous  
Doomster : 7/22/2013 4:11 pm : link
contract, the players got a bigger piece of the pie.....in the latest one, the owners cried poverty, and got a bigger piece back.....

The problem is redistribution of the money....well, the owner's gave out some high priced contracts over the last few years....now the back end of those contracts are coming due, without the cap increase to pay for them, and the savings from signing the draft picks, is used to pay the higher priced players.....which means a high % of the total cap is in the hands of just a few players.....

Look at the Giants.....Between Manning, Snee, Rolle, Tuck, Webster, Baas and Kiwi, that is HALF OF YOUR CAP HIT! That is 7 guys.....

The rest of the players on this team share the other half.....

So when vet players are at the end of their contracts, they are being cut and resigned, in some cases at minimum, or at 40-60% of what they were previously making, if they still have some game left.......

The players knew what the cap was....they knew how much money teams had to share with their players....they knew the rookies would be making less, so more money would be available to the veterans......they just didn't figure on how that money would be distributed to a select few....

And then you have teams spending well below the cap....Gee, wonder what that team does with that money they don't spend? Think they make any money on that? Can't wait until that 90% rule comes due in a few years, and teams still don't spend the money....wonder what kind of slap on the wrist they will get?
Doomster  
BigBlueinChicago : 7/22/2013 4:43 pm : link
Would it be fair to say based on the way its all set up, we have in essence a 1% vs. 99% situation?

The top players are getting paid regardless. However, the remaining body that makes up the remaining 40 spots are fighting for the remaining dollars. Without the cap going up in a substantial manner, players are being put into situations where they take a shorter deal at less money or nothing at all.
The new structure of rookie contracts helps the players overall....  
Torrag : 7/22/2013 5:50 pm : link
...why? Because there is less dead money in the system. Guys are earning it on performance. You won't see 1st round busts destroying a teams cap as Jamarcus Russell did to the Raiders. That money will be earned by guys that prove they will be an asset to the franchise.

With the injury attrition rate as high as the NFL operates under scaling the rookie wages toward this pay for performance template will benefit both sides in the long run.

Of course agents don't want to hear that.
This Nomad guy  
Paulie Walnuts : 7/22/2013 9:00 pm : link
is posting some good "things"

Paulie is pleased
Back to the Corner