Â
|
|
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?” |
Let's take up a collection for these guys so that they can buy their groceries.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
...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?
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The article stated that owner profits quadrupled, and the players income is flat.
Roughly 65 players played and did not get any increased income.
That $500,000.00 per player, per year!
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.
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.
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.
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)
I wonder if the players were so focused on past players and benefits that the current stuff went unnoticed..
So long as the benefits given to vets doesn't exceed the interest generated by the fund. Another total burn.
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.
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.
I'm not sure this can be said with any certainty.
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
Paulie is pleased