Pay Structure November 4,
2020
The NFL Salary Cap is nothing more than a number that is applied to all 32 NFL franchises. From that number, there are a series of evolving
"hard & fast rules" that
apply, the most important of which is that a minimum amount needs to be spent
each year, by
each franchise, to pay its players. In addition to that, there are "rules of
thumb" that are based upon prior contracts, that helps to define what each player should be
paid. This structure is based upon past performance, or a "players
potential projected
performance" to pay for that players future services. Many think that a player is paid for past services however under the rookie
contract structure, you could play 4 years for one franchise, then receive a
large pay structure on your second contract to play for another franchise, so it
cannot be considered back pay for prior services as there would be no prior
services rendered, only pay for that players future
service.
What confounds this whole pay structure is guaranteed money which is a frivolous
concept & that departs tragically from reality.
To be direct, a players pay should ideally be structured directly to his
performance on the field. Any & all prior agreements, related to the
way things were done in the past, should be considered to be irrelevant, in that
time always moves forward, where in that time, any prior structure will
certainly pass in favor of a new pay structure that should be put in
place.
Said another way, are we getting the entertainment value, for which we have
paid? The answer to that question is clearly ... NO! Our dollars are
not directly tied to performance. Instead it is squandered to a self
serving system based upon one bad decision after another. It is just as
unacceptable & self serving to utilize a communistic ... everyone should get
the same slice of the pie approach. In other words, Dalvin Cook or
Brian O'Neill should get a significant slice of the pie based upon playing time
(not just starts) that is a function of that players position & possibly a
grade & possibly a production percentage.
Years ago we didn't have Bill Walsh's West Coast Offense, where the game prior
to it, looked entirely different. Then the league changed forever.
In the 1960's computers were the size of a house & blew up in movies.
Today, you can use computers to formulate pay structures ... and then modify the
programming sometime later ... to elicit a better result. Why are we
allowing agents, that never took one hit in the NFL, to decide how to allocate
& spend a franchises resources.
In paying for that entertainment, you put your money down expecting to see
Adrian Peterson run the ball for 16 games. Instead, the commissioner puts
AP on his exempt list after only 1 game, taking your entertainment dollar to pay
him not to play. Of course, this was an unusual example, however the NFL
Pay Structure pays for a player to be put on injured reserve, where that player is not
on the field. Today, with the guaranteed contract, entertainment is forced
to deal with all that dead money, which is paying players that are not playing for your
franchise. In addition to that, there are players that are playing as full
time starters that are way underpaid for their services. This is due to a
pay structure that does not accurately reflect an individuals output, but
redirects that money to unrealized potential output. In short, the NFL's
pay structure is more than something that we've been griping about for years ...
it is something that is in disparate need of change. Would you consider the
present "NFL Pay Structure" system to be broken? In other words, just because we have an insane system of doing things ...
progressing forward in the wrong direction ... do we really have to keep that system in place, or can we
come up with a system that protects the interests of the rate payer?
It all starts with asking the question, what percentage of an individuals
contract should ever be guaranteed? If you said 100%, then how does that
directly reflect the entertainment value of the payee, if that player never
plays a down for your franchise? Said another way, you just paid 9 million
dollars for a receiver to log 14 catches. And upon expanding that question, what
percentage of the overall salary cap should be exclusively used for guarantees? In
other words, guaranteed money is the crux of every issues related to the NFL's
pay structure.
How do we know that guaranteed money lies as the basis of this dilemma.
Look at any team that is in salary cap hell. Guaranteed money can only pay
for a few players whereas the bulk of the crew has no shot whatsoever at that
end of the rainbow. The net result is an exodus of NFL veterans for a
place with greener pastures. Does this serve to maximize the NFL's entertainment
value? I think not, whereas if players earned that money on the field in
entertainment performance ... that entertainment dollar would be directly linked
with that fan that's paying for the ride.
One important key attribute all those spoiled fat &
happy athletes need to keep in mind is that as part of your collective bargaining
agreement ... the players are part of a democracy ... where all those bottom
dwellers will be there to decide if their vote needs to be cast for their self
interest or that of someone making just about all of that franchise's
money. It's funny how you can get the attentions of all those fat
& happy little piggies when it is them that are about to be sacrificed upon
the ritual altar. That all stems from knowing, for what to ask. I
wonder how many owners are sick of having to deal with this out of control
system?
Again, it doesn't matter where you find yourself today ... it only matters where
the league finds itself 4 years down the road.
So is this something new? Absolutely not, as there are tens of thousands
of commissioned salesman promoting products that have been doing so for millennia.
Why should an NFL player be different? Put another way, based upon
his production, Adrian Peterson would have earned a good deal of his revenue due
in part to his overall longevity & overall production ... maybe just not as
much.
Is it collusion for every NFL owner to understand that they need to stop
shooting themselves in the foot by adhering to a pay structure that benefits
revenue sharing amongst all that strive to earn it? Is it ok to declare
that we all agreed to just stop ... Stop being stupid? I think that can
clearly be both explained & justified.
Then there is one more final poignant point in shifting away from all that
structured guaranteed money. Players that find themselves immersed in a
windfall of illusion tend to act as Polar Opposites of an individual that needs
to mine his gold on a daily basis. It's called developing ones
humility. To be direct, it sickens me to hear of a multimillionaire ending
up penniless on the streets as if they somehow deserved it. In other
words, a not-so-guaranteed pay structure forces players into learning how to
handle their money in a league that is known as "Not For Long".
Instead of purchasing a mansion & securing a lifestyle based upon an illusion,
that cannot possibly be maintained over a life time, is beyond tragic.
Isn't it better to force a player toward his maturity rather than away from it?
It is well past time that players learn to mine their wealth within a franchise
rather than from an outside nefarious source. The police in New York City
were corrupt until they were paid marginally more than what they could get in
their next best position. In other words, the fear of losing your golden
goose should always be paramount in every players mind ... first &
foremost.
Every aspect of the NFL's present system has been figured out & it's now
time that the owners of these franchises stop getting played. The status
quo is "RIPE" & although there is still a vested interest in any
particular franchise ... what does it say when a good deal of all that is vested
falls under fantasy?. There is always a better method of enhancing that
entertainment value ... especially when you now find yourself standing next to a
precipice. Growth comes from imagination & from real change from that
which is "RIPE".
One final tid bit. You might be thinking that coming up with some sort of
incentive based pay structure might be just a little to difficult to conceive
& implement. You'd be surprised to know that it has already been
conceived & it is now ready to implement as this pipe dream has been war
gamed for some time now. Many of the cap handlers have been messing around
with these same concepts for some time now.
The Viking Ghost Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: November 4, 2020
