FanPost

Mo' money, mo' money, mo'!!

You know, I'm tired of this holdout business. Now granted I'm no agent and no team front office guru, but from the outside looking in, rookie salaries are out of control. Absolutely out of control. I know nothing of that side of the business, so if anybody has any real insight on that side of the business, I would gladly welcome your input on this.

It's all about money. Football and all of sports is a business. As well all know, any business revolves around and depends on money. For a business to be successful, it has to make money. In order to make money, most businesses have to pay people to produce, present, and sell their product to the masses. In this case, it's football.

There are 32 teams in the National Football League, with each team representing cities of people of every different demographic in the spectrum in all four corners of the United States and everywhere in between. These teams depend on their fan base to come out and support their team in order for the team to create revenue, which is spread among the players of the team and other things. There are many teams that are full of established veterans and some that are on that path. Each year, there is a new group of rookies drafted by these teams in order to help them on the team's path, which is every team's goal, and that is the Super Bowl.

However, there is one glaring problem that has been eating at me for years, and now I've absolutely had it. Popeye sums it up best with "I've had allz I can standz, I can't standz no more!!!"

Rookie salaries.

It's always about more. I'm not sure if it's totally about the agents, or the players, or both, but someone has to put their foot down about this and restructure the whole system. Rookies, especially at the top of the draft, seem to see only dollar signs and that's encouraged by agents. Now I may be talking out of my butt here, but once again this is from the outside looking in.

Why can't rookies sign like two or three year deals with a modest, but certainly not excessive payday? That way they can prove themselves as well as motivate them to make the big money if they produce? Everybody wants money. I'd prefer to work for it instead of having it tossed into my lap. I know as for me, if millions of dollars were thrown into my lap instantly, I wouldn't want to do a damn thing. I'm sure you all could agree with me, ESPECIALLY if I'm a young 21 something kid who has yet to prove anything. If they don't produce, then they don't get paid. Period.

Now I'm certainly no businessman, accountant, or math whiz, but in my honest opinion, 'paying by potential' is a route that is certainly NOT the way to. Ask JaMarcus Russell or Ryan Leaf, whom are two of the biggest busts in NFL history. Russell, with Micheal Crabtree following in his footsteps two years later, decided to hold out all of training camp and into the regular season. Why? Because it wasn't enough. They wanted more. As a result, their reputations, images, and teams suffered because they wanted a few more measly million dollars on their already insane contract offers. Leaf and Russell were both busts all around, and pocketed millions and became the poster boys for spoiled babies that wanted the world to revolve around them.

Now that both have come crashing down back to Earth with us regular folk, it makes my point increasingly clearer. Crabtree decided that since he was rated higher than Derrious Heyward-Bey on pre-draft analysis, even though Heyward-Bey was drafted before him, felt he should make it all about him and hold out into the regular season threatening to rejoin the 2010 draft. Seriously? That was and still is up there with one of the most ridiculous things I have heard in my life. Ever. Something needs to be done to rectify this situation, like yesterday.

Contracts should be two or three years, at a rookie minimum. A set amount of guaranteed money cap should be established, with some incentives along the way. In the past several years, the main holdup for people holding out in their new rookie contracts was the amount of guaranteed money they would get, which (correct me if I'm wrong) they get even if they don't pan out and regardless of how they perform on the field.

The way the system seems to me currently is that teams are hamstrung with these massive contracts at the top of the draft, which leaves little flexibility to do anything else. Let's take a look at the New England Patriots or the Indianapolis Colts for example. Two teams that consistently draft towards the bottom of the 1st round, if they are even in the round altogether. They don't mind trading down stockpiling up 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks and finding diamonds-in-the-rough later on (Tom Brady ring any bells??). These teams from what I have seen have more maneuverability to spread the money around and put it to better use, instead of lumping it all on one person.

Teams like the Rams, Raiders, Lions, etc. all have struggled mightily the last half of this decade, and they all have been drafting inside the top ten consistently pretty much with rare exception. They lack the financial maneuverability that the better teams have because they're doling out so much money on the draft every year on people that haven't proven themselves, and at the time are unknown if they'd prove themselves or not. My vote is that the veterans get paid on performance, and the rookies get paid only after a few seasons if they've proven themselves. In so doing, the teams would have more flexibility to share the wealth and thus create a better team instead of one unproven rookie who's never taken a snap in the pros instantly making more money than any of the other 1,700 players in the league. It's asinine the amount of money paid to those who are unproven, and to anybody who supports the argument that these people should be paid on potential instead of production, well I'm sorry but your head is in the clouds.

I hope that this CBA is a wake-up call to the agents and the Union that they need to revamp the system. The agents seem to be destroying the league from within because of their price-gouging and selfish senses of entitlement they they pass on to the players that they represent. It's destroying the very foundation that teams, their players, and ownership is built on: the fans. You know us nameless, faceless, insignificant folk that pay those dollars (or not) to see our teams fight for us on Sundays. But in the big picture, my argument don't and will never make sense to those involved.

Because it makes too much sense.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.