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Goodell: NFL rookie pay scale ‘ridiculous’
By JOHN WAWROW, AP Sports Writer
1 hour, 3 minutes ago
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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell…
AP - Jun 27, 2:22 pm EDT
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CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (AP)—NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said it’s “ridiculous” to reward untested rookies with lucrative contracts, and wants the issue addressed in contract talks.

“There’s something wrong about the system,” Goodell said Friday. “The money should go to people who perform.”

Goodell referred to Michigan tackle Jake Long’s five-year, $57.75 million contract—with $30 million guaranteed. Long was the first overall draft pick by the Miami Dolphins in April.

“He doesn’t have to play a down in the NFL and he already has his money,” Goodell said during a question-and-answer period at the end of a weeklong sports symposium at the Chautauqua Institution. “Now, with the economics where they are, the consequences if you don’t evaluate that player, you can lose a significant amount of money.

“And that money is not going to players that are performing. It’s going to a player that never makes it in the NFL. And I think that’s ridiculous.”

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Goodell said he favors lowering salaries offered to rookies, but allowing a provision for those players to renegotiate their deals after proving themselves on the field.

His statement was greeted by a long round of applause from the estimated crowd of 2,000 inside the amphitheater.

Speaking to reporters before his appearance, Goodell said he plans to open negotiations with the players union on a revamped labor deal this fall. He’s listened to concerns from all 32 owners in meetings over the past month.

“We just finished a series of one-on-one meetings with all 32 teams, where I have a better understanding and people have a better understanding of the economics each team is facing,” Goodell said. “I think we can identify what it is we need in a negotiation to continue to make the agreement work for the NFL and for the players.”

Goodell said the key need is to have the NFL Players’ Association appreciate the financial challenges owners face with rising stadium construction costs and a faltering economy. Those issues were not anticipated in the previous collective bargaining agreement, which provided players a 60 percent share of the league’s gross revenues.

“As our costs increase outside of player costs, that other 40 percent … squeezes the margins and just makes it financially unworkable,” Goodell said. “There has to be some more recognition of the costs.”

League owners, last month, voted unanimously to opt out of the CBA that was signed in spring 2006. The decision to opt out maintains labor peace through 2011, but will result in changes regarding the NFL’s salary cap and contract signings if a new deal is not signed by March 2010.

Goodell referred to next March as a deadline, but “not the end deadline,” but hoped a deal could be reached by then. If not, teams will enter the following season without a salary cap. While there are concerns some of the NFL’s richer teams would use their vast resources to buy up star players, there’s also a drawback for players.

Under the new rules, the time for free agency in an uncapped year would rise from four years to six and allow teams to protect one extra player with franchise or transition tags. In addition, the two-year lag would allow many teams to extend the contracts of their most important players, maintaining the continuity that is important to winning teams.

Goodell acknowledged the NFL and its owners failed to foresee the economic issues that would face the league when the last CBA was approved.

“There have been some things that none of us could’ve envisioned,” Goodell said. “You have an economy that’s weakening. You have aspects of the deal that we didn’t realize that we were going to be building billion-dollar stadiums. … Things happen. I don’t look back at it as a mistake. I look back at it as what do we need to do going forward?”

Glad to hear - I give Goodell a lot of credit, he's doing a ton of great things as commissioner right out of the gate. These escalating rookie salaries need to be addressed somehow.

It's about damn time. Now put your money where mouth is and do something about it.

I always said there should be a cap for rookies..then you wouldn't have the stupid holdouts.

It's difficult if not impossible to not be on board with the idea that Rook salaries are way way to high. That said tho if the owners are looking for someone to blame for the salaries being as high as they are, they need only find a mirror and they will see the guy responsible.

As is always the case just like you and I we want all we can get, I do not blame the players, lets put it that way. And as always there is a flip side as well. Every player does take a risk just playing that they can end their career on the next play, and suffer an injury that will follow them the remainder of their lives.

Lets also take into consideration for example RL he is a BILLIONAIRE, and has been raking in cash from us the public for a lot longer then he has owned the Browns, it's really hard for me to get on board with the idea that somehow a billionaire is being ripped off, when for longer then most of them have owned teams they have been ripping off everyone for their billions for years..

JMHO

Moreover, it is a service that, if I choose so, I don't even have to ever spend a single dime to enjoy.

What I can't understand is.... Even tho all 32 owners are for it, the Commissioner is for it, 99% of all players are for it, Every fan in America is for it..... Upshaw is against it. I have to think he is being paid off by like likes of the Postons and Rosenhouses.
Godell is a good Comish, and with the help of the owners, as well as the players, I think he/we will get our way.
(agents greed brought us to this)

I agree. I think Upshaw should be fired. He doesn't represent the players' interests.

Maybe the bargaining chip at the next CBA - who gives what to get what their stance is on this matter.

What I do know - the Agents will be dead set against this...they will scream and squirm, rant and rave and pull all the power they have accumulated to squash this. Now we will get to see just how much power the Agents have accumulated.

What I would like to see in the Proposal...and really this will only take money away from the 32 or so top draft picks...the other 200+ rookies would actually benefit from it.

1st rounders with 5+ years in their contracts...The first 3 years are incentive based rewards....no monetary value for the last 3 - At this point teams could eliminate deadwood if they deem so (no Cap loss of signing bonus) extend the contract if they deem so giving those first rounders with successful careers their 2nd contract much, much sooner and rewarding them. Or if their is no complete success but still interest to develop an agreed contract for the last two years which would have a minimum and a maximum pre-established by the league.

2nd rounders with 4 year contracts. Would recieve similar benefits of negotiating a new contract after 3 years and for those first 3 have incentive based rewards. Such as Starts, playing time, Special Teams, Pro-Bowl and for skilled positions top 10 status rewards.

3rd rounders and more...basically the same system and contracts we have set right now.

We also must have the RFA, Transition and Franchise tags agreed upon again.

Well just a rough draft of what is fair. But I'm sure the Agents will muck this all up and we will have a strike in the near future...The Agents will push hard as they see their opportunity to take over the richest most successful sport - just like they took over baseball and we see how well that is doing. Total elimination of small market teams...oh they get a one time shot with their prospects but once that shot is done they have to start all over as the big market teams raid their successful developed players! .235 hitting players getting MEGA Million $$$ contracts and 100% is guaranteed. More incentives for Steroid use!

Man o man...please bring back the scabs and squash the AGENTS in this go round like they did the first time around!!!

JMHO

Quote:

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Lets also take into consideration for example RL he is a BILLIONAIRE, and has been raking in cash from us the public for a lot longer then he has owned the Browns, it's really hard for me to get on board with the idea that somehow a billionaire is being ripped off, when for longer then most of them have owned teams they have been ripping off everyone for their billions for years..

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Like others have said, if we really feel that way we don't have to buy the product.

This is not about the fans being ripped off, or the owners being ripped off. It's about paying a highly drafted rookie $30 million guaranteed when there's no knowing if he can really play at this level.

Imagine a young man or woman coming out of college in the top 5% of his/her class and being guaranteed a higher salary than anyone else in the the company who hires them. Further imagine that half of their projected 5 year salary being guaranteed up front. That doesn't happen in the real world. Companies would go broke taking a risk like that each year if the person doesn't pan out.

True, the owners have only themselves to blame. Goodell is defending that through a lack of foreknowledge that the economy would waver, but that doesn't wash. Neither does it matter. What matters now is that it gets fixed.

While it's true the owners are the ones responsible for the high rookie salaries for the simple reason that they pay them, consider that this has not been a bidding war for rookies. Rookies are not free agents goint to the highest bidder. They are drafted by the team so other than raising a stink like Eli Manning or John Elway before him they are destined to play for that team. The real problem lies in a three-fold, snowballing dilema created by the CBA, the player's agents, and the need to get the player in camp on time.

This started because agent demands a high figure to get the rookie signed an in camp on time. The team, in an attempt to improve their team ends up paying much more than they would have liked. Fair business practice demands that the next rookie taken in the same slot the following year will get a slight increase over the previous one. The agent, taking advantage of this, demands a much larger increase than the drafting team wishes to pay. But again, in an effort to get their "star rookie" in camp on time they end up paying it.

The next season sees another agent driven, exorbant increase for the next rookie drafted in that same slot. The team eventually folds and pays it. This has been snowballing for years until it's reached the point it is at today.

The real culpret in all of this is the agents who hold their drafted rookies for a ransom. Teams need players so they pay the ransom. Agent's mode of thinking is that if that agent was able to get that much then I should be able to leverage for a little more. They've been pushing it as far as the demand would bear.

Sure, teams could have played hardball from the beginning and not paid the exaggerated prices. But who among us is going to be the difference maker and refuse to sign our star rookie to make a point while our competition brings their star rookie into the fold and improves their team? Everyone wants the change. No one wants to be the one to take a loss to prove the point. So on and on it's gone.

Now this is the reason it mush get fixed: without a new CBA in place on time, the NFL will no longer have a draft. Think about that. At that point teams will have to get into a bidding war for rookies. That puts the agents in total control of the salaries as teams attempt to outbid each other for the next prize rookie. If we think rookie salaries are high now just wait until that happens.

And the worst thing is that those who will be doing the bidding will be the big market teams with tons of dough to throw around leaving medium and small market teams out of the equation. That will turn the NFL into a league of the have's and the have not's. Their will be a handful of large market "Yankees" who not only have the ability to bid and obtain highly sought after free agents, but also the highly sought after rookies.

Dynasties will be created that will be nearly impossible to ever bring down. And these Dynasties will not have been created by smart front office moves, capable talent evaluations and brilliant coaching as may be the case in New England if one wishes to allude that they may be a dynasty. These new dynasties will be created by the almighty dollar and the almightly dollar alone. Teams who cannot match dollar for dollar with the big boys will not be able to compete.

That is the real danger we're facing here; losing the NFL as we know it. Parity will be gone and millions of fans will be rooting for their favorite team who will never have a chance to really compete. That will go on for many years.

Agents will be the new rock stars of the NFL. They will all have made rediculous moola generated by their percentage taken in by the bidding wars. They've already played the biggest part in creating the mess we are facing now. They will eventually create a new mess that could see the NFL fall flat on it's face.

I'm glad Goodell is advocating and in the process of doing something about it before it reaches that level. He has been a very good commish from day one and he just stepped up to the next level in attempting to save the league.



The only way this gets fixed is to insure that the percentage of revenues paid to the players does not go down by the amount of reduced salaries no longer paid to the rookies, but that it stays the same and gets trickled down to the veteran players who perform at a high level and are now, in these times, seeing rookies, who've never proved themselves on the field, make sums of money the proven veterans never had and never will have the change to earn.

Proven veterans often must leave their team to earn their big payday because their team had to give the big payday to an unproven rookie just to get him into camp.

By implimenting a rookie salary cap while keeping the overall percentage of revenues paid to the players the same, teams will be better able to keep their proven players thus keeping their team solidified. Parity will be saved and we can all root for our favorite team with the real hope that they can compete with the rest of the league.

i agree.. tim couch, enough said

Jake Long got 30 million guaranteed? Yowza! Anybody know what Joe T got from the Browns last year? Was it about the same?

RL was a billionaire before owning the Browns, it's not like your tickets, beer and hot dogs made him that rich.

I don't think anyone expects to get in for $5 or eat hot dogs at $.50 a dog. But I wouldn't mind paying less than $3.50 for a dog and less than $6.50 for a beer. Especially when you consider that all the Browns' concession stands are manned by unpaid volunteers. At the current prices I can easily drop more on concessions that I do on my tickets (if my son is with me).

Which is slightly out of kilter in my opinion. Maybe that's just me.......

I don't think anyone would aruge against a rookie cap except for incoming rookies... it's ridiculous to pay someone 30 million guar. without ever playing a down

Got to wake up Peen...you are talking a ton of Guaranteed Signing Bonuses which is what these agents care about that will be grabbed from them...now they will have to negotiate and earn there keep. The rookie negotiations were simply get them signed and get them more guaranteed and total contract than the last guy slotted in the draft spot one year ago. Now they will have to take risks on their client to actually play in the NFL and EARN that Signing Bonus.

And that is what this is all about...Wasted Guaranteed Bonuses....wasted on the player who busts and wasted on their agent who gets the piece.

DEAD MONEY...and QUICK return for the agents on their clients. They don't want to wait to see if he is the 50% who makes it and cash in. They will have to double their clients to end up making the money they are with the current pay scale from the draft.

If you don't think they will not fight it...come on, I hardly believe that you could actually not see that coming.

JMHO

Good for Goodell,, Bout time..

Most everyone on this board has been saying the same thing for years...

One thing I would like to see done is some sort of set-aside for pensions and medical care for retired veterans. Seeing what has happened to some of the older players is a real shame.

What would be even better would be to take these funds directly from agents commissions. Likely never happen, but I get a real warm fuzzy just thinking about it.

Good for Goodell! Nonsensical amounts of money for nothing. Give them a set slot wage by draft number and rounds range. Be crazy about what can be earned as incentives. Reward the players handsomely. But overpaying a bust rookie is wrong for all but two (rookie and agent). Takes hair to suggest this; I like what he is doing, not because owners need cash flow, but because it is pricing the fans right out of the parks. If the game is a business, holdouts and no-shows are a drain on the game. Get them in camp, suit em up, play em; nothing else matters than players on the roster in camp.

I have no idea what you do for a living B2B....but I am sure that if your company took some kid fresh out of school who hasn't spent a day "at the office/factory/job site/in the field" and paid him/her more than what the president of the company was getting paid.........and then wanted you to train them......I think you would be a little upset. Especially if there was at least a 50/50 chance that the kid would wash out......and even if the kid does wash out....most of his salary is "guaranteed" and the kid never has to work another day in his life.

You mean to say you can't put yourself into that position to understand and empathize with vetrans???????