Goodell: NFL rookie pay-scale

[HMFFL]

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said its “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.”

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.

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[Da Schwab]

Wow, he's such a revolutionary thinker.

[bigrich88]

gets paid 11 million dollars a year and he just realizes this now.

[Icness]

Goodell is just staking out a bargaining position for ownership. The union agrees, with the exception of Gene Upshaw, and he has an inherent conflict of interest because his agent is also the agent for many who have benefitted from the current rookie wage scale.

[HMFFL]

Matt Ryan talks about it:

Matt Ryan isn't apologizing for benefiting from a system that allows top NFL draft picks to receive massive contracts. Even so, he appreciates where Roger Goodell was coming from last week when the commissioner questioned paying millions in guaranteed salary to rookies who have yet to play a down in the league.
Goodell on rookie pay scale

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." More ...

"You can also understand the other side of it, the concern of veterans who have been in the league 10, 12 years and proven themselves but not seen the money," Ryan said in a phone interview Tuesday. "I can understand both sides."

The third pick in this year's draft, the quarterback signed a $72 million, six-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons that included $34.75 million in guaranteed pay.

All that money means first-year players need to quickly develop a lot of financial savvy. On Monday night, Ryan and his fellow draft picks participated in a presentation by Visa about credit scores during the NFL Rookie Symposium in Carlsbad, Calif.

Ryan said players were chatting afterward about the concept of assets vs. liabilities -- how some purchases, such as a house, generate wealth, while others decline in value over time.

Most people can afford to make some financial mistakes early in adulthood because they'll have a long career and their peak earnings won't come for a couple of decades, said Lisa Withers, Visa's national financial literacy educator. But for professional athletes, there's little room for error, since their highest incomes may come for a few years in their early 20s.

Withers emphasized that a low credit score can burn a player no matter how much money he makes. Veteran quarterback Drew Brees learned that the hard way early in his career. In a phone interview Tuesday, he recalled how he failed to pay a cell phone bill and it went to collections.

"It took me my first couple of years in the league to learn through experience," he said.

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[Cybulski37]

I don't see too much of a problem with it. The rookie salaries do drive up the prices of other players. Maybe that's what owners are bitching about.

You constantly hear "x is now the highest paid at his position in the league" and once a better player at that position hears that, he wants more money. And he gets it.

[LakerFanMan]

Yea it definitly drives up the price of other players. It's too late to go to NBA style, scale contracts. There is no way in hell the players organization would agree to something like that because it does drive up prices, which is what they want.

I think it's the teams that need to stop paying rookies like Matt Ryan top dollar. Not that Ryan doesn't have potential, he definitly does, but he hasn't stepped on the field yet. I never understood why teams started paying players that much.