Use Rookie Wage/Bonus to Fund Retired Player Pensions

Dear NFL Alumni:

In light of Bill Polian’s (GM for Indianapolis Clots) recent remarks regarding the need for a change in the rookie pay system, I have re-posted the following article that I wrote back on August 6, 2006. Back then I was talking about why current players would allow rookies to reap huge contracts that could otherwise be used to increase their own salaries. At the end of this article read the Profootball.com article that suggests using a Rookie Wage Rate to fund increases in retired Player Pensions. Obviously that makes more sense to me! It should also make more sense to active players too, because the money won't be coming out of any current Player Benefit package they would be receiving. If the NFLPA were to use just the bonus money that would be saved from this change in the CBA it would free up 100's of millions of dollars each year!

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Why would Gene Upshaw and the NFLPA President and Executive Committee members negotiate a CBA that continues to allow rookies to make excessive amounts of guaranteed money before they ever set one foot on the NFL playing field?

Don’t the player reps (most of them seasoned veterans) understand that this takes away the available money under a team’s CAP, and that most teams are then forced to go back to other players on the team and ask them to take pay cuts and renegotiate their contracts. Most teams end up waiving seasoned veterans that are now considered too costly to keep under the CAP.

Look at Reggie Bush’s contract: The amount of guaranteed money in the deal before exercise of a $12.5 million option bonus in 2007 is $20.25 million. After the option is exercised, the amount of guaranteed money is $26.325 million. For the No. 1 overall pick, Texans defensive end Mario Williams these same numbers are $21.75 million and $26.5 million, respectively.) Bush's base package is worth $52.5 million. Williams' base package is worth $54 million. The maximum value of Bush's deal (achieving all incentives) is $62.05 million. The maximum value of Williams' deal is $62.1 million.

I wonder which veterans will be waived, or forced to take pay cuts so that these guys can get paid.

There’s the old saying that “A rising tide lifts all boats”……. and for players in the NFL this used to be true. Before the CAP was instituted, Gene used to make the argument (and rightly so) that as rookie salaries increased so would all other veteran salaries. But now that the CAP has been instituted, teams don’t have as much flexibility to keep veteran players, and the gap between the lowest paid players and the highest paid players is getting wider. If it wasn’t for minimum wage rules the gap would be even wider.

So why don’t Gene Upshaw, Troy Vincent the NFLPA Executive Committee members set a maximum wage for incoming rookies, after all these guys haven’t done anything yet to deserve this kind of money…….and the money they will be making will be coming right out of the pockets of veteran players.

For a veteran player, it’s like having your pocket picked, knowing who picked it (a rookie), and not being able to do a damn thing about it! Great for team unity.

If they were to set a maximum wage limit, then all of the current players would benefit by having more money under the team’s salary CAP that can be used to increase their salaries. Who is going to bitch and scream about this………?

You guessed it! Player Agents. The guys that get a 3% cut of a rookie’s salary and bonus.
Does anyone give a flying _____ what a player agent makes?

Well, actually there is one person…..Gene Upshaw. As you know, Gene Upshaw is represented by one of the most powerful sports agents in the NFL, Tom Condon. Mr. Condon negotiated Mr. Upshaw’s last contract with the NFLPA. It would therefore be important for Mr. Upshaw to make Mr. Condon very happy with the current rules of the CBA and the way that rookies are compensated and the way that player agents are made wealthy!

The NFLPA Executive Committee and NFL players in general, need to wise up fast! Troy Vincent is jockeying to become the next NFLPA Executive Director. That is why he gave the current players a $30 million cut of the benefit pie for a medical savings account. Money that could have gone to increase our pensions! That is why he is pushing for an increase in Gene’s salary. He’s hoping that it will someday be his salary.

There is no logical reason why current players would want rookies to come in and take a huge sum of CAP money that could otherwise be used to increase their salaries.
Gene has somehow convinced them that this is in their best interest.
Someone needs to convince them otherwise!

Jeff Nixon
Buffalo Bills Alumni

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Here is the article from Profootball.com

HOW TO GET MORE MONEY TO THOSE WHO MADE THE GAME GREAT

So what can be done to help take better care of the players who helped propel the NFL to the heights of popularity it now enjoys?

Here's a thought: Install a rookie wage scale that gets rid of the unwarranted windfalls given to the unproven players (and their agents), reduce the salary cap accordingly, and use the extra money to better fund pension benefits, health care expenses, and disability benefits.

But it'll never happen, because the union will never try to do it. Why? Because a handful of agents who pull the union's strings want to get their perpetual three percent pieces of those rookie megadeals.

So the rookies who have never taken a snap in the NFL will continue to be eligible for those $50 million contracts, the agents will be able to get their cuts, and Upshaw will continue to make more than $4 million per year in salary.

Oh, and NFLPA president Troy Vincent won't rock the boat on this one because he has his eyeballs on the chair (and the pay scale) that Upshaw currently occupies.