Managment vs Players: Who’s to blame for inflated NFL contracts?

Some, not all NFL players make more in a single season than most of their teams season ticket holders.

While the NFL is a luxury that many Americans and people across the globe enjoy watching, it’s a multi-billion dollar industry where management and players have one thing on their minds, money.

The thing that gets me the most is that you see players like Mark Brunell, and countless others, who have to declare bankruptcy.

Some people are just bad with money, but it’s beyond me how you can make millions of dollars and not have the ability to do something to set yourself up for the rest of your life.

So here is where I get to the meat of my article.

Often times you hear players say they are playing for the love of the game, but come negotiation time, they are more worried about being paid better than the next guy.

Randy Moss has come out and said he would take no guaranteed money from an NFL team just to get back into the league. Why can’t the NFL have more contracts like that?

I’ll tell you why, management doesn’t want  to potentially deal out loads of cash, and players don’t want to have to work harder to get paid.

It’s simple, too many players get large contracts and then under perform, but when they have to prove themselves to get those contracts they work hard to over achieve.

You would see a completely different mindset on the field if more of the players salaries were based on performance.

I’ll use Will Smith as an example, if his contract paid him a small amount until he reached “X” number of sacks or “X” number of fumbles, his stats would likely be higher because he wants to make more money and thus would play just that much harder.

Of course these types of contracts would have to have an injury clause, because a player can suffer a season ending injury at most any time.

Not all players who receive enormous contracts sit back and “relax”, that is not what I’m saying, but NFL management fails to see the benefit of having their contracts center more around present performance then past accomplishments.

Lots of players donate, run charities, and do allot of good with the money they make.

You also have lots of players who blow their money, and don’t do anything positive with it — but that’s their business.

I have three examples in mind and I’m sure most of the readers here know what I’m gonna say.

Military personnel, police officers, and fire fighters don’t get paid well for the amount of risk that they face on a daily  basis.

Another argument could be made that some of the players went to college for four or more years, well so do teachers, and once again they are underpaid.

About ten years ago you could ask a kid why they played football, their response would be because they love the game.

Now if you ask the answer is simple, they want to to the NFL and make money.

Maybe the players who really work hard for the money they make should push for these types of contracts, cause frankly the ones who don’t work are more memorable then the ones who do.