Hawkstorian
Well-known member
On Richard Sherman, Guaranteed Contracts and the next CBA
The current CBA was put in place in 2011 and given the fact that time moves inexorably forward we are approaching the next labor cliff in just 4 short years. It is fortunate that the sabre rattling is starting early because hopefully that means either or both sides are interesting in having real talks before we enter the brinksmanship that inevitably happens at the end of a sports labor deal.
The other hot button topic these days are the huge guaranteed contracts being announced in the NBA, along with the long standing stupid deals MLB continues to churn out. NFL players, including superstars like Richard Sherman are taking notice and speaking up, so what should fans think?
First off, let me start with Richard Sherman the player and NFLPA mouthpiece. Sherman is an all-time great Seahawk, future hall of famer, and personal favorite. I think it’s totally off base to criticize him personally for standing up for issues important to the union. Fundamentally, he’s completely right that for the players to enact real change, they need to keep together and miss games if necessary. Now, do I think that will happen? Probably not, but remember we’re in sabre rattling season. Don’t blame Sherman for doing his part. Who else is speaking for the union?
The one issue I disagree with Richard Sherman on is the concept of contracts being fully guaranteed. In theory, it makes sense from his perspective but the big problem is the NFL salary cap is much more rigid than the NBA. MLB has no real cap. If an NFL team guarantees a contract, it would inevitably lead to more dead money, which would lead to less money for current players. Guaranteed contracts just allocate dollars from current younger players to older injured players. Teams get this, so contracts would be shorter and smaller.
As a fan, what would you want to see your team do with limited resources? Sonics fans saw their team give a huge long-term deal to an alcoholic. Guaranteed dollars are a huge risk. MLB doesn’t have a cap so the silly deals they dole out aren’t a huge problem.
The issue of guaranteed contracts is huge red herring. It just addresses splitting a fixed pie differently but doesn’t addresses the size of the pie. If NFL players want real financial improvements in their next CBA there are three things they should be focused on.
1) Get rid of the salary cap. Look, NFL owners will shut down the league for two straight years before they let this happen but players have a great argument that it’s the way to go. MLB seems to be doing OK. Let the marketplace truly determine contracts not some arbitrary percentage of revenue. Eliminate the cap and guaranteed dollars would skyrocket. The Holy Grail for the NFLPA but almost no chance the owners will let this happen.
2) Reform the concept of “minimum spend”. The current CBA has a mechanism in place for minimum spending but it clearly isn’t working. As we enter the 2017 season there is $615,000,000 in unused cap room that owners are saving and players are losing. San Francisco alone has over $66M in available space. And yet, every team has met the obligation for “minimum” spending. This is a complete shaft for the players. One option could be to allow a mechanism for teams with extra cap space to trade those dollars to teams that need cap. This happened somewhat with the trade of Brock Osweiler from Houston to Cleveland but even with that trade Houston still has nearly $31M in cap space, so that trade had more to do with saving face than truly re-allocating cap dollars.
3) Get a bigger piece of the pie. In the end the players should be working primarily on increasing the pie, which means increasing not only the percentage of “defined gross revenues” but making sure gross revenue encompass all the new revenue streams the NFL can capitalize on. Sitting across the table from the Commissioner this is really the only thing the matters, because unless they make their pie bigger, they’re just fighting amongst themselves over the scraps.
One last comment on the great Richard Sherman. I totally understand that he sees a huge injustice in the control his contract gives to the team in the non-guaranteed years. My only council to him should he ask it would be: “How do we truly shake as much dollars out of the billionaires to trickle down to the millionaires to continue to provide outstanding entertainment to the hundredaires who actually buy the tickets?”
My answer? Work on making the pie bigger and stop worrying about how the pie is divided among your members.
The current CBA was put in place in 2011 and given the fact that time moves inexorably forward we are approaching the next labor cliff in just 4 short years. It is fortunate that the sabre rattling is starting early because hopefully that means either or both sides are interesting in having real talks before we enter the brinksmanship that inevitably happens at the end of a sports labor deal.
The other hot button topic these days are the huge guaranteed contracts being announced in the NBA, along with the long standing stupid deals MLB continues to churn out. NFL players, including superstars like Richard Sherman are taking notice and speaking up, so what should fans think?
First off, let me start with Richard Sherman the player and NFLPA mouthpiece. Sherman is an all-time great Seahawk, future hall of famer, and personal favorite. I think it’s totally off base to criticize him personally for standing up for issues important to the union. Fundamentally, he’s completely right that for the players to enact real change, they need to keep together and miss games if necessary. Now, do I think that will happen? Probably not, but remember we’re in sabre rattling season. Don’t blame Sherman for doing his part. Who else is speaking for the union?
The one issue I disagree with Richard Sherman on is the concept of contracts being fully guaranteed. In theory, it makes sense from his perspective but the big problem is the NFL salary cap is much more rigid than the NBA. MLB has no real cap. If an NFL team guarantees a contract, it would inevitably lead to more dead money, which would lead to less money for current players. Guaranteed contracts just allocate dollars from current younger players to older injured players. Teams get this, so contracts would be shorter and smaller.
As a fan, what would you want to see your team do with limited resources? Sonics fans saw their team give a huge long-term deal to an alcoholic. Guaranteed dollars are a huge risk. MLB doesn’t have a cap so the silly deals they dole out aren’t a huge problem.
The issue of guaranteed contracts is huge red herring. It just addresses splitting a fixed pie differently but doesn’t addresses the size of the pie. If NFL players want real financial improvements in their next CBA there are three things they should be focused on.
1) Get rid of the salary cap. Look, NFL owners will shut down the league for two straight years before they let this happen but players have a great argument that it’s the way to go. MLB seems to be doing OK. Let the marketplace truly determine contracts not some arbitrary percentage of revenue. Eliminate the cap and guaranteed dollars would skyrocket. The Holy Grail for the NFLPA but almost no chance the owners will let this happen.
2) Reform the concept of “minimum spend”. The current CBA has a mechanism in place for minimum spending but it clearly isn’t working. As we enter the 2017 season there is $615,000,000 in unused cap room that owners are saving and players are losing. San Francisco alone has over $66M in available space. And yet, every team has met the obligation for “minimum” spending. This is a complete shaft for the players. One option could be to allow a mechanism for teams with extra cap space to trade those dollars to teams that need cap. This happened somewhat with the trade of Brock Osweiler from Houston to Cleveland but even with that trade Houston still has nearly $31M in cap space, so that trade had more to do with saving face than truly re-allocating cap dollars.
3) Get a bigger piece of the pie. In the end the players should be working primarily on increasing the pie, which means increasing not only the percentage of “defined gross revenues” but making sure gross revenue encompass all the new revenue streams the NFL can capitalize on. Sitting across the table from the Commissioner this is really the only thing the matters, because unless they make their pie bigger, they’re just fighting amongst themselves over the scraps.
One last comment on the great Richard Sherman. I totally understand that he sees a huge injustice in the control his contract gives to the team in the non-guaranteed years. My only council to him should he ask it would be: “How do we truly shake as much dollars out of the billionaires to trickle down to the millionaires to continue to provide outstanding entertainment to the hundredaires who actually buy the tickets?”
My answer? Work on making the pie bigger and stop worrying about how the pie is divided among your members.
