I’m not exaggerating when I say that there a lot of days from 2006 to late-2007 when the emails from the other guys at Kissing Suzy Kolber were the only reason I got out of bed. The six of us make an odd cadre, and while I’m often in the minority on some discussions, regarding football and otherwise, I typically find great joy in the exchange. One such exchange happened today about the idea of imposing a rookie salary cap, which I’m adamantly against. But everyone else clamoring for one might be surprised at this bit of news: the NFL already has rookie salary restrictions in place.
In actuality, NFL rookie wages are already capped: teams are already enjoying “artifically depressed” rookie wages, thanks to a rookie wage pool dictated by the NFL’s revised 2006 collective bargaining agreement. Now put on your nerd caps, because here comes the blockquote with extra legalese:
Each year, as mandated by the CBA, the league-wide salary cap rises in accordance with increases in league revenues. The Rookie Cap rises in tandem, keeping rookie salaries from rising more quickly than their veteran peers. Created by the NFL Management Council, the formula of exactly how each team’s Rookie Cap number is determined is unknown. However, it is based on the number and round of each franchise’s draft selections. Article XVII of the amended 2006 CBA states: “The list of each Formula Allotment attributed to each draft selection shall be agreed to by the NFL and the NFLPA, and shall not be disclosed to Clubs, Players, Player Agents or the public.”
But the exact recipe of the cap has been something of a mystery, so these guys at The Sport Journal decided to take a crack at it in a paper submitted by the awesomely-named McDonald P. Mirabile, and here’s what they found [emphasis added]:
In summation, rookie contracts are not only constrained by a franchise Rookie Cap, but in general are further constrained by an agreed upon valuation of each draft pick’s worth. This valuation is not the result of market forces, the same interplay of supply and demand that determines veteran contracts, but rather is the result of a well-protected formula that artificially depresses rookie contracts.
Word to your mother. But now how the hell do we explain Matthew Stafford’s $72 million payday now?
Michael Crabtree was anointed with the “prima donna” label when he came out of Texas Tech for the NFL draft; that’s not so good if you’re a wide receiver hoping for a big payday. Nevertheless, San Francisco took him with their 10th overall pick. And Crabtree seems to be putting his hope in the bank–by threatening to sit out the entire year and re-enter the draft in 2010.
“We are prepared to do it,” [David] Wells [Crabtree's cousin and adviser, not the fat guy that used to pitch for the Reds and Yankees] said. “Michael just wants fair-market value. They took him with the 10th pick and you have Darrius Heyward-Bey [the seventh overall pick by the Oakland Raiders] getting $38 million? This week is crucial. Michael was one of the best players in the draft and he just wants to be paid like one of the best players. This week is very crucial.” via.
Crabtree’s agent, Eugene Parker, said this is all news to him, whatever that means. I haven’t seen any confirmed reports of what kind of money Crabtree wants, but I don’t care. I just want to see somebody sit out for an entire year and then go into the draft AGAIN. He’d be the 20-year-old guy that couldn’t finish high school for a day. Those guys are great; they always have the best weed.
The NFL, in its latest move of screwing its most hardcore fans in the chase for more television money, is restructuring the schedule of its annual Draft. The seven rounds of the 2010 Draft will be stretched over three days, a schedule that will include holding the first round on Thursday night.
The NFL said Thursday that the first round will begin at 7:30 p.m. EDT on April 22. The second and third rounds will start at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, with the last four rounds beginning Saturday morning. via.
Great. Thanks, NFL, for taking away my greatest spring drinking day of the year. How am I supposed to get out of bed for the fourth round? The fact is that instead of adding casual fans to the telecasts on ESPN and NFL Network in a prime-time spot, they’re forcing the more serious fan to choose between watching the draft or watching their regular Thursday night shows.
No, but the cable networks will go to the advertisers and point to the 39 million people that watched last year and get paid by advertisers for that expected audience. This is really just a big c-cktease from the NFL; hopefully this experiment will fall short of what the suits are hoping and I can resume my regular drinking schedule for 2011.
One of the better stories of last week’s NFL draft came to light in a column from Ed Thompson, posted on FOXSports.com. It involves former Norfolk State defensive back Don Carey, who had two visits with his family’s favorite team–the GD Pittsburgh Steelers–with the second visit happening just days before the draft. Naturally, this apparent enthusiasm inspired 60 of his family and friends to wave Terrible Towels and other such foolishness on Draft weekend:
In the beginning moments of the sixth round, the phone rang. The anticipation built to a feverish pitch as Carey learned that he’s been drafted … by the Cleveland Browns, a divisional arch-rival.
So how did his family react?
“They told me, we hope you have a good game, but that you lose — and don’t hurt nobody,” Carey said with a laugh.
I thought it wasn’t a rivalry if the other team sucked. Either way, Carey has a better chance of not only starting, but incurring a staph infection. Hopefully, his family will advise him to stay away from motorcycles. But if they were real Steelers fans, they’d buy one for him.
After learning that NFL teams were unwilling to take even a 7th-round pick for Michael Vick, the Albany Firebirds of the developmental league arenafootball2 offered Vick a contract. But they were totally kidding as it turns out:
“I’m a dog lover and I don’t want anything to do with (Vick),” Albany Firebirds owner Walter Robb told The Times Union for a story posted on its Web site Tuesday night.
Earlier in the day, the team an arenafootball2 franchise, announced it had offered the 28-year-old quarterback a one-year contract at the league standard: $200 a week plus a $50 bonus for a win.
“That’s a joke,” Robb said. “Can you imagine him playing for $200 a week? I think (the offer) was a big mistake.”
I’m secretly hoping that Vick does catch on with another team, somewhere. I just want to see how he’s treated by the fans, by his teammates, and see if he actually realizes that inhumane handling of animals is much worse than raping women or killing someone with a car under the influence.
|Y! News|
Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach is quickly becoming my favorite coach in any sport. If you missed it, here’s what Leach said regarding the Browns and Eric Mangini for passing on Michael Crabtree:
“[Crabtree] has been more successful as a receiver than that guy has a coach at this point,” Leach said to the Sacramento Bee. “Part of the reason is he’s (Crabtree) too shy to be like that…Let’s see how all those non-divas do up in Cleveland this year.”
So one might expect Leach to lighten up some after Mangini invited former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell into Browns minicamp, right? Well…
Leach told the Dallas Morning News he thought Harrell should have been drafted and that NFL teams are missing out.
“The truth of the matter is that the NFL drafts quarterbacks notoriously bad,” Leach told the paper. “That’s indisputable. …
“I don’t have an answer for why they don’t have a skill for drafting a quarterback. Well, I think the priorities are out of order. Accurate and makes good decisions needs to be a priority, not something they need to teach him, because they don’t do that very well.”
It is rather amazing that Harrell wasn’t drafted, but who knows why. Coaches fall in love with players and hate players for seemingly ridiculous reasons. I for one am glad that I don’t pass judgement on human beings with such inhumane objectivity.
