After Further Review ... FORTY-ONE MILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS GUARANTEED to 21-year old QB Matthew Stafford, who was selected first in the 2009 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions. Stafford, who left the University of Georgia after his junior year, is expected to resurrect the Lions franchise. It is important to note that his overall contract is for $78 million for 6 years and loaded with “ IF’s.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Stafford_(American_football)
Stafford’s contract is 20% more than the Atlanta Falcons contract given Matt Ryan (Boston College), the first year pick in the 2008 draft. Ryan did have a better-than-average year for a first year QB as the Falcons made the playoffs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Ryan_(American_football)
However, if Lions veteran QB Daunte Culpepper has a good year with no injuries, Stafford may be standing on the sidelines holding a clipboard, not a football. http://www.detroitlions.com/
There are more than a few football fans, as well as many others, who are scratching their heads, saying “How in the name of Bobby Layne can a football T.E.A.M. “guarantee” that kind of money to someone who has NEVER played one down in professional football?” Given the Lions 2008 record (0 wins and 16 losses) can any rookie quarterback – as great as Stafford was in college – create a winning record – let alone win the NFC North? It takes a T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Accomplishes More) to win in the National Football League. http://www.nfl.com/
The issue here is not so much about Stafford – he is simply the 2009 poster child – but the amount of money “guaranteed” to ANY unproven NFL player. Further, the total amount of money to be paid – much of it guaranteed – to the top 10 players chosen in this year’s draft, may approximate $250 million!
At some point, the NFL owners are going to have to revise the awarding of this kind of money to rookies. In today’s economy, that amount of money is out of line. Now, if the owners would take, say, half of that $250 million and help the many retired NFL players (who made the NFL what it is today) with medical bills, it would be the best thing they could do with those dollars. The money provided by the NFL Alumni dire need fund for these purposes is simply not enough. The NFL owners need to step-up and do the right thing. http://www.gridirongreats.org/NFLRetiredPlayers.html
Can you imagine the top-of-the-class graduate at Yale Law School guaranteed, or even offered, more money than the partners in the best law firm in New York?
Will you become aware of the financial plight facing retired NFL players?
Showing posts with label rookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rookies. Show all posts
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Friday, October 3, 2008
On The Tunney Side of the Street #197, Oct. 6, 2008 (www.JimTunney.com)
After Further Review ...What incentive is there for an NFL T.E.A.M. to WIN when rookie players are paid with signing bonuses in the multi-millions even before they put on the pads! Contracts of similar (or more) value follow. Some players who are drafted, yet didn’t succeed, walk away with more money than many people earn in a lifetime!
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80909cc9&template=with-video&confirm=true) is concerned about the hefty, and still escalating, bonuses paid to 22-23 year-olds just out of college – some not even graduating. Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant, here, that’s not my purpose. However, having been on the NFL field with players in the 60s-70s-80s-90s, I witnessed first-hand what meager salaries those players – now the ‘legends’ of the game – were paid. Are today’s pro athletes thinking of money first and the love of playing second? Your call.
Let’s segue to our kids in school today. As a life-long educator, I ask - should we pay kids in elementary and/or secondary school an incentive – call it motivation – to get good or better grades? When we were kids we all had ‘chores’ for no pay, just because Mom/Dad said it was “part of being a family.” Do kids today practice that same philosophy or do they want (demand?) pay for household chores?
Incentives for ‘getting good grades’ is an ever-growing issue. In a recent USA Today survey (http://www.usatoday.com/), more than half of the 74 CEOs interviewed said it was a “good idea.” And 50% of those said they do pay their own kids for good grades. While this idea is not new, it’s gaining more support. As a parent, what is your response when your youngster says “Well, Billy’s mom pays him $5.00 when he gets an ‘A’”?
Sports, as well as the business world, provides us with a lesson. Many coaches at the professional and college levels receive bonuses for winning performances, or getting their team in the playoffs, or winning the conference championship, etc. One coach in the college ranks this year will receive (in addition to his million dollar+ salary) $125,000, if his player-graduation rate equals that of the overall student population! I thought helping a student-athlete graduate was part of – not in addition to – the coach’s job! Foolish me!
Then, too, our business world is rampant with bonus and/or incentive programs for doing what you were hired and paid to do. How then can we fault our kids about what their adult role models are doing, when they want the same?
Will you login to respond to this issue?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80909cc9&template=with-video&confirm=true) is concerned about the hefty, and still escalating, bonuses paid to 22-23 year-olds just out of college – some not even graduating. Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant, here, that’s not my purpose. However, having been on the NFL field with players in the 60s-70s-80s-90s, I witnessed first-hand what meager salaries those players – now the ‘legends’ of the game – were paid. Are today’s pro athletes thinking of money first and the love of playing second? Your call.
Let’s segue to our kids in school today. As a life-long educator, I ask - should we pay kids in elementary and/or secondary school an incentive – call it motivation – to get good or better grades? When we were kids we all had ‘chores’ for no pay, just because Mom/Dad said it was “part of being a family.” Do kids today practice that same philosophy or do they want (demand?) pay for household chores?
Incentives for ‘getting good grades’ is an ever-growing issue. In a recent USA Today survey (http://www.usatoday.com/), more than half of the 74 CEOs interviewed said it was a “good idea.” And 50% of those said they do pay their own kids for good grades. While this idea is not new, it’s gaining more support. As a parent, what is your response when your youngster says “Well, Billy’s mom pays him $5.00 when he gets an ‘A’”?
Sports, as well as the business world, provides us with a lesson. Many coaches at the professional and college levels receive bonuses for winning performances, or getting their team in the playoffs, or winning the conference championship, etc. One coach in the college ranks this year will receive (in addition to his million dollar+ salary) $125,000, if his player-graduation rate equals that of the overall student population! I thought helping a student-athlete graduate was part of – not in addition to – the coach’s job! Foolish me!
Then, too, our business world is rampant with bonus and/or incentive programs for doing what you were hired and paid to do. How then can we fault our kids about what their adult role models are doing, when they want the same?
Will you login to respond to this issue?
Sunday, August 3, 2008
On The Tunney Side of the Street #188 - August 4, 2008
On the Tunney Side of the Street #188, August 4, 2008
After Further Review … All 32 National Football League teams opened their 2008 training camps the third week in July with less than one-half of those drafted in the first round signing their contracts. The others had not signed by the day the camps opened. Oh, they will … but when?
How in the world can a first round draft pick, whose salary and signing bonus -- much of it guaranteed in the multi-millions -- delay getting started? Coaches tell me that it is VITAL for rookies to begin-at-the-beginning. The transition from the college game to the NFL is enormous. Who do these Rookies think they are, anyway? Some of the first rounders will be out of the NFL in a year or two – mostly because they didn’t make it!
Veteran players in today’s NFL games are hesitant to criticize “holdouts,” nor do they even seem to want to encourage their brethren to report to training camp on time. That same thinking is also present with today’s players who fail to admonish teammates for “show boating.” Players often just look the other way, as they did in ignoring the poor behavior of the likes of Michael Vick and Pacman Jones. A teammate's leadership might have saved those two – and others – for the fate that befell them.
Holdouts are not new. Players have “held out” for many years. Jerry Kramer, All-pro Green Bay Packers Guard in the 1960’s said that when he “negotiated’ with Head Coach Vince Lombardi, he wanted $27,000 to play in his 11th season – that was his total salary; no bonuses. Lombardi would only go for $26,500. Kramer held out; Lombardi finally agreed to $27,000, but that was in June and not a day of training camp was missed.
The 2008 NFL draft was in April. Why didn’t negotiations begin in early May? Well, often players in the first round wait to see what other first rounders are getting to compare their offers. Thus, it has become “play for the money” and not for the love of the game as it was in Kramer’s day.
Agents play such a dominant role in the holdout. The agent, of course, is the player’s main negotiator and, as such, has that player’s attention. The unfortunate issue is that a determined, often truculent, agent fails to see the value of reporting on-time to training camp. The value is two-fold: 1) the conditioning and timing of each player in concert with his team and 2) the camaraderie that is necessary for the chemistry needed to build a T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Accomplishes More).
Will you give your best to help build your T.E.A.M. chemistry?
For more information about Jim Tunney, please visit his website:
www.JimTunney.com, or if you would like to respond to this message,
please send your email to Jim@JimTunney.com
After Further Review … All 32 National Football League teams opened their 2008 training camps the third week in July with less than one-half of those drafted in the first round signing their contracts. The others had not signed by the day the camps opened. Oh, they will … but when?
How in the world can a first round draft pick, whose salary and signing bonus -- much of it guaranteed in the multi-millions -- delay getting started? Coaches tell me that it is VITAL for rookies to begin-at-the-beginning. The transition from the college game to the NFL is enormous. Who do these Rookies think they are, anyway? Some of the first rounders will be out of the NFL in a year or two – mostly because they didn’t make it!
Veteran players in today’s NFL games are hesitant to criticize “holdouts,” nor do they even seem to want to encourage their brethren to report to training camp on time. That same thinking is also present with today’s players who fail to admonish teammates for “show boating.” Players often just look the other way, as they did in ignoring the poor behavior of the likes of Michael Vick and Pacman Jones. A teammate's leadership might have saved those two – and others – for the fate that befell them.
Holdouts are not new. Players have “held out” for many years. Jerry Kramer, All-pro Green Bay Packers Guard in the 1960’s said that when he “negotiated’ with Head Coach Vince Lombardi, he wanted $27,000 to play in his 11th season – that was his total salary; no bonuses. Lombardi would only go for $26,500. Kramer held out; Lombardi finally agreed to $27,000, but that was in June and not a day of training camp was missed.
The 2008 NFL draft was in April. Why didn’t negotiations begin in early May? Well, often players in the first round wait to see what other first rounders are getting to compare their offers. Thus, it has become “play for the money” and not for the love of the game as it was in Kramer’s day.
Agents play such a dominant role in the holdout. The agent, of course, is the player’s main negotiator and, as such, has that player’s attention. The unfortunate issue is that a determined, often truculent, agent fails to see the value of reporting on-time to training camp. The value is two-fold: 1) the conditioning and timing of each player in concert with his team and 2) the camaraderie that is necessary for the chemistry needed to build a T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Accomplishes More).
Will you give your best to help build your T.E.A.M. chemistry?
For more information about Jim Tunney, please visit his website:
www.JimTunney.com, or if you would like to respond to this message,
please send your email to Jim@JimTunney.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
