NFL Rookie Hold-outs

I'm not going to spend too much time talking about how ridiculous it is that athletes make as much money as they do and tickets/beers/pretzels costs so much. That would be a waste of a perfectly good post.

What I do want to discuss are rookies with a false sense of entitlement. I'm not gonna talk names or specifics, but where do they get off thinking they have all this bargaining power?

In particular, I love when a rookie athlete threatens to sit out the season. Talk about an empty threat. It's a lose-lose situation. If you don't play you don't get paid. And you can't impress other teams when you aren't on the field. So the following season you are only in a worse bargaining position. Plus, how do you live for that season? Do you collect unemployment? Does your agent give you a stipend? Do you get a job at McDonalds making minimum wage?

The powertrip is nonsense. Take your contract. Play your ass off and then get paid when you become a free agent. Don't complain about not being paid what you're worth. None of us in the white collar or blue collar jobs are either.


NFL- you need to re-evaluate your pay scales, etc. There should never be talk about having the #1 pick being a bad thing. I'm not saying that I'm an expert or this is the best plan, but here's my thought:

Put rookies on a set scale based on draft position. Then make their rookie contracts only 1 or 2 years. After that, Darwinism will take over and players will get fair market value. Those that can cut it right away in the pros will have bigger pay days. Those that take time to develop or just bust will get contracts accordingly.