Trotter presents some interesting ideas, especially for people (like myself) who think that the current system isn't good enough...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/jim_trotter/05/28/rookie.wage/index.html
"Count me among those who agree with Brandt that this issue isn't as serious as the Chicken Littles would have us believe.
But for the sake of discussion, let's play along and say that rookie salaries are a problem and the issue will be a point of contention between the league and the players association while negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. What to do?
Keep in mind that the league, theoretically, already has a rookie cap. It's known as a "rookie pool," which is supposed to function as a salary cap within the salary cap. Basically the rookie pool specifies the maximum amount of total salary-cap dollars that a team can spend on rookies in the first year of their contracts.
The pool varies from team to team and is determined by the number of draft picks a club has and the placement of those picks. The Chiefs were allocated a league-high rookie pool of just over $8 million this year -- or 14.5 percent of the 2008 salary cap of $116 million -- because they had a league-high 12 draft picks, including two in the top 15. By comparison, Cleveland, which had only five picks, including none in the first three rounds, has the smallest rookie pool, at just under $1.8 million.
However, the rookie pool is not a hard "cap" because teams can circumvent it by using roster bonuses, option bonuses and escalators, monies that don't count against their first-year salary-cap figures. Some recent high draft choices have opted to pass on signing bonuses -- a prorated portion of which would count against their first-year salary-cap figures -- for option bonuses, roster bonuses and escalators, which give them their money without inflating their first-year salary-cap figure.
A rookie wage scale is different in that it would specify the total dollars and total years on a first-round draft choice's contract before he enters the league, a la the NBA. The higher the selection, the more he would make. In the NBA, for example, the first pick gets more than the second, who gets more than the third, and so on.
Each contract is for two years at a relatively moderate salary, which is guaranteed.(Last year's top pick Greg Oden got $3.885 million his rookie season and will be paid $4.176 million next season.) After two years, the clubs have options for the third and fourth seasons. If the player doesn't show promise after two seasons, clubs can terminate the contract.
Repeating myself, I don't think there's a need for a wage scale in the NFL, but if it does become a bone of contention in the new CBA negotiations, here's what I'd do if I were union executive director Gene Upshaw.
I'd back off my previous statement that a rookie wage scale is off the table and tell the owners that they can have it if they do these three things:"
....................
Read the rest at the site.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/jim_trotter/05/28/rookie.wage/index.html
"Count me among those who agree with Brandt that this issue isn't as serious as the Chicken Littles would have us believe.
But for the sake of discussion, let's play along and say that rookie salaries are a problem and the issue will be a point of contention between the league and the players association while negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. What to do?
Keep in mind that the league, theoretically, already has a rookie cap. It's known as a "rookie pool," which is supposed to function as a salary cap within the salary cap. Basically the rookie pool specifies the maximum amount of total salary-cap dollars that a team can spend on rookies in the first year of their contracts.
The pool varies from team to team and is determined by the number of draft picks a club has and the placement of those picks. The Chiefs were allocated a league-high rookie pool of just over $8 million this year -- or 14.5 percent of the 2008 salary cap of $116 million -- because they had a league-high 12 draft picks, including two in the top 15. By comparison, Cleveland, which had only five picks, including none in the first three rounds, has the smallest rookie pool, at just under $1.8 million.
However, the rookie pool is not a hard "cap" because teams can circumvent it by using roster bonuses, option bonuses and escalators, monies that don't count against their first-year salary-cap figures. Some recent high draft choices have opted to pass on signing bonuses -- a prorated portion of which would count against their first-year salary-cap figures -- for option bonuses, roster bonuses and escalators, which give them their money without inflating their first-year salary-cap figure.
A rookie wage scale is different in that it would specify the total dollars and total years on a first-round draft choice's contract before he enters the league, a la the NBA. The higher the selection, the more he would make. In the NBA, for example, the first pick gets more than the second, who gets more than the third, and so on.
Each contract is for two years at a relatively moderate salary, which is guaranteed.(Last year's top pick Greg Oden got $3.885 million his rookie season and will be paid $4.176 million next season.) After two years, the clubs have options for the third and fourth seasons. If the player doesn't show promise after two seasons, clubs can terminate the contract.
Repeating myself, I don't think there's a need for a wage scale in the NFL, but if it does become a bone of contention in the new CBA negotiations, here's what I'd do if I were union executive director Gene Upshaw.
I'd back off my previous statement that a rookie wage scale is off the table and tell the owners that they can have it if they do these three things:"
....................
Read the rest at the site.
