NFL Rookie Contracts

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Detroit Lions came to an agreement with Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford. The deal is a reported six-year, $72 million. The deal can actually be worth up to $78 million if he achieves all his incentives.

Now those that read this blog know that I do not really care what athletes get paid. I am all for people making as much money as possible. Nobody is forcing the Detroit Lions, or any other NFL team, to give athletes this money. I think it is stupid to do, but at the end of the day the free markets should dictate how much money athletes can make and how much money teams should keep for themselves.

What is of particular interest to me is how on earth the NFL got to a place where NFL rookies are paid such crazy contracts. In the other major sports, rookies have to "make good". That is, the big contract does not actually come until a few years after they have been in the league and have proven that they are worth the money.

This is not the case in the NFL. The big contracts are usually given right out of college, before any of these athletes play one down on an NFL field. This seems a little odd to me and I am not sure how this sport got here. As an owner, I would be hesitant to throw this kind of money on an unproven athlete. Worse yet, these contracts use a significant portion of a team's salary cap. More than any other sport, Football is ruled by its salary cap. A team's success is very much correlated by how well they are able to manage their cap. Yet teams are willing to throw that out the window on unproven rookies.

Further, I am not sure how the NFL veterans let this happen. Do they really have so little bargaining power? Why would they allow rookies to get these types of contracts when it directly affects how much they themselves can receive. You would expect it to be like other unions. Those who are already part of the union receive the better benefits and higher salaries. They are the ones who are voting on the rules of the contract and labor agreements. You would think they would create rules that favor those already part of the union rather than those that are coming in.

How would you feel if you are a NFL player making $3 million per year. You are busting your ass and doing great. You may even be on the cusp of a pro bowl selection. Your next contract might net you $4 million if you are lucky. And then you see a player like Matt Stafford, who by his own admission admits he may be a crap shot, get something like $12 million/year. Would you not think this is a little bit unfair?

I Know I Am Old

Saturday, April 11, 2009
because it is strange to me that there are people born in the 90's who are now in college.

Asian Names Are Hard to Pronounce

Thursday, April 09, 2009


I've written in the past how it can suck to be asian. Now, government official Betty Brown from Texas gives yet another reason why it sucks to be asian. Our names our hard to pronounce.

No wonder we have it so tough. People are having a hard time pronouncing our names. I mean, just look at the name of the man she was directing her comments to. His last name was "Ko" Damn those two letters, what the hell can they mean? Other common names like, "Lee", "Yao", "Sun" can be extremely confusing. Not at all like nice easy "American" names like "Jake Gyllenhaal", "Shia Labeouf" or our Governor "Arnold Schwarzenegger".

I guess Asian people will never be able to be successful in this company or be able to fit in so long as we have these strange foreign names that people just can't figure out how to spell.

What the Heck Happened to Scrubs?

Thursday, April 02, 2009

I was excited when I learned that Scrubs was coming back for one last season. It had been one of my favorite shows in the last several years and it really bugged me that they did not finish the series off right because of the writer's strike. So when I heard the series was back on, I eagerly awaited some fresh new episodes and what I hoped to be a satisfying conclusion to the series.

But seriously, WTF? The season has been quite a disappointment. The shows just are not as funny as they used to be. I think it is mostly because they seem not to have too much of the regular cast on (J.D. has not been in at least two episodes this season and only Elliot and Turk were in this last one) and are focusing a lot on some newer characters. Perhaps they are getting the viewers ready for a whole new cast, which is just a bad idea, but it really disappoints me to see the series like this.

The new shows have their moments, but it just isn't like the Scrubs of old which at times was just completely off beat but always funny. I would have rather had the show just end last season in a half-complete state then for it to just kind of limp to the finish line like this.