NFL Labor Negotiations: My Most Recent Thoughts and Musings

As the NFL labor talks are going on, I thought I write a post about what I think could improve how money is distributed among NFL teams.

A while ago, I was thinking about the Darrelle Revis holdout. I researched as many details of the holdout as possible, and I quickly realized that this was a situation with really no antagonist. Obviously, Revis deserved a lot more money. He was coming off a season in which I’d say he was probably the third best defender in the NFL (behind Ware and Woodson). And he wasn’t being paid accordingly (3 years, $21 million was on his current deal). But it’s not like the Jets didn’t want to pay him. They couldn’t afford to pay Revis. They already had one of the highest team salaries in the NFL. There wasn’t any money there. But there is a way that this situation could be prevented.

What if Vernon Gholston wasn’t mooching off a 5 year, $40 million deal during the dispute (Just for the record, Revis wanted another 9 million a year added to his salary), to have 0 sacks and 30 tackles in his 2 year career? Would this holdout have ever happened?

No. Of course it would not have happened. Technically, the Jets should be held accountable to the contracts they make. And they made that horrible contract with Gholston years ago. And they were stuck with it. And they didn’t have the money to really pay Revis appropriately (I know an extension got through but it took for ever and nearly destroyed that team).

I started to ask myself if there was any way to have prevented this Gholston issue. And then I thought: “Why don’t I ever hear about holdouts in MLB baseball?”

Well, there aren’t holdouts in baseball because the union came up with a brilliant way that usually distributed salaries very fairly. Arbitration.

I want to start off by saying that everything I may say about arbitration may not be true. I’m not a lawyer, and I’m not a sports agent. I’m 14 years old. I did my best to research and understand the arbitration system as well as I could, but I can’t guarantee everything I say will be accurate.

When an MLB player gets drafted, he doesn’t sign a long term contract. As long as he is in the minor leagues, he will be paid a small salary (however, in the case of some players like Stephen Strasburg, a large signing bonus will be offered). When this player reaches the majors, the team he is on will have complete control of him for 6 years without the player having an option to become a free agent. For the first 3 years of his major league career, he will be paid the league minimum salary. During the 4th season, the player and his team will try to make a one year deal with a fair salary based on his performance. If the two teams can’t agree on a deal, the team and the player will go to court, in which a judge will decide his salary for that season (going to court is arbitration). This process is repeated yearly for the next three seasons. After the process is repeated, the player will become a free agent (or in come cases, in the first year of arbitration, a player will sign a deal that lasts longer than three years and gets more money, but he has to wait a longer amount of time before becoming a free agent). The great thing about arbitration is that if a player busts horribly, the team won’t have to pay the player a lot of money.

Now, if a system like this were to be employed in the NFL, the system must account for the fact that NFL players have shorter careers. I propose a system in which a player can basically get a large salary in his first year in the form of a signing bonus, in the second year he makes the league minimum salary, and for the next three years the player and the team go through arbitration. Young players would still have the opportunity to make a lot of money (considering the signing bonus offered in year 1, the only year in which a player doesn’t receive money is year 2), but guys like Gholston would stop getting paid anything after one signing bonus. It doesn’t necessarily favor the owners; as long as they still pay their players the same amount of money, the only thing this system does is distribute the money fairly. But I personally guarantee that if this system were employed in the NFL, the Revis holdout would have lasted only a few hours, and he would have been paid handsomely. And Gholston wouldn’t be paid much more than the league minimum salary after arbitration. I can’t say that this would end all labor issues, but I can guarantee that this would distribute the salaries more fairly among the players. And I don’t think it can be denied. It worked in baseball!