NFL players angry about NBA contracts really should be angry about their own

David Steele

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NFL players angry about NBA contracts really should be angry about their own image

Nobody in the sports world freaked out over the flood of new NBA free agent money Friday more than NFL players. And they were not shy about telling everybody.

Including, in some cases, their own union.

Ironically, less than 24 hours earlier, the NFL world’s perspective on salaries was almost the complete opposite — stunned that Andrew Luck got such a huge contract from the Colts, $87 million guaranteed . The entirety of the reported six-year, $140 million deal is not guaranteed, as is the norm in the NFL.

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That debate veered toward whether Luck was worth it in comparison to other quarterbacks, and whether he was another example of quarterbacks getting the lion’s share of the payroll at the expense of stars at other positions.

It all changed the next day, as reality slapped players in the face about where they stood in the pro athlete salary hierarchy — especially compared to the NBA, which got a huge infusion of new TV-contract money this offseason. 

Luck’s guarantee, the biggest in NFL history, is a little over half the size of the one given to the Grizzlies’ Mike Conley Friday — $153 million over five years.

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The most popular sport in America, raking in the biggest ratings, most revenue and most attention, is also the one that hands out the fewest contract guarantees, and whose players face the biggest physical risk, by far. 

Plus, it has the hardest salary cap in sports (baseball has none), and while the NBA has contract maximums, the NFL has franchise tags that help limit free agency at the end of rookie contracts.

Virtually none of that has changed since the current labor agreement went into place in 2011, after an acrimonious lockout in which the owners threatened to cancel the season unless they got what they wanted from the players. 

Ever since then, the union has fought the league in arbitration or in court over hidden revenues and disciplinary power.

MORE: Why paying Mike Conley $153M was great for Grizzlies

A new front may have opened up now — five years after Patriots owner Robert Kraft and then-Colts player and union leader Jeff Saturday shared a tearful hug as the new labor deal was announced.

For the record, as of Saturday morning (according to spotrac.com), 20 NBA players have contracts worth more guaranteed than Luck’s.

And 26 major-league baseball players make as much as or more than Conley now makes … topped by the $325 million for the Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton.

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Which makes the reaction of one former baseball player even more curious … and more of a slap at the stunned NFL players.

David Steele