NFL Players Should Not Take Pay Cuts
Martellus Bennett, Patriots Tight End and noted ebony horse with a pointy spike on its head, had an interesting tweet storm this past day in which he ripped fans talking about him and his current pending free agency, presuming to know his thoughts and everything going on. But the really interesting part is that first tweet I linked, where he rips people talking about him taking a pay cut to stay in New England. He’s right, he shouldn’t take a pay cut. NFL players shouldn’t really take pay cuts if they have other options.
I think fans see the NFL differently than the players and kind of forget it’s a business, that it’s a job. Fans are inherently loyal creatures. We follow these teams that really have very little if anything to do with us except take our money, which we gladly pay. Projecting that loyalty onto our franchises and by extension the players is something all fanbases are guilty of. It’s why we get mad if a player goes to a division rival. Or happy, if we hate that player, and want them to tank the rival COUGH COUGH RUEBEN RANDLE.
I just think it’s strange to get mad at a player for wanting to get paid what he’s worth for the “sake of the team”. When players leave in free agency, or hold out, or whatever, so many fans take the side of the team and I often wonder why. Like with Joey Bosa. So many chargers fans, furious he held out because he’s being greedy or whatever, not being a team player. You know, not being a team player for the team that straight up took a steaming dump all over its San Diego fanbase. I see things like “We got you success and you repay us by ditching? Where’s the sense of loyalty, huh?” during free agency sometimes (Saw it a lot with Revis). In a twisted way that’s an interesting point because the player has far more reason to be loyal to a team than any fan does. The player actually got paid and was given opportunity by that team. Fans, if anything, pay teams. Why are we so loyal to these businesses that just take our money and in many ways don’t repay it with true meaningful value that we start to hate employees of that business for wanting the ability to make a better life? Are we just mad that we stay loyal despite getting nothing much out of it outside some emotional fulfillments so if we can be loyal why can’t these millionaires actually playing for them? Fandom is a strange, confusing beast. But this is getting a little too philosophical so here’s a fart joke. Martellus Bennett? More like Fartellus Bennett.
Yeah, take that ya black unicorn.
Edit: Everyone read JH’s comment below, it’s a much better version of one of the points I was trying and failing to make.
I think the main reason that people call athletes leaving for money greedy is because of just how big the numbers look. For Joe Schmoe, the difference between a job paying $60k a year and $70k a year is huge. Having an extra ten grand a year could be the difference between a tiny apartment in a crappy part of town and a nice apartment in a safe area, or the difference between a beat-up used gas-guzzler and a lightly-used or even new car that’s comfortable, fuel-efficient, and has plenty of life left. When the difference in-question is, say, $21m vs. $24m, a casual observer making less than $50k has a hard time wrapping their head around someone choosing to work for a less successful organization when they’re already being paid tens of millions of dollars to do what they do in a place where they’re already comfortable enough in to be having significant success. After all, what can $24m do for you that $21m can’t?
Not saying that means players should take less money than they’re worth or that it’s a flawless argument, just trying to play devil’s advocate, because I think there’s more to it than “If you wouldn’t take a pay cut, why should they?” It’s a lot harder to put the bottom line aside and not be a mercenary when your job pays you five figures a year, compared to seven to eight figures a year, plus putting you on a huge national platform that allows you to make millions more in endorsements and advertising deals. Again, that doesn’t mean it’s right or anything – all of us have no idea what it’s like to pay the taxes they do, have the injuries and medical expenses, both now and later, that they do, the agent and PR expenses that they have, the constant public scrutiny about every stupid detail of their life, etc., etc. – but I feel like it’s kind of misleading comparing John Doe leaving his generic dayjob that pays a generic dayjob salary for another generic dayjob that pays what’s still a pretty pedestrian salary to Athlete McSuperfreak leaving Successful Team offering him millions for Unsuccessful Team paying him maybe a million or two more at-most.
I think fans want to believe that their team is somehow special, because to us it’s not just one of 32 teams, it’s Our Team, and when players leave, they’re not just leaving the team, they’re leaving Us. Nobody ever calls a guy coming in from another team a traitor, it’s only when he’s played for our team and then decided it’s not special enough to him to stay.
Honestly Bennett would be good anywhere except for the Rams, Browns and 49ers
Or Chicago/wherever DON’T CARE ends up
I don’t know, Bennett could probably make Kessler look good. Not Bobert though.
I never have a problem with a player leaving a team. I *DO* think that if you go from a team like, say, the Patriots to the Jags, you’re showing that it’s all about the money, but, y’know fine. Your body, your bad knees, your choice. As a fan, it’s not that I want *loyalty* (although it’s great when it happens), it’s that I want *competitiveness*. Once a player has a ring, though, it’s whatever– they competed, they accomplished that dream of winning the Super Bowl. I mean, if it’s me, I stay with a winner, but I’m freakishly competitive and winning matters more to me than money.
But I will *NEVER* support a hold-out. EVER. Not even a franchise tag hold out. You agreed to it, you can suck it up. Bosa-style-rookie-hold-out I’m kinda-sorta on the fence… you shouldn’t just take whatever’s offered no matter how awful, but as rookies, I just don’t have much sympathy. But once you sign a contract, you freaking play through that contract. You might be worth more, but odds are, in the NFL, you’re going to have years where you’re worth less. Either way, you be a freaking man, and you hold true to YOUR word. You can try to persuade the GM that you deserve more, but you still show up, and do your damn job like you said you would. I understand that windows are short, and that folks could miss it if they just happened to have the year of their career in a non-contract season, but… integrity matters more than any dollar amount.
Also: Players should take pay cuts, if their play merits one. And, sometimes, if you really buy into the camaraderie, then yeah, you take a cut to help the team meet the salary cap. But as a Broncos fan, while I was sad to see Travethon and others go, I harbored them no ill will: they accomplished one of the loftiest dreams any kid can have, and now they’re going to be able to live a life of ease (minus the knee pain and CTE).
Just like TO’s holdout in 2005
A greedy, stupid choice
While I normally agree that a regular person should honor their contract. In the NFL, teams don’t have to honor their side at all (they can cut players at any time) so as a counter, I think players should not be criticized for ‘not honoring a contract’ when holding out.
Teams *are* honoring the contract. The contract — that the player agreed to — explicitly gives them the right to cut the player. There’s nothing stopping a player from demanding a no-cut contract (a la baseball). Players just don’t want the lower salary that would (rightfully!) come with such a contract and prefer to roll the dice and hope they can play out a non-guaranteed contract.
That’s easy for you to say since its not your finances or family lifestyle that’s at risk.
For the players, they can’t realistically demand or effectively bargain for a fully guaranteed contract because no one else is currently able to. It also harms the players that the NFL players union is notoriously weak. With a stronger union advocating for better player deals, they may have had the solidarity to force the NFL to go guaranteed contracts like those found in other sports.
“Also: Players should take pay cuts, if their play merits one. And, sometimes, if you really buy into the camaraderie, then yeah, you take a cut to help the team meet the salary cap.”
As to the first point, he’s saying players aren’t obligated to take a pay cut to stay with the team when they have better offers elsewhere, not that players should always expect to get raises.
As to the second, his point is that they aren’t obligated to take pay cuts, not that there’s never a reason why they would.
I figured that if you were going to make a comic about Martellus vs Stupid Fans, you’d do it on the fans trying to rip on him because he’s not going to the White House.
I’m not really upset about Marty leaving. I love the guy to death, but you gotta go where the money is and New England ain’t the place.
Yup. NE treats being on a Superbowl favorite as a fringe benefit, and players are free to put whatever value on that that they think it warrants. As long as players who want to get paid don’t sign with a rival (hi Ray Allen and Johnny Damon and Revis) their reputation will be intact with the fans here.
I mostly agree on the pay cuts, though I do think that sometimes it is in their best interest. If you’re in the middle of a contract, and you haven’t been playing up to your pay, and the team offers you a reduction but makes the rest of the year guaranteed…well, maybe you make more elsewhere, but you don’t know. Maybe the next place is significantly less.
I never understood the free agency dilemma until I started to look for a new job to leave my old one. Yeah, you want to stay loyal to the guys who took a chance on you, and you are typically at least comfortable there. But they seem interested in keeping you where you always were, while people in your class keep getting big raises elsewhere. So when someone knocks on the door, you’re interested at least.
The hover text is a little bland, but I agree, it’s up to them, but 1 NFL season they earn more than any of us could even hope to earn. As a fan though, it hurts (usually) to see them walk away from the team because of money.
Americans are incredibly confusing sometimes (and I’m not saying that in a pointing fingers kind of way, I am one too).
“America is great! You’re free to make as much money as you’re able to. If you are able to create a product or service that will make you incredibly successful and rich, good on you! That’s the beauty of the free market.”
5 minutes later…
“ATHLETES SHOULD TAKE A PAY CUT!!! PEOPLE SHOULD CHOOSE TO MAKE LESS MONEY THAN THEIR SKILLS WARRANT!! WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS, THE AMERICAN DREAM?”
What can you expect from a guy who called himself “Money B” until Money B of Digital Underground said “No, I’m Money B”?
just in: Most NFL fans are reactionary CHUDs who will take the side of management over labor because they’re fucking stupid.
I love Martellus Bennett and hope he remains a Patriot, but I won’t be angry with him if he goes elsewhere.
Unless it’s the Jets. Fuck the Jets forever.
He’d make a great dolphin. Don’t know why but yeah
If he joined the Dolphins he’d have to change his nickname to Black Narwhal.
He hasn’t gotten enough concussions in his career for the Dolphins to sign him as a free agent tight end.
No one is asking him to take a pay cut.
Bennett made $5.2 million last year. If he was willing to play for that amount this year, the Patriots would re-sign him in a heartbeat.
The Patriots rarely pay full market value for anybody though, so really what fans are saying is that he should take a home-team discount. And there is some merit to this, up to a point. If the Browns offer you $8.0 million and the Patriots offer you $7.5 million, what offer are you going to take? Keeping in mind you finally got to play for a winning team and won a championship, and will keep winning for the foreseeable future. Is that extra 7% worth it to go to a horrible team and organization, and lose?
Now if some other team offers you $8 million, and the Patriots offer you $5 million, that’s a no-brainer, if someone else offers you 60% more you are gone. And no one would argue with that.
In my own career, I have taken jobs that paid slightly less because I liked the company better. I don’t think it’s that unusual. I’ve also taken jobs that paid more even knowing the company was a complete cluster-fuck, and regretted it. And I’ve taken jobs that pay more, and didn’t regret it.
Dave isn’t saying players should never take a pay cut for any reason. He’s saying players aren’t obligated to take a pay cut. If a player wants to take less money to play for a particular team, it’s his right, but he has no reason to feel beholden to a team just because it gave him a chance.
I agree, players have every right to chase every dollar, and probably should given the shortness of their football careers. And nobody should begrudge them for that.
All I’m saying is that if the money is close, other factors can be as important or even more important.
And “cut” in this case is ridiculous because he hasn’t been offered anything yet by anyone.
He’s absolutely free to chase the money and there’s no shame in that, but his tweets comparing this situation to a “normal guy’s” are honestly dumb. Him taking a pay cut would essentially not make any difference in his life. A normal person taking a pay cut may have to choose which bills will be late.
You have no idea whether those extra millions could make the difference between having to choose whether he’d rather pay his medical bills or not put all his kids in college OR being able to pay for both.
I think you are too busy looking at the big numbers instead of looking at those big numbers in context. Check out the comment by JH below, there is so much more to it.
Ony really homerish Pat’s fans thought Bennett was anything more than a rental. Heck, he said “They overpay superbowl champs”……
So thanks Bennett for helping get the 5th ring. I wish you well, and I know there is zero chance your comming back. The Pats will address TE in the draft most likely.
I remember talking to a former pro football player as he sold me a cellphone once in a store in Tennessee. He changed my opinion on this. Everyone pretends like the money is a lot of money, and taken at a glance there really seems like there is no difference between $25,000,000 and $55,000,000 per year. But in the case of the guy that sold me the phone, he had a few interesting factoids. The average NFL career is done in under a decade. The average NFLer has much higher medical bills, and astronomical premiums. He was telling me that his premiums were around $15,000 a month, because he had numerous pre existing conditions and other issues. That’s when he CAN get covered. Certain things aren’t covered at all and are flat out of the pocket. And his whole family is under the same situation. That “cover your kids until you’re 26?” That requires YOU to be able to be covered too. This guy is going to pay a couple hundred grand a year, every year, until he dies, for just insurance.
And that insurance doesn’t cover the big stuff, it doesn’t cover his family, and it doesn’t cover a whole host of things.
So yeah. Go chase that big money. Odds are if you blow your knee out, you’re not going to ever be insurable again, and will need that money to cover bills. The vast majority of NFLers don’t get to go on to fantastic broadcasting careers, they just VANISH.
This is a better written version of where I was coming from. So many people who make 60k or less look at these multimillion dollar contracts and don’t take into account how much of that the player isn’t going to get, or has to spend on these other things, and their career ends quickly.
What are your opinions on players accepting pay cuts if they happened to have their role changed? For instance, Tony Romo with the Cowboys. The salary he was earning was based on him being a starting quarterback. Now, however, he’s a backup to Dak Prescott. Wouldn’t it be reasonable in this case, if he hypothetically wanted to stay with the Cowboys, to accept a pay cut? After all, he did get a “demotion” and in the real world, if you got demoted due to poor work performance, you would certainly see a cut in pay.
The Cowboys freely signed the same contract he did. He’s not obligated to do anything more than honor the contract he signed, and they’re obligated to do the same. If they want to renegotiate, they can ask him and they always have the option to cut or trade him if he’s not willing to give up what they agreed to give him.
I think Romo’s situation is different and depends entirely on what the Cowboys do. If he wants to stay with the Cowboys he is not going to start, so he’d probably have to take a pay cut and it would make some sense because having that much money tied up in a backup is terrible for the Cowboys, but if he doesn’t want a pay cut, the Boys would probably need to trade him/cut him. If he wants to play and start (Which I think is the case) he’d be far better off leaving.
Can’t find the SR. Any hints?