NFL Rookie Holdouts
Matt Leinart, Donte Whitner, Jason Allen. Three more names on an annually augmented list of first-round NFL rookies who hold out of training camp for a bigger contract. This is a problem for the league, especially since it is often the poorest, most destitute teams who are handcuffed by the players their marketing departments have already labeled the "Future of the Franchise".
Even if we set aside the obvious lack of perspective [should fans be somewhat insulted that 22-year olds are scoffing at $10 mil. in guaranteed money? a question for another post, methinks] this stinks. The draft is designed to give bad teams the best young players, and that design is undermined when those players come late to camp - or sometimes not at all - and go through their first season with limited knowledge of the system.
This is potential disaster in the case of someone like Matt Leinart, who was slated to be Arizona's number two QB right away. As Josh McCown might tell you, playing behind Kurt Warner is a full-time job. Leinart has also been touted as the "most NFL-ready" prospect, which comes with expectations attached.
Allow me to set the scene: Leinart strolls into camp after the fourth preseason game and hasn't seen enough practice time to get on the field before the regular season starts. So when Warner goes down with a strained pinky finger (or a sore cheekbone, or maybe a hangnail on his thumb) it's not Matt Leinart, QB of the Future who takes the field, it's John Navarre, QB of Michigan Past.
The ghost story awaiting Cardinals fans in that scenario would not be pretty, but after decades of this sort of thing I think they have the strength to handle it. What it ultimately does is hurt the league - Leinart is a gigantic superstar waiting to happen, given his already well-established celebrity and the most exciting young wide receiver tandem in the league.
So what can be done? Frankly, it's easy. The NBA serves as a great example of how to handle rookie contracts - they are determined by draft order. Period. There are rules that limit the amount a player can sign for based on where they were drafted.
It's a mystery to me why the NFL hasn't followed their lead on this one. For a league that is supposed to be the strongest relative to its players' union (they still don't offer fully guaranteed contracts to anybody) it's remarkable that they allow a bunch of guys with literally zero NFL experience to hold teams hostage for an extra couple million.
It shouldn't happen. And at the end of the day, the people who really miss out are the fans. Hey, NFL, get your act together - end rookie holdouts!
Even if we set aside the obvious lack of perspective [should fans be somewhat insulted that 22-year olds are scoffing at $10 mil. in guaranteed money? a question for another post, methinks] this stinks. The draft is designed to give bad teams the best young players, and that design is undermined when those players come late to camp - or sometimes not at all - and go through their first season with limited knowledge of the system.
This is potential disaster in the case of someone like Matt Leinart, who was slated to be Arizona's number two QB right away. As Josh McCown might tell you, playing behind Kurt Warner is a full-time job. Leinart has also been touted as the "most NFL-ready" prospect, which comes with expectations attached.
Allow me to set the scene: Leinart strolls into camp after the fourth preseason game and hasn't seen enough practice time to get on the field before the regular season starts. So when Warner goes down with a strained pinky finger (or a sore cheekbone, or maybe a hangnail on his thumb) it's not Matt Leinart, QB of the Future who takes the field, it's John Navarre, QB of Michigan Past.
The ghost story awaiting Cardinals fans in that scenario would not be pretty, but after decades of this sort of thing I think they have the strength to handle it. What it ultimately does is hurt the league - Leinart is a gigantic superstar waiting to happen, given his already well-established celebrity and the most exciting young wide receiver tandem in the league.
So what can be done? Frankly, it's easy. The NBA serves as a great example of how to handle rookie contracts - they are determined by draft order. Period. There are rules that limit the amount a player can sign for based on where they were drafted.
It's a mystery to me why the NFL hasn't followed their lead on this one. For a league that is supposed to be the strongest relative to its players' union (they still don't offer fully guaranteed contracts to anybody) it's remarkable that they allow a bunch of guys with literally zero NFL experience to hold teams hostage for an extra couple million.
It shouldn't happen. And at the end of the day, the people who really miss out are the fans. Hey, NFL, get your act together - end rookie holdouts!
posted by Kolsky @ 6:46 AM
2 Comments:
At 10:43 AM,
OGWiseman said…
I agree that it is sickening that rookies scoff at 10 million, but I think you are ignoring an important issue here. The biggest reason these teams are in such a bind is that they start touting their pick as the savior of the franchise before they have him under contract. In the ultimate team sport, should teams make themselves so dependent on a player who has never played an NFL down?
At 10:24 PM,
Kolsky said…
I think to a certain extent that's true, but here's the problem... It's the media, really, that touts picks as the future of the franchise before they're signed. And beyond that, Cardinals fans don't need somebody to tell them that Matt Leinart is supposed to be the future of the franchise, it's obvious. But you're right, definitely, that teams shouldn't be counting on draft picks to have a big impact immediately. Sadly they do, all the time.
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