EXCLUSIVE VIDEO ProPlayerInsiders sat down with Executive Director of the NFLPA DeMaurice Smith shortly after he and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that football was back. In this second part of our series, Smith talks about how the new deal with the NFL impacts the players whether they are a rookie, current player or retired player.
“What we tired to do is to ensure that all of the [player] groups could find things in the deal that would be positive,” said Smith.
Rookies
“The league was interested in a rookie wage scale” but that approach “would have really taken away their ability to negotiate independent contracts . . . in a free market.”
While the first round draft picks will see a reduction in their contracts for the first three years, Smith says the benefit is “we got them to free agency faster.”
Contracts for first round draft choices will be four years, with a team option for a fifth year. “If a team doesn’t want [the player] to reach free agency [at the end of] the fourth year then they have to option that person in the third year at a very high compensation rate.”
The salary for the fifth year option will be dependent upon where the player was selected. Players selected in the first ten picks will receive a fifth year option salary of the top ten salaries at the player’s position. A player selected between pick 11 and 32 will receive a fifth year option salary at the average salary of the top 3rd through 25th players at their position.
“Either that player is a person that they want to keep on their team and that [player] will be rewarded with a significant contract or, if they want that player to test the free market and they can play football, then that person is going to be rewarded handsomely.”
For players drafted in rounds 2-7, the contract length will be four years.
Current Players
“With respect to current players there are things in this deal that have changed football.”
A number of changes to the working conditions were put in place. In training camp, there will no longer be 2-a-day practices, and maximum of 4.5 hours of field time per day will be allowed. One padded practice limited to 3 hours in training camp, with a second practice limited to non-helmet walk through. The agreement also provides for unannounced inspections by NFLPA Staff to ensure compliance with the new work rules.
“When it comes to issues like how injuries are treated, for the first time in the history of the game, players have guaranteed contracts.” Under the new agreement, a player receives a guaranteed salary for three years following a qualifying injury; 100% of salary for the year of injury, 50% up to $1 M for the year after the year of injury and 30% up to $500,000 for the second year after the year of injury.
League wide spending is guaranteed to be between 99 and 95 percent of the Cap. There will be a guaranteed league-wide cash spend of 99 percent of the Cap in 2011-12. The guaranteed league-wide cash spend will be 95 percent in 2013-16 and 2017-20, over those four-year periods. On a per team basis, there is a minimum team cash spend of 89 percent of the Cap in 2013-16 and 2017-20, based on four-year averages.
Retired Players
“Finally for retired players, for the first time in history the teams are contributing to the pensions of our former players. And the players of the National Football League, recognizing that they have an obligation to [the retired] players, created the Legacy Fund, [something] that we committed to getting done during the first six months that I took this job.”
Legacy Fund for Retired Players is “a new benefit that will be funded over 10 years that will amount to about $620 M for [Pre-93] players.” The fund will be paid 51 percent by the NFL, outside of the cap, and 49 percent out of the players’ revenue share.
“In addition, players have at their discretion approximately $20 M a year that we can use for health, research and retirement benefits.”
“On balance we feel this is a good deal not only for the owners but a very good deal for the players.”
See PART ONE of our interview with DeMaurice Smith, located here.
