NBA Salaries Exploding While NFL Players Are Still Grossly Underpaid

NBA Salaries Are Exploding While NFL Players Are Underpaid

When NBA player salaries started exploding in the summer of 2016 the numbers were staggering. Al Horford got 4 years $113 million from the Celtics. Nicolas Batum got 5 years $120 million from the Hornets. Andre Drummond received 5 years $130 million from the Pistons, the list goes on and on. Hell, even Matthew Dellavedova signed a 4 year deal for $38 million. All those contracts are fully guaranteed. There were a group of athletes who collectively took notice and gasped and that was NFL players. They took to social media to voice their opinions and while congratulating their NBA counterparts they also loudly proclaimed it is ridiculous how little they get paid by comparison. 2017 NBA free agency is in full swing and the hits keep on coming for NBA players while NFL players watch and shake their heads. Steph Curry- 5 years $201 mil, Blake Griffin- 5 years $173 mil, Jrue Holiday- 5 years $126 mil and the San Antonio Spurs gave backup guard Patty Mills 50 million dollars over 4 years. PATTY MILLS will make 12.5 mil a year. NFL players should be envious and also pissed off. This is ridiculous and needs to change. This is all collectively bargained and the NFL players union will be looking to make drastic changes to how much they get paid when the current NFL agreement ends in 2020..

There are many reasons why the NBA players make more than NFL players but 2 of them stand out and are of most importance.

Revenue Split

The NFL total revenue was 13 Billion dollars last season, the NBA was a shade under 5 Billion. The NBA players split the revenue 50-50 with the owners while the NFL players get under half. So the NFL players are entitled to about 6 Billion Dollars while the NBA players are entitled to about 3 Billion. The problem is there are 32 NFL teams each with a 53 man roster so there are 1,696 players under contract each season. There are 30 NBA teams with 15 man rosters. so there are only 450 NBA players. Therefore 1,696 players are splitting 6 Billion dollars in the NFL which comes out an average salary of about $3.5 million dollars, while 450 NBA players split 3 billion which averages out to about $6.6 million per player.

Hard vs Soft salary cap

The 2017 NFL salary cap will be right around $167 million dollars, The 2017-18 NBA salary cap will be $99 million dollars. Unfortunately for NFL players is they have a hard salary cap so teams can not go over the $167 million dollar salary cap threshold. Not even 1 penny over. The NBA has a soft salary cap where there are rules in place to allow teams to go over that 99 million dollar threshold. The Larry Bird rule started it all, which allows teams to go over that 99 million dollar threshold to sign and keep their own players. Another punch in the face for NFL players is on top of the soft cap the NBA also has a luxury tax threshold. So a team can go even higher (as high as they want) and pay a tax for every dollar over the tax threshold they go. Next season the luxury tax threshold is $119 million. So if you use that number the average NBA salary can be almost 8 million dollars without being punished. There currently 8 teams who will spend more than $99 million next season (a number that probably will go up) With a couple teams projected to spend over $135 million dollars.

Many argue that NBA players should make more because of the amount of games played, and that is ludicrous. Yes NBA teams play 82 games compared to 16 by the NFL. The problem with the short sided statement of “more games = higher pay” is the amount of overall tickets sold by the two sports is not that far off from each other. The average capacity for NFL stadiums is 69,800 and most if not all NFL games sell out. NBA arenas have an average capacity of 19,100. Last season The NBA had a total attendance of just under 22 million. The NFL’s total attendance? Just under 18 million. For all those extra games, the NBA is not that far ahead when it comes to total attendance. Many argue that the NFL players have only themselves to blame for negotiating this agreement. Well the current collective bargaining agreement was negotiated in 2011. The average NFL career only lasts 3 years, so therefore many players who will be on 2017 rosters weren’t even playing in 2011.

The NFL owners get way too big of the pot. If the NFL revenue is 13 billion dollars the players should be getting 9 billion, 8 at the very least. The NFL will not go to a luxury tax system that the NBA and MLB has but they need to put in their own version of the Larry Bird rule and allow teams to sign players like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers to huge contracts and have it not have the drastic effect on the rest of the roster that it currently has. NFL players play a violent game that doesn’t last very long and has life altering repercussions down the road. The players who play our most popular sport are grossly underpaid and this needs to change.

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