I have spent a lot of time on these pages talking about the need for a rookie wage scale in the NFL draft.  As a Browns fan, how could I not be obsessed with it?  The only first round pick that seems to be worth the money they have been paid is Joe Thomas and potentially Alex Mack.  I am also not the type of guy to make excuses for guys who became instantaneous millionaires after being drafted out of their colleges.  At the same time, I wonder if the giant rookie contracts aren’t something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Think of it this way.  Would Josh Cribbs be the guy he is today if he had been drafted in the top five and “made it” financially before he played even a down of football?

Some guys have football running through their veins, and I get the feeling that these players only think about their money in the off-season.  They love the game and the minute they get a chance to play, they put every single ounce of whatever they have into it.  For every one of those guys though, there are probably three that like football, but don’t like all the aches and pains that are associated with it.  If guys like that have already made giant amounts of money, is there much incentive for them to outperform their gaudy rookie contracts or are they going to be content to simply ride it out?  In business school they would have called this a lack of goal congruence between the NFL team and the rookie players. [Read more...]