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The NFL football players are the highest paid athletes in professional sports. Why are NFL players compensated with such a high salary, and why is there so much money available for the players? Also, do teams use different models for salary distribution, and do high salaries provided to players result in a winning organization? In this article we will try to address these questions. Finally, we will examine the implications of high NFL player salaries for the fans, players, and management.
To understand the concept of NFL player salary, you first need to understand the term salary cap in the NFL. The salary cap is the amount of money an NFL team can spend on salaries for their players per year. The salary cap has progressively increased year by year since its inception back in 1994.
The NFL salary cap, as negotiated by the NFL Players Union in the current collective bargaining agreement, is 62.24% of all football related revenue divided by 32 teams. For the 2009 season that figure is 128 million dollars, which is the amount of money each team can spend on NFL player salaries.
The following shows the steady increase in salary cap since 1999:
Salary Cap Per Team for NFL Player Salaries by Year:
2009 $128 million
2008 $116 million
2007 $109 million
2006 $102 million
2005 $85.5 million
2004 $80.5 million
2003 $75 million
2002 $71 million
2001 $67.5 million
2000 $62.2 million
1999 $58.4 million
As the salary cap increases, so does the salary of players. The real question is how is the money distributed to players? There is a type of salary distribution model that teams use which is not known to the general public. Each team seems to use a slightly different model. Before looking at this distribution concept, lets take a look at a list of the highest paid NFL players for 2008. In looking at the list below, it is interesting to note that the top 20 salaries for 2008 only had a couple of quarterbacks. Yet the highest paid player for 2008 was quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. It should be noted that at the time of this writing, the most current NFL salary statistics was for the 2008 season. So who were the highest paid NFL players for 2008.
The following table tells it all:
TOP 20 HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS IN 2008
1. QB Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh $ 27,701,920
2. DE Jared Allen, Minnesota $ 21,119,256
3. WR Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona $ 17,103,480
4. QB JaMarcus Russell, Oakland $ 16,872,400
5. RB Michael Turner, Atlanta $ 16,003,840
6. G Chris Snee, N.Y. Giants $ 14,890,000
7. CB Asante Samuel, Philadelphia $ 14,145,000
8. WR Randy Moss, New England $ 14,006,720
9. T Flozell Adams, Dallas $ 14,005,760
10 .DT Tommy Kelly, Oakland $ 13,978,480
11. WR Terrell Owens, Dallas $ 13,731,560
12. WR Bernard Berrian, Minnesota $ 13,705,000
