Veterans got the most out of the new NFL labor deal - Ingles

The empty feeling some players may have in their hearts this week is a sense of guilt that comes from betrayal. To achieve a deal, top N.F.L. rookies were sacrificed. They will receive less so veteran players and retired players can receive more.

The N.F.L. players union gave owners the pound of flesh they wanted by effectively selling out their little brothers. And veterans must now look rookies in the eye in training camp and explain how they could do such a thing.

Easy. There weren’t many options. There was one seat left on the bus and the veterans snatched it.

The owners were out for bear. They were determined to get a significant economic concession from the players, and the most convenient place to get it was from the money previously reserved for high-priced rookies.

As a result, there will, among other things, be a drastic change in the compensation for the top 10 selections in this year’s N.F.L. draft.

The package signed by the St. Louis Rams’ Sam Bradford last season and the deal Cam Newton is expected to sign with the Carolina Panthers this year underline the shift.

Bradford signed a six-year contract that could be worth $78 million, $50 million of it guaranteed. The speculation is that Newton, who led Auburn to a national championship, could sign a four-year deal worth slightly more than $22 million. The unknown factor is how much will be guaranteed. But the numbers alone — Bradford at $78 million over six years versus Newton at $22 million over four — speak for themselves.

“If you’re Cam Newton, you wish you would have been Sam Bradford,” said one player agent who requested anonymity because he did not want to appear to be critical of the union.

The rationale for the reduced pay for rookies is that they should prove themselves before being showered with money.

But the unproven rookie argument is essentially nonsense. In fact, rookies are a cornerstone of the N.F.L.’s economic structure.

In the United States’ system of intercollegiate athletics, where colleges serve as the de facto minor leagues for the N.F.L., rookies earn money for others before they put on an N.F.L. uniform.

College football has memorialized Saturday afternoon in America. We fawn over talented young players. Newton was one of the most talked about players in the recent history of college football. College stars like Bradford, Matthew Stafford, Reggie Bush and Tim Tebow — and yes, JaMarcus Russell — made their names in college while making enormous sums for their institutions.

In the process, college players create rabid fan interest. And if N.F.L. rookies aren’t important, why is the N.F.L. draft packed every year with crazed fans?

Rookies matter. They have proven themselves on one stage and the public is eager to see how they will perform on the next. As college stars, they are not compensated (or at least, they’re not supposed to be), but they could look forward to cashing in as N.F.L. rookies. Now, not so much, thanks to the agreement between the N.F.L. and the players union to slash rookie wages.

Which means that college stars who were exploited for two or three seasons as undergraduates are now taking it on the chin once more. (And heaven help parents who attempt to put a price tag on their son. The N.C.A.A. will come down on them like a ton of bricks because the N.C.A.A. and its partners are the only ones who will make money around these parts.)

Gene Upshaw , the former union chief, once famously said that he did not represent retired players. His successor, DeMaurice Smith, is all but saying he does not represent rookies. But hey, we have a deal and a season and no one misses any money — except the rookies. This means more for owners, more for current players and more, presumably, for retired players.

We’ll see.

But someone had to be sacrificed for this deal, and the veteran players sacrificed their younger brothers. That’s life in the big city, but shame on you. This article was written by William C. Rhoden and appeared in The New York Times.