Aside from Fisher, the #1 overall pick who just signed today, who else from that draft class has signed a new deal?
A fair deal is fulfilling the terms of the contract you signed, not trying to extort money out of your boss.
Please... Is it still fair when players get cut before they earn all of the money stated in the terms of said contract?
Can you imagine what the NBA will look like if everyone starts whining because "Solomon hill is making....", "Mozgov is making...." I fear that day.
Please, what? The answer to your line of logic is "no", but that doesn't magically make the reverse situation fair... And if the terms of the contract are that the money is non-guaranteed, I guess that is "fair" as far as legality goes. I'm separating the idea of "Hopkins deserves to make a lot of money" (which is true), with the idea of "there's nothing wrong at all with holding out on your team while under contract." I've never liked players holding out - even my favorites. Hopefully it resolves soon and he doesn't miss a game.
NFL contracts are the biggest injustice in all of professional sports. Right ahead of officiating in the NBA. The most violent game sponsored by the most profitable league. Holdouts suck for the fans, but they are exactly what the owners deserve.
What kind of money would the players be making without the NFL? Are there strong overseas football leagues for them to join? Of course not, it's NFL or bust. For all the complaining, the players would make peanuts doing the same exact thing without the NFL. It's funny how much "Average Joe" types will complain about 1%ers not making enough money in their opinion and how it's not fair they aren't making even more.
It is not like the Texans are being outrageous to not want to sign a new contract this early. Hopkins is trying to force their hand. His prerogative. This is about all the players can do to get a bargaining edge. Maybe it works, maybe the Texans stand their ground. I will be concerned when there is a chance of him missing games.
All us "Average Joe's" do is talk about what we think. We criticize and critique world class athletes. People who's skills and talents we couldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Even the least talented among them. Hell, these discussions are why this forum exists. So how is talking about the business side of it any different? And you ask where the players would be without the NFL, well... Where would the NFL be without the players? You're criticizing me for siding with millionaires, while you're siding with the billionaires.
Without this group of players? They'd take a slight hit in income when they brought in replacements and within 5 years there would be no difference in the quality of play. Players are easily replaceable, an infrastructure like the NFL is not. As is players are spoiled, the league wouldn't be any better off if they spoiled them further. When we're talking about a guy having to "get by" on a million dollars a year and how "unfair" it is to make him wait another year to make 10 or 15 times that much money, then it's pretty clear that we've lost touch with reality in that conversation. As usual, I'm siding with the league, because that's what I'm a fan of, not any individual player and certainly not an individual player who is potentially hurting his team due to greed. I don't care about the players at all, I only care about the teams and the league in general. The only reason I even know their names is because of the league and the teams they play on. If they didn't play in the NFL I wouldn't care about them at all no matter how talented they are. Talent by itself means nothing.
Fans still root for the jersey in the NFL but I'm not sure if replacements is a viable plan anymore. After the replacement ref fiasco, it is evident that society is extremely reactionary and won't dig deeper into stories. The NFL was trying to get power to dismiss refs to fire them easier, refs union didn't like that because it had serious pension implications. Every missed call was magnified, outrage culture forced a settlement. I think with players a similar thing would happen and sentiment would shift from the teams to the players.
For sure there would be outrage, but it would be short lived, and you'd always have a huge crop of talent every year from college so before long, the talent level would be the same. College kids would love to make just the NFL average and would still flood into the league even if they decreased the average compensation that the players currently get. The players are just replaceable cogs in a huge machine that will keep turning with or without any individual player or any specific set of players.
Everyone needs to relax. This will get worked out one way or the other. I would like Hopkins to be in camp, but he's not missing regular season games or anything. Hopkins has made plays regardless of who the QB is. He'll do fine as soon as he returns. I won't be worried until the regular season starts. The longer Hopkins stays out, the more money he loses. At some point he's not going to want to lose any more money and he will join the team.
They've already been working on that. QB-WR chemistry doesn't need pads and full contact. Plus Hopkins has proven that he doesn't need that much chemistry to play well with a QB.
