This would be true in baseball, but not in the NFL (maybe with the exception of this year). With a hard salary cap, the total amount being paid by teams is not going to change. So if Moss gets more, that just means someone else has to get paid less.
On an annual basis. Moss getting paid more this year will matter to the rest of the players at CBA time.
I have begun to realize how true this is over the past couple years. I do think that most athletes really do care about winning and when they are on the court/field/pitch/ice, they give it their all and truly want to win that singular game. However, I also think it is increasingly rare for players to value winning a championship over other priorities so much that they are willing to make sacrifices.
The league and NFLPA simply agree to give a percentage of total league revenues to the players. That amount isn't going to be influenced by individual salaries. The issue of how that money gets distributed is probably more of a concern to the NFLPA than the owners. If I was an owner, I would let the PA decide how they want to do rookie contracts, guarantees, etc - basically, let the PA decide how best to distrbute the pool of money - in exchange for holding firm on the total percentage. The owners mostly just care about how big that pool is.
