New York Giants: Can Beckham Become Labor Leader?
With his blunt assessment of his value to Big Blue on full display, Odell Beckham shows he can play a key role in labor negotiations.
As the the New York Giants gear up for another grueling season, Over The Cap reports that another lockout may loom. Of course, a player strike has happened before, with the last in-season event occurring in 1987. But in the midst of recent reports of the omnipresence of C.T.E. in deceased football players and the stark contrast in player salary from league to league, the NFL and its players, are in need of a linchpin to actively pursue their fair share of revenue and ensure the continued existence of America’s favorite sport.
The current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the league and players’ union expires in 2020. Among the grievances many players find under the current bargaining agreement are related to the salary cap and its effect on guaranteed contracts.
Capped Income
The NFL is the one major North American sports league that does not guarantee its player contracts. While certain aspects in the current agreement have been collectively bargained for player safety, such as limiting practice time and the amount of hitting during the average NFL practice week, players’ share of the revenue has not kept pace with the growth of the league.
According to Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman, the current CBA instituted a 5 percent decrease in the players’ share of the revenue, from 53 to 48 percent. A decrease even more pronounced when looking at the league’s burgeoning wealth. In 2010, the league made approximately $8.5 billion. Commissioner Roger Goodell proclaimed it would make $25 billion by 2027. After the 2016 league year saw the NFL again accumulate record revenue with more than $14 billion, the league is on track for its proposed goal.
Even as the league stands to make more money than any other sport’s organization in America, the players’ salaries have remained relatively stagnant. According to Forbes, while NFL teams experienced growth of over 40 percent, $1 billion to $1.4 billion in 2013, player’s salaries increased only about one percent from $1.98 million to $2 million per year. Their data was derived from a five year period from 2009-2013.
New York Giants
More recent data reveals a starker contrast; released in September at the beginning of the 2016 season, Forbes shows that the average league value has soared to $2.34 billion and the average NFL salary for the previous season (2015) was $2.1 million. This average salary dwarfs in comparison to other professional sports such as baseball ($4.4 million), basketball ($6.2 million) and hockey ($2.9 million).
(Not) Contractually Obligated
The inherent problem with the contracts in the NFL, aside from their lower values, is its decidedly loose contractual agreements. Contractual, in the NFL sense, appears to render less in benefit to the player, and more in ownership’s ability to nullify and limit any monetary payout.
Odell Beckham has been openly candid in openly discussing his contract, according to CBS Sports. Perhaps, this exercise may be less about his immaturity and “millennial” sense of entitlement, and more about the pressing need for NFL stars. Maybe this discussion will also spur middle and lower tier players to actively pursue fair and honest negotiations. It seeks pay commensurate with their standing in the public eye and their cash generating performances on the field. Not only that, but to ensure that player salaries can continue to increase at a rate relative to the growth of the teams.
Divisive Figure
Beckham is unrehearsed in contract talk, economics and the pressing needs of both labor and management. His value lies in his play and his standing as a recognizable star. He is still young, at just 24-years old. Beckham also represents an unencumbered, brash and unquestionably talented head case that management-types, and curmudgeonly sport’s pundits throw fits over. He is quickly ascending to the top of the football world through social media, and his voice can be heard by potentially billions of people.
The New York Giants picked up Beckham’s fifth-year option. This means his pay for the 2018 season is guaranteed. His comments on the contract succeeding his rookie contract became a focal point of the media recently. While his eventual aspiration to become the highest paid player in the league is unlikely to happen, his presence may have a profound effect on the foreseeable labor discussions.
Negotiate to Get Paid
Per Yahoo, the total dollar amounts in a contract are rarely a true indication of a team’s investment and a player’s total compensation. Beckham may be interested in the total dollar figures, but come CBA negotiation time, he and other high profile stars must heed the fallacies of past agreements and the shortcomings in contract disputes.
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The wealth disparity among league players, as well as the dwindling leverage many veteran players have in seeking and negotiating a contract, must be vital components of the next CBA’s compensation clauses. Beckham’s current standing in the league, and his rise over the next few years, will put him in an ideal position to steer negotiations and generate discussion on how the next generation of players deserve to be compensated.
Beckham’s original comments certainly riled some people and rubbed some the wrong way. But his sole intent is not to grow rich as a football player. He will already have made his money by 2020 and will have undoubtedly seen others compromise or lose out on large portions of their contracts due to the nature of the game.
NFL owners have come out on top in recent CBA negotiations. However, Beckham possesses the ability, limelight and polarizing nature to ensure the interests of players are at the forefront and intrinsically linked to the success of the game. His global stardom, as well as generational talent, put him in a unique spot of consolidating interests, unifying factions of players, and helping remedy the dissension of labor – management discussions.