How is it possible for a Sport League that makes billions of dollars on a seemingly increasing basis year after year have so much trouble paying its players what they deserve. First off, the notion that a team needs a Hall of Fame type QB to win is bullshit. Competent yes, HoFer no! QBs are way overpaid under current salary cap rules. However, this piece is about the all-out assault on the running back by the NFL “Suits” and the media analysts that shill and tout the party line. Some may say the analysts are simply being objective but due to the relationship the NFL has with the major sports networks can we really say the analysts are completely objective? It is not a surprise that to a person the talking heads are all touting the party line that Running Backs are not worth big bucks or worth drafting early in the 1st round.
To be fair, on the surface good RBs seemingly can be found in the later rounds in the draft. Unfortunately for them when it come to eventually being paid commensurate to what they really mean to a team there is a full court press by the NFL and media to devalue them. In short, the mortality of a RB is inversely proportional to his pay structure. In fact, unless the RB is drafted in the 1st round they may never land a big money free agent contract.
The reason for this lies squarely on the socialistic, class system set up by the NFL owners which mandates a hard salary cap with equal revenue sharing across the board with a few exceptions. The hard cap forces a class system upon each position where the QB of course is at the top and each subsequent position is rated and priced accordingly based on analytics. It turns out that the analytics that describe RB is heavily weighted on the wear and tear they receive while they are young and when the length of their rookie contracts (7 years) is considered, analytics say the RB is passed his prime right at the time they are looking to get paid the big bucks. This way the owners get to use the RB up for the lowest cost, thus receive the highest return on investment. At some point the RB position may go extinct if players know that they will get screwed on the pro level. We shall see.
Finally, besides just class there is a racial component to this structure. It is not by chance that the QBs are majority white and highest paid and the RBs are overwhelmingly black and must struggle for every penny. As in the society at large there are racial divides even in the Class structure. For example, most of the analyst (mainly white) say Dak Prescott is not worth a max deal even though he has won more Playoff games that both Matt Stafford and Kurt Cousins, who both were the highest paid QBs in the league at one time. But I digress. The parallels of Class and Race in the NFL to society at large is a subject all unto itself.
test