It is the time of the year where rookie(s) decide to skip on some valuable lessons during training camp to secure the most lucrative contract that they can get.  It’s also the time of the year where many various sportswriters deem these guys greedy and ruining their season.  Well, wake up guys, I think it is well within the rookie’s right to get top dollar before stepping foot on a practice field.   Given an average football career of three to four years, this contract negotiation accounts well beyond some players entire career.

Some writers even have the nerve to suggest that a rookie salary cap be created for football that resembles that of basketball.  Newsflash, this is not an ingenious idea, but no one would go for it.  Not the players and definitely not the owners.  Football is by for the most violent of the top American sports.  Season and career ending injuries are far more common in football than in basketball or even hockey for that matter.  Having to pay a guy for six years, that doesn’t even make it out of training camp would put many owners in a financial conundrum.

So, given that guaranteed rookie contracts are a long way from being adopted, if ever, I think these guys should spend as much time as needed to get the largest amount of guaranteed money that the owner is willing to pay.   If not, they can be dropped like a bad habit and not see anything from that multi-million dollar payday that they signed.  Once a contract is signed, the owners have all of the control.  If a player underplays the contract, he gets cut, if he overplays the contract, he holds out and is bashed by the media for being a greedy, money hungry athlete.

As of this post there are only three holdouts, JaMarcus Russell, Darrelle Revis  and Brady Quinn.  I agree that the QBs stand to lose the most by holding out, but they are probably best served by holding a clipboard for a year anyway.  Revis is a CB and can use the reps, but should catch up rather quickly once he signs on the dotted line.  Well, guys as Tupac once said, “I ain’t mad at ‘cha.”  Get your money.