Rethinking Player Contracts in the Context of Percentages

Salaries of players continue to rise, causing many to lose sight of a player’s value. Viewing contracts relative to the salary cap could help

The beauty of sports is that we can all watch the same thing happen and have completely different opinions on what we witnessed. There are exceptions to every rule, however, and that exception is how we as sports fans react to and perceive player contracts. In a landscape where the salary cap of our favorite leagues continue to rise, it is inevitable that player salaries will continue to break records. In the NBA, we are not too far away from a player making $100 million per season and in the NFL, we are on the cusp of quarterbacks making $75 million per season. Despite this inevitability, we are often flabbergasted by the amount that teams pay players, especially if they are not elite players.

It is easy to understand why we gasp at every new contract. Most of us cannot fathom even making a middle of the road player’s salary, much less the money that is paid to an elite player. We see how many millions the contracts are worth and are rendered speechless. The downside is that when a player is making more money, the scrutiny heaped upon them when things do not go well is bound to increase. This dynamic has made me wonder if we are going about the reporting of contracts all wrong…