The Associated Press got a hold of the NFL’s proposed rookie wage scale on Wednesday.
Some of the financial stuff is interesting -- the league wants to divert $300 million-per-year from first-round picks to veterans -- but the fine print is fascinating.
According to Barry Wilner, the league wants to eliminate holdouts by “reducing the maximum allowable salary if a rookie isn’t signed when training camp begins.”
Basically, you start losing serious money the moment you start to miss camp. The league wants to take this holdout idea even further.
“The NFL also suggested eliminating holdouts for all veterans by prohibiting renegotiations of contracts if a player holds out in the preseason,” Wilner writers.
Good luck with that.
Eliminating holdouts in rookie contracts would be a big pill for the NFLPA* to swallow. It’s hard to imagine the union giving up the leverage of a veteran holdout, when it’s often the only leverage veterans have.