Comments on: Breaking down the Mario Williams deal

By: keepyerstickontheice

keepyerstickontheice — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:54:42 +0000

Re: flatline salaries
Luxury boxes, naming rights, merchandising, TV money based on selling advertising, and the world population has increased by 2 billion since 1993, and they can get all the games on their iPhone.

This is the high water mark for pro football though, it’s all downhill from here. Now that defense is illegal, it’s just flag football now. Next the QB will be red-shirted during actual games.

There is a reason that there will always be fighting in hockey, boxing won’t go away and MMA is getting more popular every year.

Do the math.

By: yanksbills

yanksbills — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:08:05 +0000

Watch a playoff game from 1993 and count the number of jerseys in the crowd.

Watch any sporting event today and make the same comparison. In 1993 merchandising meant hats and tees; today everyone owns a jersey. There’s simply more money available to teams than they had 20 years ago.

By: catquick

catquick — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 03:22:16 +0000

I remember OJ signing for 195K a year and the town going wild. It’s pocket change for these guys now.

By: whatevnfl

whatevnfl — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:29:35 +0000

Don’t forget this guy also made 60 million dollars already being the first pick of the draft. I think he really did feel comfortable on his Buffalo visit enough to want to sign there. Given how much he has already earned in his career, he could have afforded to take a little less to go somewhere else. It also sounded like he was less concerned with the “scene” in Buffalo and more about the dynamics in the locker room, did guys hang out away from football, what is there to do when you go home…he got a good deal from the Bills, but it’s not totally over the top when you break down the numbers, all relative to football player salaries of course. Most people would be happy with his offseason workout bonuses as a salary!

By: mefolts

mefolts — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:05:20 +0000

I love all of these ridiculous NFL contracts. Every free agency period has outragous contract numbers that never get paid out in full. They will probably cut Mario before the 2015 season and he will never see ALL of that money. And, he’s not the only one. It happens to everyone of them. NBA and MLB owners should take note.

By: rollteal

rollteal — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 20:27:48 +0000

Not really a horrible deal.

By: shlort

shlort — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:35:50 +0000

bearsstillsuck, the players salaries will flatline the same day as the NFL’s heartbeat does. I assume that will be about the time the networks can no longer afford to pay Billions to televise games, and the fan can no longer afford to pay thousands to go see a game.

By: kylecleric

kylecleric — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:21:29 +0000

The worst year to cut Mario Williams is prior to his third season (other than right now). At that point, he has $17.8M in dead money. His cap hit for that year is just $18.4M. You add in the the minimum replacement player and you’re looking at a cap savings of just a couple thousand. It isn’t until the 4th year of the contract that it becomes worth while to cut Williams where they will get a bit more than $6m of real available cap space. At this point, and then prior to the last couple of years, the Bills would be fine to cut him if necessary. But prior to the third year, it is the worst year to cut him.

By: bearsstillsuck

bearsstillsuck — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:07:50 +0000

Will players salaries keep going up or will they flat line? It seems unsustainable to me.

By: redskinsnation21

redskinsnation21 — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:06:50 +0000

@sleazysnake

While this is a ridiculous stat, it’s not as crazy as you think. $17M in 1993 is the same as $25+M today, and the average NFL franchise value has octupled since 1993, meaning that there is more money to give to players. Reggie White’s contract was also the largest ever signed by a defensive player at the time because 1993 was the first offseason of free agency in the NFL, which meant player salaries were way lower. Since it was the first year of free agency, 1993 was also the first year of the salary cap, which was set at $34.6M. This means that White’s $4.25M annual salary was 12.2% of his team’s cap, while Mario’s $16M average annual salary is 13.0% of his team’s cap.

So yes, those are some startling numbers. But dig a little deeper and you’ll see that maybe it’s not so crazy at all.

By: jimwisniewski

jimwisniewski — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:58:13 +0000

Awesome

By: markpfs

markpfs — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:56:58 +0000

since 1993 the value of an NFL franchise has quadrupled. teams today average out at 1.02 BILLION dollars. while player payroll never goes over 51% of team income. i’d say keeping it in perspective, Reggie did good for those times. players didn’t get that type of percentage of yearly sales that they do now. they got ripped off back then.

By: kylecleric

kylecleric — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:55:15 +0000

Just to add another point on why the third year is the worst to cut him. The third year is the year where the Bills owe him the least money of any year in this contract.

By: sleazysnake

sleazysnake — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:25:37 +0000

When Reggie White signed with the Green Bay Packers in 1993 his entire contract was 4 years for 17 million dollars. At the tiime it was the largest contract a defensive player had ever signed.

Mario gets 19 million as a signing bonus.

Unbelievable.