When Terrell Suggs was drafted 10th overall by the Ravens in 2003, he thought it was great that Top 10 picks could get big contracts before ever playing a down in the NFL. He doesn’t think that anymore.
In an interview with Sports with Coleman on Fox 1370 Sports Radio in Baltimore, Suggs said he supports a rookie wage scale and hopes that’s a part of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement — even though he would have hated a rookie wage scale when he was a rookie.
“When I was coming in as a rookie I thought that was the biggest baloney I had ever heard,” Suggs said. “But now being a vet, being on the other side of the fence, and seeing the vets that have been in the league for years, have longevity and still haven’t reached that payday, I think it’s pretty unfair, and definitely the rookies should have to earn their money.”
Obviously, Suggs is speaking out of self-interest. He already got his when he was a rookie, and now that he’s a veteran he wants the veterans to get a bigger slice of the pie.
But that doesn’t make him wrong, and Suggs offered an interesting assessment of how rookies in the NFL might change their attitudes if they knew they’d have to earn their money on their second contracts, rather than getting tens of millions of dollars on their first contracts.
“You’d have rookies that would come in and show up to work with their blue-collar shirts and their hard hats,” Suggs said. “We would have less prima donnas in the league.”
Suggs also had some interesting comments on the ongoing labor negotiations, suggesting that the lawyers for both sides have an incentive to drag things out.
“Who’s really winning? One is definitely the lawyers for the players’ union and the owners,” Suggs said. “The lawyers definitely aren’t hurting.”
And Suggs weighed in on Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley, who said the Ravens would never win a Super Bowl with Joe Flacco at quarterback.
“LaMarr Woodely is one of the guys who likes to talk out of his ass,” Suggs said. “I’m not too concerned.”