Fighting for more guaranteed dollars during contract negotiations has always been a sore point for NFL players.
That feeling definitely seems to be rearing its head during the NBA free agency period, which already had teams dedicating $1.4 billion on its first day of the open market Wednesday, July 1. Washington Redskins safety Duke Ihenacho led the charge Wednesday in comparing NBA free agents' contracts to those of NFL players.
His main gripe? Well, that NBA players' contracts are 100 percent guaranteed and NFL players' contracts are only partly guaranteed.
All this guaranteed money NBA throwing. Meanwhile the NFL, which generates the most money wont even make the league minimum $1M
— Duke Ihenacho (@NachoLyfe) July 1, 2015
Yes $1M minimum. That means every single player's salary in the NFL should start there. Highest risk of injury..brain trauma, richest league — Duke Ihenacho (@NachoLyfe) July 1, 2015
He does have a point. Although basketball players put their bodies on the line and also suffer injuries regularly, the physicality of the NFL alone lends to more concussions, head trauma and even chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease.
Yet, NFL players' minimum salary – $435,000 for rookies and $970,000 for veterans with 10-plus years – falls short of the NBA's rookie and veteran minimums of $525,093 and $1,499,187, respectively, according to ESPN.
Consider that in 2014, NFL star quarterback Colin Kaepernick signed a $110-million contract extension over six years with $61 million guaranteed. On Wednesday, in NBA free agency, Draymond Green agreed to a five-year, $85 million – all guaranteed – contract and he's only a rising star... not a bonafide star the way Kaepernick is. If Kaepernick gets injured, he will leave part of that salary on the table. If Green gets injured, he'll still cash in 100 percent.
But Ihenacho wasn't the only NFL player to chime in on the insane cash flow headlining NBA free agency. Some football players offered their support, others sarcastically wished they had pursued hoops over the gridiron.
Think we'll ever see the day that NFL players' full contracts are guaranteed?
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