Of the four major professional sports, the NFL is the only one which doesn’t routinely use guaranteed contracts. MLB contracts are fully guaranteed as are NHL deals in all but the rarest of instances. The NBA gets perhaps the most attention for their guaranteed deals and there are very few contracts that don’t qualify.
But what about the NFL? It seems every year the topic comes up and there are plenty of pros and cons from both players and ownership. Before we go into in too much detail and talk about how it pertains to the Steelers, we pose the question. Should NFL contracts be fully guaranteed?
First, it is important to mention, NFL agents can negotiated fully guaranteed contracts whenever they want. There is no clause in the collective bargaining agreement precluding players from getting fully guaranteed deals. We’ve even seen a few of them happen in recent seasons.
But this isn’t what critics are clamoring about. It isn’t enough players can have them, they want to force owners to give them. But in a league when the risk of injury—especially career-ending injury—can occur, it’s not good business for owners to pile up dead money. NFL rosters are massive by comparison to say an NBA roster so the cap has to be spread out much thinner.
But we want to pass the question off to you all. We saw the Steelers lose two star players in part because of their desire for more guaranteed money. Do you want to see all NFL contracts paid in full regardless of what happens to the player?
