The salary cap in sports is nothing new. Its origin in basketball can be traced back to the league's $55,000 salary cap for the league's first season, 1946-47. Most players earned between $4,000 and $5,000, but there were a few exceptions. Tom King of the Detroit Falcons for example. He drew the league's highest salary, $16,500, not solely because of his playing ability, but also due to his front office duties as the team's publicity director and business manager. Philadelphia's star scorer, Joe Fulks, pulled in $8,000 for his league-leading 23.2 points a game (King's rookie season was a bit less successful. He averaged 5.1 points in his only year and the Falcons went out of business following the season).
From 1946 to 1949 the top players …show more content…
George Mikan, the premier player of the era, signed a five-year contract with the Chicago American Gears worth $60,000 plus incentives in 1946; Bob Davies of the Rochester Royals, considered the top guard in basketball, was rewarded with a four-year, $50,000 contract; and Jim Pollard, a Hall of Fame forward, signed with the Minneapolis Lakers for $12,000 a year in 1947. The BAA was able to convince four of the best NBL franchises: Minneapolis which featured Mikan and Pollard, along with Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Rochester who brought Davies into switching leagues to exert their superiority. The NBL was far from dead however, and in 1949, after the NBL stunned the BAA by awarding a franchise to a group of former college stars …show more content…
In the NFL, that is just starting to happen. Certainly, we’d love to see more guaranteed contracts in the NFL but once again I think this type of discussion provides us with a great opportunity to share with anyone who’s interested that we are reaching more guarantees than we’ve ever had before in the sport.
On average, more than 60 percent of a given contract is currently guaranteed at signing, whether in the form of signing bonuses, guaranteed salaries, or other guaranteed payments.
That’s something we’re proud of and we’re trending in the right direction but look again back to your original point about comparing apples to oranges in one sport. The average career length in the NFL is less than four years. In the other sport the average career is well beyond that and so guaranteed contracts in each sport are by design factoring in some of those things that are unique to NFL
From 1946 to 1949 the top players …show more content…
George Mikan, the premier player of the era, signed a five-year contract with the Chicago American Gears worth $60,000 plus incentives in 1946; Bob Davies of the Rochester Royals, considered the top guard in basketball, was rewarded with a four-year, $50,000 contract; and Jim Pollard, a Hall of Fame forward, signed with the Minneapolis Lakers for $12,000 a year in 1947. The BAA was able to convince four of the best NBL franchises: Minneapolis which featured Mikan and Pollard, along with Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Rochester who brought Davies into switching leagues to exert their superiority. The NBL was far from dead however, and in 1949, after the NBL stunned the BAA by awarding a franchise to a group of former college stars …show more content…
In the NFL, that is just starting to happen. Certainly, we’d love to see more guaranteed contracts in the NFL but once again I think this type of discussion provides us with a great opportunity to share with anyone who’s interested that we are reaching more guarantees than we’ve ever had before in the sport.
On average, more than 60 percent of a given contract is currently guaranteed at signing, whether in the form of signing bonuses, guaranteed salaries, or other guaranteed payments.
That’s something we’re proud of and we’re trending in the right direction but look again back to your original point about comparing apples to oranges in one sport. The average career length in the NFL is less than four years. In the other sport the average career is well beyond that and so guaranteed contracts in each sport are by design factoring in some of those things that are unique to NFL