Football has a salary cap. Let’s say the Steelers have a wide reciever they would like to keep, but there is no way to do that with his fantastic past season and his contract coming to an end. What would happen if a very wealthy fan said, “Hey Mr WideReciever, I will pay you 10 million to speak to my son’s grade school class each year. Assuming of course you remain a Steeler.”.
Is he obligated to report this outside income? Can he resign with the Steeler organization without screwing up the salary cap? Has an end-around like this ever been done? Forget the ethics, is the NFL wise enough to anticipate such a scenario?
I know that part of what’s caused the (rather one-sided) flap between Chuck Bednarik and the Eagles organization is that the owner Jeff Lurie wouldn’t purchase $15 Bednarik-authored books for the team.
Lurie said that players aren’t allowed to receive gifts outside of their salaries for playing on the team, not even a book. Now, that is a gift that would’ve come from the owner as opposed to a fan in this case, but I don’t imagine that the NFL hasn’t allowed for any (excuse pun) end-around as you suggested. And as Bednarik tells the story, Lurie seemed to indicate that the gift couldn’t come from anyone, not just team funds or Lurie’s personal wealth. (And Concrete Charlie doesn’t sound like he buys that argument.)
I have heard of players accepting things like bottles of wine at a restaurant sent to their table by fans, but I think that in that case it’s kosher because there isn’t any implied contactual obligation (staying on that fan’s team) attached to accepting the gift.
One question would be how endorsement contracts play into this all; one can assume that players are sometimes willing to go to a team for less money than they could otherwise make as a franchise player somewhere else because they think a team that’s more successful will put them in the national spotlight more and earn them more money in the long run. I assume the NFL’s answer to this is that the individual player wins endorsements on their own merit, but that certainly seems a gray area given that it is a team sport, and some teams have more cache than others.
The NFL is very strict about these sorts of attempts to circumvent the salary cap. The 49ers were stripped of draft picks when they got caught, and GM Dwight Clark was fined (maybe even suspended, i don’t recall).
Here’s a good layman’s FAQ on how the cap works. If you’re a labor lawyer type and want to read the source docuemnts, they’re available from the player’s union.
Clark and Carmen Policy were fined a total of $600,000 and the 49ers gave up two draft choices, a 3rd round and a 5th round pick.
The OP would be illegal under NFL rules because as mentioned earlier gifts count as salary and also anything that is valued above market value (such as paying someone $10 milllion to talk to school kids) is considered salary.
Thanks for the answers. I was previously unaware of the 49er’s case or I wouldn’t have asked. anson2995’s link is great. Fair value is an elusive concept, however. I ask Mr WideReciever if he will talk to my son’s class and he says no. I offer $25 and he says OK. Is $25 “fair market value”? If he turns down $25, and I am wealthy enough to continue adding zeroes and he finally says “OK” when I hit $25 thousand, well then isn’t that fair market value? Just saying.
Just because Joe Star Receiver wants $25,000 to speak to a group of kids doesn’t make it the fair market value. You could probably Jerry Pretty Good Receiver to do it for nothing.
A fair market value isn’t determined by one person.