The National Football League (NFL) is one of the most popular pro sports leagues in the United States, with over 114.4 million viewers of Super Bowl XLIX.  With every passing year, the NFL grows more popular, and its revenue grows at an astonishing rate. In the 2013 Season, one of the most recently concluded seasons at the time of this writing, the NFL grossed $9.58 billion, with each team receiving about $299.4 million. This is an overwhelming number for a multitude of college dropouts playing a game designed for children.  For comparison’s sake the developing country of Yemen brought in revenues of $10.26 billion in 2014. The NFL brings in almost as much revenue as countries, and although they have undisclosed expenditures, one can infer that they are earning far more than they are spending.  This article will take a look at the fickle NFL free agent market, the basis of player contracts, and review in depth the salary cap for the most lucrative sport in the world.

 The NFL has grown at an alarming rate in recent years.  In 2003 the NFL’s revenue was $5.33 billion, meaning that it has almost doubled its already large revenue in 10 years. As football is quickly supplanting baseball as the “Americas Pastime” it is growing equally economically. With multi-million contracts with ESPN, CBS, NBC, as well as its own TV channel, the NFL dominates Sunday timeslots from almost noon to midnight, as well as the primetime slots on Thursdays and Mondays. Even a non-football fan is likely to watch it, or hear a sports anchor talk about it at some point in the day. At most Walmarts, Targets or other general stores, a shopper is likely to find jerseys or gear of the most near team. The NFL has no plans to slow down its growth either: Commissioner Roger Goodell claims that by the year 2027 he wants the annual revenue to be $25 billion.

  To match the exponential growth of the League’s revenue, the amount of money the players are receiving in their contracts is also increasing at an accelerated rate. In 2013 (at the time of Forbes Highest Paid Athletes list) the highest paid player was Drew Brees earning $51 million. As of September 14th 2015 the highest-earning athlete is the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, Jay Cutler with a seven-year $126.7 million dollar contract. Despite my personal bias  as a Chicago Native and Bears fan, I must observe that Jay Cutler has the most player friendly contract in the NFL, with $54 million in guaranteed compensation.   Jay Cutler’s minimum guaranteed money exceeds Drew Brees’ contract in 2013. With multiple players such as Aaron Rodgers, Ndamukong Suh, and J.J. Watt all receiving contracts over $100 million, it will be interesting to see what heights new player contracts will reach in the coming years.
 

  Most athletes in the NFL operate as free agents, negotiating individual contracts with their teams.  The factors that go into contract-making from the free agent market depend on numerous variables, but the overall negotiation of an NFL contract is very  fickle and all athletes are not treated equally.. What position someone plays goes into what type of contract they receive. A quarterback or wide receiver is more likely to get a  generous contract than an offensive lineman or a placekicker. Stephen Gostowski, placekicker for the New England Patriots, has a $17.2 million contract, which is a little over 10% of Jay Cutlers contract, despite Gostowski winning a Super Bowl. Another huge factor in contract money is the age of the player. A player that is too young is not fully developed and will not be ready to fully contribute for a few years so they will not get paid a large contract, but a player that is considered too old has their best years behind them and will similarly not get paid large sums. Maximum compensation for players is usually secured between the ages of twenty five and twenty seven. Players this age are about to enter their physical prime, and have their best potential years in front of them, allowing teams to get the most bang for their buck. The only exceptions to this are quarterbacks and kickers, or punters, that have an extended lifespan because they take less physical punishment.

 As in any market, there is demand and supply in the NFL, and negotiated contracts also depend on relative market tightness. For example, if there is a dearth of good cornerbacks overall, then even a cornerback who is not so good will be able to make more money than he might otherwise be worth.  Conversely, if there are a lot of cornerbacks on the market, an above-average corner might not be able to make as much money as he is actually worth. Between available players that are free agents, players that are already on the rosters, and players available in the draft, there are many factors that go into supply and demand in the NFL and they are different for each of the 32 teams.

 To regulate the massive amounts of money in question, the NFL applies a salary cap. The salary cap stripped down to its very basis is essentially just a price ceiling for NFL teams. It limits the amount of money a team can spend on players in a season in order to keep competitive paritybetween the teams. Without a salary cap large market teams such as Dallas, New York, Chicago, and New England would possess huge advantages over small market teams like Houston, Kansas City, Green Bay and Jacksonville. Teams who exceed these salary caps are liable to receive fines and other penalties. The only methods teams have in terms of going around the salary cap is to save and carry over their space for the next season. However, if a team uses far too little of their cap space over years they are also liable to be fined and reprimanded.

 The salary cap is directly related to how much revenue the NFL is bringing in ever year. As the NFL makes more and more money every year, more and more money is added to the salary cap every year as well. The salary cap for the 2015 season was announced as $143.28 million, an increase of over $10 million from the salary cap for the previous year (2014) which was $133 million. The 2014 mark was also $10 million higher from the previous year’s cap as in 2013 it was $123 million.

 The most alarming thing to the average Joe is not even how much money the megalith titan that is the NFL makes in total revenue, but rather how much money these players get paid. The athletes are not doctors, or soldiers, or professors, or scientists. These are grown men playing a game and making more money than someone should know what do with. Jay Cutler makes an average of $18.1 million a year, whereas the average salary per year of a brain surgeon is $395,000. Jay Cutler, a quarterback playing football makes almost 46 times as much as brain surgeon. The amount of money football players earn, as well as the fact that many of them do not complete their collegiate educations, is one of the biggest controversies in sports today.

 It is safe to assume that the NFL’s huge revenue is only going to grow, and it will grow at an increasing rate. As the NFL becomes more popular internationally, such as the growing interest in Mexico and the UK, it will become more lucrative. As the NFL makes more money, the salary cap will grow and the amount of money the players will make will also grow. The only foreseeable thing that can take down the massive economic empire that is the National Football League is the health risks that accompany the game. If the growing concern about concussions causes a halt on playing football, the NFL would be destroyed.  But that does not seem to be the case as more preventative measures are being taken. In conclusion, I look for the NFL to make even more ridiculous amounts of money in the foreseeable future.

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