In pro sports, millions of dollars are fluctuated between advertisements, building new attractive stadiums and of course, payment of players. In the NBA and MLB, nine figure payments are the run of the mill among the elite-fully guaranteed at that. For the NFL, though, contracts that are in the nine figures are usually only 40-60% guaranteed and the rest of the contract is incentive/performance based.
Which is why pro football players fight tooth-and-nail with general managers during the off-season and training camp to get the contracts they deserve. Many see it as a pain to see their favorite players wine about not receiving adequate pay to their play, but in the case of Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, he may have a point in why he believes he needs a bigger pay day.
Via ESPN:
Wide receiver Antonio Brown said he never planned to hold out but made it clear Sunday the Pittsburgh Steelers should give him a new contract.
Brown is due $6.25 million in the fifth year of a six-year, $43 million contract. He has caught an NFL-record 264 passes in the past two seasons.
“You have to take care of your guys,” Brown said after Sunday’s practice. “If a guy underperforms, you get rid of him. If a guy overperforms, you take care of him.”
Brown, who said agent Drew Rosenhaus is expected to meet with the Steelers, was responding to a question about whether he should be the exception to the Steelers’ long-standing policy not to renegotiate contracts for non-quarterbacks unless a player has one year left on his contract.
