Alabama Football: NFL Draft, ‘Show Me The Money’
By Ronald Evans
Alabama football players will dominate the 2017 NFL Draft. Let’s go in-depth about the NFL and “showing the money” to Saban-era Alabama football players.
Jerry Mcquire starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding injected “show me the money” into the minds of everyone. Alabama football players awaiting the 2017 draft were too young for a 1996 movie to make an impression. Yet that phrase, bold, loud and demanding endures, affecting athletes, coaches and fans.
Draft Day was a better NFL draft movie, but Cruise screaming “show me the money” best typifies professional sports.
How Much Money Have Crimson Tide Players Been Shown?
The short answer is a whole lot. Before we list how much a whole lot is, let’s quickly review how the NFL pays its players.
The NFL dictates not just team salary caps but also how much money can be spent in each draft. Each pick has a designated amount of money for the total contract and for the signing bonus. Inside the total contract, varying by draft rounds and picks, are salary guarantees.
The guarantees are as not absolute as the word suggests. It is more technically accurate that the only guaranteed money is the signing bonus. Some salary money is mostly guaranteed, as in protecting injured players. The higher a player is drafted, the more guarantees are generous. There are also bonus opportunities. We have already drifted too deep into the weeds to go into more detail.
For the remainder of this post, we will dispense with money minutiae and look at three sets of big numbers: total initial contract dollars for Alabama players; total initial signing bonus dollars for Alabama players and actual career dollars earned by Alabama players.
The data we are using can be accessed at spotrac.com/nfl/draft/
Back to How Much Love
The Alabama football Saban-Draft-Era is 2009 – 2017. In 2009-2016, the NFL drafted 55 Alabama football players. The total signed contracts for those 55 players was almost $401 million.
The actual dollars earned for those 55 players is a tad over $480 million and growing. Approximately 30 of the 55 have active or newly signed 2017 contracts. Recent 2017 signing bonuses and guaranteed money are not included in the $480 million. When the 2017 dollars are added, the amount of money earned by Alabama Saban-Era Players will be more than HALF A BILLION DOLLARS.
Yes, we wrote it correctly and you read it clearly, more than $500 million. Cue Led Zeppelin (if any can be found) for a chorus of Whole Lotta Love.
What About Love in the 2017 Draft?
Following the 2017 Draft, NFL teams will negotiate rookie contracts totaling more than $1.1 billion. Included in that astronomical figure will be signing bonuses of close to $428 million.
Ten drafted former Alabama football players will gain contracts totaling somewhere between $55 and $95 million dollars. Their ten signing bonuses could be as much as $50 million.
Perspective on these numbers will vary with opinions that this amount of money is somewhere between appropriate to absurd. We can all agree it is a Whole Lot of money.
One More $ Amount to Ponder
Before Nick Saban retires from Alabama and football, there will be more Saban-Era draft classes after 2017. How many more is unknown. We can reasonably project that before the Saban Alabama football factory shuts down – former Alabama football, Saban-Era players will have earned more than a BILLION dollars playing professional football.
If we had a microphone, we would drop it here.
Next: 2017 NFL Draft Predictions
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