Why NFL Players Shouldn't Be Allowed To Hold Out on Contracts

Websters’ Dictionary defines a contract as “an agreement enforceable by law,” and law.com defines a contract as “an agreement with specific terms between two or more persons or entities in which there is a promise to do something in return for a valuable benefit known as consideration. Since the law of contracts is at the heart of most business dealings, it is one of the three or four most significant areas of legal concern and can involve variations on circumstances and complexities.”

So if contracts are legally enforceable and binding, why are NFL players allowed to flaunt their contracts? When a player enters the league, he signs a contract that states that they will play for a certain NFL team for X years, and in return shall be paid X amount of dollars. Given that, NFL players frequently choose to ignore their legally binding contracts and “hold out.” This is in direct opposition to the contract they signed.

The owner’s have attempted to solve this problem by fining holdouts $15,000 a day; now, to you and me, that seems like a lot, but to a professional player who makes $4 million a year it is pocket change and has little effect on their holdout. This effectively creates a breach of contract by the player.

This must stop; to allow one group of people to avoid the legal responsibility of a contract because of their status in the American culture is wrong.

Soon anyone will be able to get out of their contract because they believe they are “worth more than what the contract pays them.” Don’t get me wrong, good players should be paid handsomely, but paid with a team-initiated contract extension or upon free agency, not demanded. When the player signed that contract he essentially became the property of the team.

Now, to stop the holdouts, if a player misses training camp with a verified accepted excuse than they shall not be punished, but if more than seven practices are missed they lose their payment for that season, and they will most likely ride the bench.

The contract problem is only prevalent in the NFL; the NHL, MLB, and NBA do not have this problem because of a strong ownership and players that respect the laws of the United States.

But in the NFL, there is a culture of law-breaking. Roger Goodell's work as commissioner has been a great step in the right direction, but he needs to act on the problem of delinquents and breaches of contract in the NFL.

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