Rookie Wage Scale: NFL Owners Just Don't Learn

Peter King, an NFL writer for SI.com, recently wrote that a "rookie wage scale" is a bunch of talk and not a lot of action. 

The reason? NFLPA leader DeMaurice Smith said it was not his job (he is right) and it is up to the owners to police themselves on such an issue.

While that sounds like a great idea, and most owners are shrewd business men and women who love to make money, it will never happen. 

The cycle of teams spending tens-of-millions of guaranteed dollars on unproven players will continue to repeat itself. 

There is no doubt that the reverse-order draft the NFL follows is in place to reward teams with the worst record the "best" collegiate player, however there are far too many flaws. 

With more and more top-tier college football factories employing the "spread" offense, it is becoming increasingly difficult for NFL scouting departments to accurately predict a players assimilation from the spread to that teams specific pro-style offense. 

We all saw Matthew Stafford go No. 1 overall this past April. We all also saw or read about the failure rate of first round QBs (about 50 percent). 

With that in mind, what is wrong with today's NFL franchise owners? 

Just because a team never or very rarely picks in the top 10 does not mean that the owner should be opposed to a rookie wage scale. 

These owners should be sympathetic towards one another, especially since each team's long term success is directly tied to the success of the league and each team as a whole. 

Each year, we see the No. 1 overall pick become the highest-paid player at his respective position. 

While Jake Long seems like a great fit for the foreseeable future, the jury is still out on JaMarcus Russell and we all know about Alex Smith and David Carr.

For a league so focused on building a brand and maximizing its revenues, it seems the NFL is still doing business in the Stone Age by allowing teams to pay the ransoms that today's modern-day and money-hungry agents are demanding.