As you may have noticed earlier today, Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles staged a hold out (that lasted about like an hour or so?) that resulted in him being awarded with a two-year contract extension worth $18 million. That's surely a lot of money. But CBS baseball reporter Jon Heyman brought up a good point on Twitter regarding football player contracts compared to baseball player contracts:
i see star RB jamaal charles got $18M for 2 yrs. not bad, but he'd have been better off being a No. 4 starter
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) July 23, 2014
For those of you who aren't baseball savvy, a No. 4 pitcher is the second to last pitcher in a MLB five man pitching rotation. Not exactly a superstar by any means. It's a good point. Unlike other professional sports where contracts are fully guaranteed (for the most part), the NFL is filled with underpaid players.
Eagles backup center David Molk weighed in on this money issue on an episode of American Muscle that will air tonight (Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014) on Discovery at 9 PM EST. You can watch a teaser in the video above. Here's what he had to say:
Compare the average football player's salary to the average baseball player's salary... we're nothing. And do I think the general football player deserves more? Yeah. I mean you can play baseball until you're 50. If you play football until you're 30 you're ancient.
Molk isn't wrong. Take a look at these average salaries in the four major american sports leagues, per Forbes.
1) NBA: $5.15 million, a figure expected to rise in the coming years due to the collective bargaining agreement.
2) MLB: $3.2 million
3) NHL: $2.4 million
4) NFL: $1.9 million