How to prevent players slacking off after big payday?

[Red Dragon]

We've seen it before: A guy like Zeke holds out before the season, demanding a big payday, and everyone talks about how the Cowboys can't win without him, and Jerry must cave and pay him what he wants - but once he does get the money, he has no more incentive to give it his all and just slacks off.

How to prevent this from happening with Dak, Amari, and any of the other players the Cowboys are in line to give big contracts to? It's a no-win situation. Don't pay him, and you're doing him wrong and he might defect to some other, but pay him and then not only do you pinch your salary cap but he just eases and slacks off from now on, money secure.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

We've seen it before: A guy like Zeke holds out before the season, demanding a big payday, and everyone talks about how the Cowboys can't win without him, and Jerry must cave and pay him what he wants - but once he does get the money, he has no more incentive to give it his all and just slacks off.

How to prevent this from happening with Dak, Amari, and any of the other players the Cowboys are in line to give big contracts to? It's a no-win situation. Don't pay him, and you're doing him wrong and he might defect to some other, but pay him and then not only do you pinch your salary cap but he just eases and slacks off from now on, money secure.

How could we tell if Dak slacks off?

"Hey, Dak is playing sub-average instead of average. He must be slacking off."

 

[lostar2009]

Can't, just have to pay accordingly.

 

[TheDuke]

The players themselves either have that self motivation or they don’t.

You can’t make them or prevent them from doing anything.

 

[MysteryIceGuro]

Maybe we should start doing incentives more...? The more yards, TD's, takeaways, practice, etc you put in, the more money you get. Maybe as an extra motivation? I don't know. We just gotta have that faith that our players have self motivation to not only get paid, but to win and play as a team. If they don't, they can end up like Todd Gurley, who was cut from the Rams not to long after acquiring a large pay day, but still ended up on another team. I don't know. I feel like this shouldn't really be a problem though unless the player has serious attitude problems. I still think Zeke, Amari, Dak, etc, care about winning, at least to an extent to make them play hard. They've played football all their lives. They love to play it.

 

[The Fonz]

Maybe we should start doing incentives more...? The more yards, TD's, takeaways, practice, etc you put in, the more money you get. Maybe as an extra motivation? I don't know. We just gotta have that faith that our players have self motivation to not only get paid, but to win and play as a team. If they don't, they can end up like Todd Gurley, who was cut from the Rams not to long after acquiring a large pay day, but still ended up on another team. I don't know. I feel like this shouldn't really be a problem though unless the player has serious attitude problems. I still think Zeke, Amari, Dak, etc, care about winning, at least to an extent to make them play hard. They've played football all their lives. They love to play it.

The players will start to be more selfish to boost their stats ....i would say it should be based on win lose ratio

 

[sacase]

Players only get singing bonuses. There should be a standard for each position across the league. Everyone gets 25k/game for being on the roster. Each Sack is 500K, a TD is 250k,100 rushing yards is 100k, etc. It pays everyone equally based on performance. If a rookie comes in and they light it up, they get paid. The only thing you negotiate is your signing bonus and years. Obviously the cap numbers get lowered to compensate for the performance pay.

 

[JoeKing]

We've seen it before: A guy like Zeke holds out before the season, demanding a big payday, and everyone talks about how the Cowboys can't win without him, and Jerry must cave and pay him what he wants - but once he does get the money, he has no more incentive to give it his all and just slacks off.

How to prevent this from happening with Dak, Amari, and any of the other players the Cowboys are in line to give big contracts to? It's a no-win situation. Don't pay him, and you're doing him wrong and he might defect to some other, but pay him and then not only do you pinch your salary cap but he just eases and slacks off from now on, money secure.

Excuse me. did you offer a solution?

 

[Bullflop]

You could prevent them from slacking off by putting those "big paydays" on performance-based rewards.

The trick basically would be in convincing the greedy player agents to agree to it. It requires some fancy talking.

 

[Red Dragon]

Players only get singing bonuses. There should be a standard for each position across the league. Everyone gets 25k/game for being on the roster. Each Sack is 500K, a TD is 250k,100 rushing yards is 100k, etc. It pays everyone equally based on performance. If a rookie comes in and they light it up, they get paid. The only thing you negotiate is your signing bonus and years. Obviously the cap numbers get lowered to compensate for the performance pay.

The only problem I can see is that sometimes stats don't reflect true performance. For instance, the best CBs often get few INTs because quarterbacks won't even throw their way.

 

[Beast_from_East]

Players only get singing bonuses. There should be a standard for each position across the league. Everyone gets 25k/game for being on the roster. Each Sack is 500K, a TD is 250k,100 rushing yards is 100k, etc. It pays everyone equally based on performance. If a rookie comes in and they light it up, they get paid. The only thing you negotiate is your signing bonus and years. Obviously the cap numbers get lowered to compensate for the performance pay.

That would never fly with the Players Union.

The current system is about as good as you can expect, the players as a group are guaranteed a certain percentage of league revenue and the vets get the majority of the money. Rookies have to wait 4 years to get paid big, unless you are the Cabo Ewok and hold out.

Kinda a moot point to discuss this, the current CBA was renewed for a decade and doesn't expire until 2031.

 

[Flamma]

That would never fly with the Players Union.

The current system is about as good as you can expect, the players as a group are guaranteed a certain percentage of league revenue and the vets get the majority of the money. Rookies have to wait 4 years to get paid big, unless you are the Cabo Ewok and hold out.

Kinda a moot point to discuss this, the current CBA was renewed for a decade and doesn't expire until 2031.

Right. It's pointless to try and figure this out by implementing new rules. It can't happen now, it probably will never happen. But there is a way.

You want players to stop slacking off? Stop giving out guaranteed money besides the signing bonus. The problem with that is, it's not going to happen because a player will just go to a team that does.

For example. Give Dak a 5 year contract 35 mil per with a 10 million dollar signing bonus. Think he would accept that? I don't.

 

[Pompey-Cowboy]

The horse has already bolted. Money ruins every sport and it's too late to reverse it. The answer to the OP's question is, there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it. Just sigh and move on.

 

[NorthoftheRedRiver]

Yeah, it's a human nature thing. This happens to a degree in all workforces. Culture can help somewhat, but only so much. A pay jump can hurt us as much a help us.

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

When a guy gets a huge payday the whole league knows about it. So some of the " slacking off " may be to opposing players and coaches paying more attention to this paid player. Because everyone knows you don't give a player a huge payday then don't use him.

They just paid him like a star, they expect him to perform like a star, so let's do our best to make him look as if he's not a star. That's what I'd be telling my team that is playing a player that just got paid. Let's make him look average.



But you just can't go around not paying players because it will be hard to build a championship caliber team that way.

 

[plasticman]

It will never happen but I think that each player should get a base salary depending on position and years in the league.

After the season they would receive the majority of their salary based on a ranking of performance related measurable results.

But that probably makes too much sense.

 

[fredp22]

less guarantees-more incentive based for future performance
wont happen because 1 or more of the owners will outbid with guarantees but that would eliminate the peoblem

 

[Cmac]

…..but they couldn't prevent the Head Coach from slacking off after big payday.

 

[ItzKelz]

Have them watch the Last Dance to see how Michael approached things after he got paid winning 3 more championships.

 

[John813]

That's the biggest risk in pro sports.

Someone like Cooper though is only really on the hook for 2 years before he's easily cuttable.

Think this is where scouting going back to college days(for drafted/ scouted players) and just watching said player and how they act to the initial money they get from the NFL. Maturity level. I'm sure coaches can tell which players are in the NFL solely for the payday and which ones are in it to win and hell the money is a nice factor too.

Would also help if the Owner would stop coddling his star players.