The NFL salary cap is the brain child of Jerry Jones. It’s one of the reasons the NFL owners love him because the cap was always designed first to maximize the owners’ profits while minimizing or at least controlling the players’ ability to maximize their value. Unlike MLB and the NBA, the NFL employs a very hard salary cap. Again, designed to maximize owners profits.
An average NFL player in today’s game has a 4-5 year career and earns well below what a baseball or basketball player earns. Sure, the super stars and most NFL QBs get big bucks, but most NFL players make a lot less than players in other pro sports. Some of that has to do with the number of games played but the TV revenue earned in the NFL has been the richest of the American pro sports.
I have no problem with NFL owners making a profit. It’s good capitalism. But the greed of NFL owners and the profit margins they hold exceeds that of other pro sports owners. It’s their “right” to do that but that alone doesn’t make it right. NFL owners owe their profits and attained wealth to two groups of people without whom they would have nothing- the players and the fans. I wish the owners would at least open their wallets a little more to players who have lost their health playing the game that makes those owners rich.