In an effort to help players with money management, the NFLPA is considering changing the way players get paid.
Instead of receiving their base salaries via a weekly check during the season, players would be paid every two weeks during the entire year.
Under the proposed plan, teams would divide payment of players’ Paragraph 5 salaries (better known as base salaries) into 26 semiweekly installments beginning in September, rather than into 17 weekly checks during the regular season as most teams do now.
For example, a player whose base salary is $1 million would receive checks of $38,461 (minus taxes) every two weeks around the calendar year, rather than weekly checks of $58,823 (minus taxes) during the roughly four-month regular season and nothing the other eight months a year.
Those in favor of the change say it will help players with budgeting, but opponents argue that those who don’t have money management problems are being punished because of players that do.
I think this is a good thing. The bottom line is, if people in their 40’s making 50k a year have issues budgeting their money, what kind of issues do you think a 22 year old making $4 million a year will have? It’s the players’ association job to take steps to help these athletes as much as they can and with the sad statistics regarding how quickly players go broke after playing, this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Spreading large payments out may be a small, yet needed, step in the right direction.