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The podcast by NFL players for NFL players. Each week, we break down the biggest events in football and how they directly impact a player's career and money.
Join Former NFL Veterans Sam Acho (Bills, Bucs, Bears & Cardinals), Zach Miller (Seahawks & Raiders), Jeff Locke (Vikings, Colts, Lions, 49ers), and college coach, Riccardo Stewart, for a raw and unfiltered conversation about the game, the business, and how players can achieve generational wealth.
Riccardo Stewart: Hey, I wanna
welcome you guys back to another
episode of the A-W-M-N-F-L Podcast.
My name is Ricardo Stewart,
I'm your host, and I'm joined
with my friends and coworkers.
We got Jeff Lock, Zach
Miller, and Sam Acho.
I mean, I gotta combine 20
plus years here of NFL playing
experience plus financial expertise.
Listen, we've been talking about.
Or we begin the conversation of the
athlete, CEO and, and really looking
la last episode at how do athletes
view themselves as a business?
And then how does that business begin to,
to merge into the business of the NFL?
And so one was creating value, like
what does it look like to create value?
And today I want to talk guys about
okay, once you've created that value.
And you've been able to enhance that
intellectual, social and physical capital
that now you have teams, companies, brands
being to compensate you for that value.
Like what does that actually look like?
And the athlete we looked at,
because it was pertinent and
relevant now, is Brock Purdy.
And, and, and I wanna look today
of like, how do you realize that?
And so some language I've heard before
is how do you make the invisible visible.
Oftentimes that's, that's
religious language.
But I don't think it's just
relegated to the religious, I think
it's to anybody who's a believer.
And the thing about being an NFL
athlete is you are a believer.
You are a believer first and foremost
in yourself and your ability.
And then when you begin to get others
to see and believe in that ability,
there's some things that can happen.
And so Jeff, I'm gonna start
with you, the professor.
We've talked about the business
of the NFL athlete merging with
the Ben business of the NFL.
Walk us through that and, and, and
particularly NFL contracts and how, I
mean, how many NFL players have made over
a $100M What does that, those contracts,
how does that compare with our other
major sports, uh, counterparts in terms
of MLB and and and NBA and so forth?
Jeff Locke: Yeah, it makes me,
makes me a little mad, Rick.
I
I don't really love sharing these stats,
but like to truly understand what you
can capture after you create value,
you gotta know how NFL contracts work.
Plain and simple, right?
So.
Active players with contracts over
$100M in the NFL 43 guys, right?
Contracts over a hundred mil
active players, but the catch
only 20 of those 43 have actual
guaranteed money over $100M right?
Contracts look big, but it's
all about the guarantees.
MLB, right?
Very different 68 active players.
With contracts over $100M all
fully guaranteed contracts, right?
No non-guaranteed money.
There MBA's even better.
82 active guys with a $100M or more
contracts, all fully guaranteed.
So 20 fully 20 guys in the
NFL with $100M+ guarantees.
Verse 68.
Verse 82, MLB and NBA.
Riccardo Stewart: Well,
my grandfather would've.
My grandfather said,
that's some bull junk.
That's some bull junk.
I, you, you said, Jeff, you said in
order for you to be this athlete, CEO,
you really do need to understand when it
comes to capturing the value that you've
created, you have to understand contracts.
And so I appreciate you sharing all the
different, you know, stats of how many
people made over a hundred million.
Zach, you're, you're probably one of
the best guys I know in, in breaking
down and understanding contracts.
And so let's pull the name we used from
last episode, Brock Purdy into this.
And if you can take what we know and we
can see about his particular contract,
uh, without being his agent and so
forth, just begin to, to break down that
contract in a way that that helps us.
Zach Miller: It's cool to see
these contracts 'cause they are,
they are so complicated when
you get to these dollar amounts.
So five year extension for Brock
Purdy, 265 million, I mean, massive
amount of money, but cool to see
the, what everyone always wants to
know is like, oh, how much, what?
You know, what's the signing bonus?
What are the guarantees?
And so $40 million paid
as a signing bonus.
That truly is fully guaranteed
money, assuming you show up.
Complete the contract, you're getting that
money and then that, you know, a lot of
it was written in the news that it was
like a hundred million kind of guaranteed
up signing, um, or fully guaranteed.
And then you, there was another
180 plus million out there.
There's two differences
between the guarantees.
There's fully guaranteed, which
means fully guaranteed for.
skill cap and injury Meaning If you
just don't play well, if they're, if the
they're over the salary cap and they need
to cut you, that money's fully guaranteed,
meaning you're getting that money.
And so for Brock Purdy, that number's
$100M And then guaranteed for injury is
sometimes also called guaranteed money.
because the assumption is that you're
gonna continue to play at a high level.
The only reason you wouldn't.
get that is if you got hurt And
so that's kind of the difference
between fully Guaranteed.
and guaranteed money So that's a big
difference between those two numbers.
$100M vs $180M for Brock Purdy
and then you have other things
like the value of the contract
that's gonna be like really what?
Players compare themselves
to other players.
I know when I signed my deal, I
wanted to be, you know, the highest
paid tight end in the league.
Brock pretty wants to be one of the top
paid quarterbacks in the league, so he got
that kind of top 10 quarterback money when
it comes to the annual money per year.
And that you, you think about that,
that's, that's like what Dak Prescott got.
Joe Burrow, Josh Allen Mahomes, he's in
that league When comes to compensation.
It's, it's, it's not without
negotiation, the 49 ERs, they know
that they wanna protect themselves.
So what do they do on the backend?
They gave themselves
an out of the contract.
After three years, they can get out of
the contract, still paying a significant
amount of money, but they have, you
know, the last three years are about
50 million each that they can get out
of that within the next two years.
So.
Negotiation of this magnitude, GMs general
managers, they are fighting for the health
of the team, fighting against the players.
players.
have to use every ounce of leverage
they can get so that they can kind
of hit that most amount of money.
Get as much as you can
early for any NFL player.
As much money as you can get front loaded
in the front of that contract because
the last few years of an NFL contract are
not worth the paper they're written on.
Team can rip that up and not
pay you out those last years.
So get as much as you can in
those early years as much as
you can get fully guaranteed.
Riccardo Stewart: I love it.
I love it when, when I was a kid,
I'm old and you would, I'd stay home
from school and you would watch like
the Price is Right or some sort of
game shows and I absolutely love it.
And there's always be like, you would
win the prize and the person would
get all excited and then, and then
the host would go, but there's more.
Right?
Okay.
Black Party didn't win a prize.
We clearly said he earned it.
NFL Athletes, they earn it.
But that's what they earn on the field.
There's still more to capture in terms of
the value that you created, Sam, the same
way I said Zach was good with contract
in terms of people on this screen.
You know what I mean?
And you know where I'm going is how
does that work and capturing your value
that you've created off the field.
Sam Acho: Oh, that's so good.
Such a good question.
I love the the example, but wait.
There's more.
So Zach makes a great point.
Oftentimes when I look at contracts
I look at what's guaranteed.
That's what I look at.
But okay, even if you look at
what's guaranteed or the average
annual value, there's more that can
be had off of the field as well.
Specifically when it comes to whatever
market that you're in, as as an active
player, one of the biggest ways to
capture value is to endear yourself
to the community in which you play.
And so whether that's with some of the.
Media relations team, whether
that's with some of the people
who are doing community service.
As you get yourself more known in
your community, all of a sudden
there's gonna be local brand spart,
uh, brand sponsors, local partners
that want to partner with you.
And then obviously we're talking about.
About Brock Purdy in this scenario,
there are national partners that are
not necessarily working at, worried
about Brock Purdy's contract on the
field, but they're looking at his play.
They're saying, okay, this guy's
a quarterback playing at a high
level, going to championship
games, going to Super Bowls, right?
Recognizable face, boom.
Toyota National commercial, right?
That's off the field income.
Alright, boom.
You're looking at the Arby's national
commercial that's off the field income.
And so you don't have to
be the star quarterback.
You don't have to even be the,
the, the, the star, uh, you know.
Receiver.
Oftentimes there are these positions
that people get a lot more attention,
but even if you're at a local community,
right, you can grow your, you can turn
your brand into a business by, by playing
great on the field, but not being afraid
to build relationships off of it as well.
And that's what we're seeing
Brock Purdy do, right?
He's keeping his, his.
His play consistent with his
character off of the field as well.
So when people meet him, when brand
sponsors meet him, they don't, they
don't know football jargon, they don't
care about it, but they meet him.
They're like, okay man, this is
a guy I want to do business with.
And so those are a few of the ways you
can capture that value, not just on the
field, but also off the field as well.
Riccardo Stewart: I love it.
I love it Athlete.
CEO.
Jeff Locke: Rick, I got one
question for Zach and Sam real
Riccardo Stewart: let's get it.
Let's get
Jeff Locke: So Zach and Sam, I know
both of you well, like you guys
were on the N-F-L-P-A committee
when you guys were players, right?
You were helping out players.
You were both involved or around
the last CBA negotiations.
So like I talked about the guaranteed
money and how it pisses me off, like all
these other league get the guarantees,
like why is the NFL that way where
it's not like the MBA or the MLB.
Sam Acho: Yeah, well,
I'll go first on this one.
I'll, I'll answer this one.
So I was a part of the last
CBA negotiations back in 2018.
I got voted by the players as not just
a, a, a member of the, the Chicago Bears
Player representative, but I was on the
executive committee, vice president of the
N-F-L-P-A, me and about nine other players
were in the negotiations with the owners.
That's Jerry Jones.
That's, that's Roger Goodell.
He was helping lead the charge
for the ownership as well.
Uh, Clark Hunt, et cetera,
negotiating the CBA.
And it's interesting, as a player,
you think, okay, I got a contract.
I'm good.
I'm happy, I'm, I'm, I'm getting paid.
But when ownership looks at you and
your contract, they view it as what
they call a player cost.
It's not like, Hey,
we're getting this guy.
It's like, no, this is how
much it's going to cost us in
order?
to, to, um.
Have our teams, not just one team, but
our teams and this league run properly.
And so when ownership's looking
at guaranteed money, that's one.
One of the things that we talked
about, Aaron Rogers was in those
conversations as well about how do
we get fully guaranteed contracts.
The ownership was not about having
players get fully guaranteed contracts.
'cause they were thinking, man,
if we do this, the player costs
are going to rise to a level they
wouldn't be able to maintain.
And so that's one area to
remember as a player, owners are
trying to give you the money.
They're thinking, Hey, how do
we keep the player cost down?
Zach Miller: And I'll say, I, I heard
one story from Jeff Saturday who was
part of those negotiations in 2011.
Um, he said Jerry Jones basically
called the players cattle, um, just a
cost for the NFL to run its business.
And that they didn't believe that
NFL players, if they had guaranteed
contracts, would go there out
there and lay it on the line.
And I mean, that's, that's
how the view has been from
ownership for the longest time.
And it'll continue to stay that way.
Um, I, that's why the N-F-L-P-A exists.
Sam Acho: And, and I'm not, I mean,
I'm not at liberty to go into depth
of what was said in the meetings that
I was in, but I will say this, Zach
Miller is, you're not too far off
from what we heard in those meetings
from individuals like Jerry Jones.
So just know that as much
like certain people, I get it.
Yeah.
The owners and the gm, like, you
know, they're your friends as
you, as long as you're producing.
Right, but we talked about the back
half of Brock Purdy's contract.
After that a hundred million is spent a
year in, two years in or three years in.
And if Brock Purdy isn't producing,
I don't care if you're a friend
or not, it's a, they're, they're
running it as a business and they're
going to move on from that player
cost unless you continue to perform.
And so we always talk
about betting on yourself.
That's what Brock Purdy's doing.
He's betting on himself.
Riccardo Stewart: I love that Jeff, uh,
Jeff, first of all, that was a phenomenal
question and a great way for us to be able
to land the plane because it is, it's the
business of you and what does it look like
when it merges into the bigs of the nfl,
Zach, Sam, that was incredible insight,
and you gotta understand, like a business
owner, you gotta be savvy and know
what it is, what rooms, what buildings.
Are you walking into when it comes to you
bringing yourself, and that is important.
We've talked about how to create
this value and now it's captured.
Think about it in the business
capturing it and the contracts,
that's like the revenue of a business.
What we wanna talk about
Nexus, what's the prop?
What's the profit like after
tax dollars in my pocket?
And how do those particular dollars begin
to fuel this life that I have envisioned
for myself and my future family?
And so any questions you guys have about
what you heard in this episode, um, any
thoughts, we'd love to hear from you.
You can shoot us a text.
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