newjerseynewsroom.com

BY EVAN WEINER

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS

In 1987, Bill Daughtry and I hosted a one-off cable television show called "Between the Lines." It was a sports business conversation, the kind of dialogue that cable TV, sports talk radio and newspapers don't like touching. SportsChannel New York's Michael Lardner passed on the program because of the content.

As far as Lardner and other regional cable sports network TV executives, the content was strictly X-rated. The show touched upon a subject they did not want to expose to their viewers. How sports really worked as a business.

The guest, the National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Lawrence Fleischer, was discussing the then collective bargaining negotiations between his players and the National Basketball Association owners and very early into the presentation Fleischer explained why the NBA didn't need a draft and how the draft was created to artificially lower salaries.

That's the real reason for a draft.

Owners don't want to bid for players but the sports media plays up the draft as a necessary tool for teams.

Major League Baseball did not have a draft until 1965. The National Football League's first draft was in 1936. The Basketball Association of America started picking college players in 1947 and by 1949, the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America had merged to become the National Basketball Association. The National Hockey League's initial draft was in 1963.

The drafts all work the same, the teams with the poorest records get the highest draft picks. The NBA and NHL have "draft lotteries" which means the teams with the worst record might not get the first pick. The lesser performing teams theoretically get the better players but Fleischer punctured the notion early in the show.

"The draft is an interesting example," said Fleischer in the 1987 interview. "It was something that evolved way back when, when there were no opportunities to be organized or have any say as to their future.

"As a result, it has been accepted by the media and the fans as something that must exist. It doesn't have to exist, it doesn't serve as any useful function. (In the 1980s) The Boston Celtics win every year, the Los Angeles Lakers win every year. It is just a means of holding down initial salaries."

Fleischer's words in 1987 still resonant in sports. In 2011, the National Football League owners locked out National Football League Players Association personnel from the 32 teams until a new collective bargaining agreement was reached. A deal was cut in July and one of the new provisions of the CBA was cutting the salaries of drafted players.

The first player selected, Cam Newton, could no longer ask for $78 million over six years with $50 million of that in guaranteed money. Instead Newton could be offered a four year deal worth $22.03 million or substantially less than half of what Sam Bradford got from the St. Louis Rams ownership in 2010.

The money saved by reducing draftees contracts would be spent on veteran and proven players. The would be a major transfer of dollars from all draftees contracts to older performers starting with the 2011 draftees.

The draft also brings up a complication. Is it legal to limit the opportunities for the top college football players to just one business when in theory 32 football businesses should be bidding for the top players?

But first things first.

The NFL Draft is big business to everyone including the players, teams, the league and one league partner, The Walt Disney Company's ESPN and the NFL's cable TV network.

It also puts money into the pockets of "Draftniks" or wonks who just grade college football players.

The NFL draft has become more than a cottage industry. It has made stars out of analysts like Mel Kiper Jr. and brought minor celebrity to others who do nothing but watch college football games between August and January and study players on videotape the rest of the year.