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New football league reveals how much its players will make

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One of the most tiresome tropes echoed by sports critics is that professional athletes are overpaid.

News flash: This is how capitalism works.

Whether or not they’re playing a children’s game is irrelevant. People are paying money to watch those games played at the highest of levels. Since there are only so many people even remotely capable of playing the game at a certain level, those people get paid.

So when a certain skill set, regardless of what it is, is in such limited supply, demand will naturally be higher. Getting upset with people and athletes for wanting to make as much money as possible is fundamentally un-American.

That elementary school economics lesson is accurately reflected with the Alliance of American Football revealing how much its players will be paid.

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AAF co-founder Bill Polian told ESPN that the league will give its players three-year, non-guaranteed contracts worth $250,000  when it launches Feb. 9.

That’s obviously a far cry from kind of money even the most rudimentary of NFL players make. A minimum NFL contract typically pays more than $250,000 per year.

But again, that difference in salary comes with a difference in demand. Mediocre football players are much easier to find than an Aaron Rodgers or a Von Miller.

Another NFL alternative, the XFL, has announced a similar pay structure. XFL players are slated to make around $75,000 a year when the league launches in 2020.

Are you curious to watch another professional football league?

That being said, the AAF seems content with being an alternative to NCAA football due to its flexible contracts.

According to Polian, players will be allowed to go to the NFL. What isn’t as clear, however, is the status of the AAF contract once a player goes to the NFL.

Further taking aim at the NCAA, AAF contracts will reportedly include an education stipend for any players with at least a year of service for the AAF.

Polian also elaborated that AAF contracts would include “state-of-the-industry health insurance.”

The AAF also seems to be tapping into local markets more so than the NFL, even. The AAF will scout players who do not make it to the NFL or CFL, but will try their best to stick players on an AAF team within a reasonable radius of where they played in college. If there are no AAF teams in the vicinity of a player’s alma mater, they will be relocated based on where they played in the NFL and CFL. If none of those prerequisites can be met, players will be free to negotiate with any AAF team.

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“If the Birmingham team has (former Alabama running back) Trent Richardson, we think that will be something that would be a significant gate attraction,” Polian said.

The AAF will also be holding a trio of combines in August. They will be held in Los Angeles, Houston and Atlanta. Anyone interested in participating must pay a tryout fee of $175.

The AAF and the XFL are two upstart football leagues that have come around to fill the void left by declining public sentiment in the NFL. It’ll be interesting to see if either league can take off, though the AAF has a significant advantage in that it’s debuting a year earlier than the XFL.

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Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics.
Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics. He graduated with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. He is an avid fan of sports, video games, politics and debate.
Birthplace
Hawaii
Education
Class of 2010 University of Arizona. BEAR DOWN.
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English, Korean
Topics of Expertise
Sports, Entertainment, Science/Tech




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