Abstract

The salary structure and process of wage determination in the American National Football League (NFL) is perhaps unique among professional sports: contracts are not guaranteed, careers tend to be very short, and the league operates under a salary cap that limits teams’ payrolls. Thus, while a fairly well-defined set of performance metrics exists for most professional football players, the usual relationship between measured performance and compensation—i.e. higher productivity translates into higher pay - may be blurred, empirically observable, or even nonexistent. This paper investigates this issue using a four-year panel of veteran professional football players. Our analysis suggests that although performance plays a role in determining salaries in the NFL, experience, durability, and mobility are the most important factors veteran player compensation.

Authors and Affiliations