Mo' Money

Can someone explain this to me?

LATROBE, Pa. -- Pittsburgh Steelers star safety Troy Polamalu signed a four-year contract extension Monday worth $30.19 million that makes him the highest-paid player in team history and one of the NFL's top-paid defensive backs.

How is Polamalu the highest paid player in franchise history? His contract averages to 7.55$ million a year by my mathematical standards.

Now I'm no NFL specialist and indeed no NFL contract/bonus/guaranteed money specialist, but if what I just said is true, how do the Steelers do it? That means he's making more than Big Ben and Hines Ward and more than The Bus or Joey Porter or any Steeler ever has.

This doesn't make sense in my mind, for two reasons. One, Daniel Briere (6.5$ million on contract average) will be making almost as much money as the top Steeler will this year in Philidelphia. I'm definitely under the impression that NHL salaries shouldn't come near NFL salaries given the state of the two leagues in the US. And Two, I'm seeing new contracts, from veterans and rookies, coming out that eclipse Polamalu's "huge" contract and nobody seems to bat an eye.

For instance, today, Marc Bulger signed for 10.25$ million on average (which, admittedly, is the highest salary in Rams history) and Bucs' rookie Gaines Adams signed for 7.66$ million on average. However, ESPN does say that Bulger's contract puts him just shy of the elite quarterbacking salaries, meaning that salaries must not go much higher than his.

Anyway, I guess it is just a strange realization to me, not only that NFL salaries aren't higher, but that Polamalu's salary is the Steeler's highest ever. As well, that Jaromir Jagr signed a 11$ million/year contract for the Capitals at one point, which compares very closely with the top NFL salaries ever. And it seems from what I've seen, the average salary per player is very close in the NHL (1.46$ million for 2005-06) and NFL (1.4$ million in 2005). Of course, I have been averaging all of this over the term of the contract, though NFL contracts often have huge signing bonuses which give players a huge annual salary in the first year they sign it. To compare even more, Christiano Ronaldo is apparently making 120,000 pounds a week (~12.7$ million US / year), the highest contract in Man. U.'s history.

Come to think of it, maybe there is a few reasons for the NFL/NHL inequality equalities. I guess a NFL team payroll would be significantly higher given the number of players on the team and that they play significantly less games than a NHL team.

Another shocking discovery, kind of unrelated but very interesting, the CFL has the sixth largest average per game attendance of any sports league in the world. It eclipses La Liga and Serie A for God sakes! Also amazing, is that the NFL averages over 67,000 in attendance per game. HOLY HELL that is a huge crowd to average, almost double second place finishers: Bundesliga (really?) with ~37,000.