Steelers safety makes controversial statement about NFL salaries

The NFL is always looking for creative ways to expand its revenue. Recently, this has led to streaming services being able to bid for exclusive rights to over-the-air games, and there are even rumors that primetime games will move to pay-per-view in the near future. A Pittsburgh Steelers player believes the league is cutting too much and not leaving enough money for the players.

Another revenue-generating change the league is flirting with is an 18-game season in the NFL. The competition went from 16 games to 17 games for the first time in 2021. In doing so, the league agreed to remove one preseason game from the schedule while raising the salary cap.

While the NFL won’t see an 18-game schedule until 2031 at the earliest, it looks like we’re headed toward an extension season once again. But as you can imagine, not every NFL player agrees.

DeShon Elliott spoke to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor and claimed ownership isn’t paying players enough to play an 18-game season. The Steelers safety believes players should be “paid a lot more money” than what they are currently making.

“They already don’t pay us enough money. They’re stingy with their money, so they want us to play 18 games. As a players’ union, we should get a lot more money than what we get. And not just The Top Boys. And the point is that They’re not here playing football. They’re not running around here putting their bodies on the line. They don’t care if we want to make money at the top, the bottom has to make money too.”

– Deshon Elliott via ESPN

Elliott’s argument makes sense to a certain extent. If the league wants to expand the NFL season from 17 to 18 games, it obviously poses some additional health risks for the players. When an opportunity presents itself, we can expect the salary cap to make another significant jump, so many players will be compensated accordingly. We will also likely see one less game in the preseason.

But this statement will not go down well with many football fans.

According to a 2024 USA Today Study, the national average salary in the US is $59,384 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Many hard-working, lower- to middle-class people who support the NFL don’t like hearing that football players should be paid more.

For example, DeShon Elliott just signed a two-year contract with the Steelers during the 2024 offseason worth $6,000,000 with $1,500,000 in guarantees, per Over the Cap. Despite being on four different NFL teams since 2018, Elliott will earn a total of $12,818,800 by the end of the 2025 season (if he remains on the Steelers roster until the end of his contract).

This may seem like a small thing to some professional football players, but not to the average American worker.

At the same time, the players have to make a case. This is a billion dollar business. The NFL Player’s Union knows how much ownership it pockets when others put their bodies on the line, and they want their share.

No matter which side of the fence you are on, we all know that professional athletes get paid a lot of money. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that players are asking for more if the league plans to schedule another game.