The highest paid athletes in America are undoubtedly the quarterbacks of the NFL. They play the most important position in all of sports, and they are rewarded handsomely for it. Over the last half decade however, the quarterback market has skyrocketed. It is in an unprecedented place, and the quarterbacks being paid now are demanding more money than ever before, almost to the point where it becomes unethical and a civic issue. So, what has happened to the QB market? Why has it risen so much? And is it just another example of the free market, or an issue that needs to be addressed?
The rise of the quarterback in football took place around the year 1908, when forward passes were invented and allowed. For the first 60 years of the position, the quarterback took somewhat of a backseat to other positions. On offense it was the running back, who ran the show on the gridiron, and the defense, who did the heavy lifting to keep the team in the game. The quarterback was just another player on the team, and while there were some really good ones, they did not really stand above the rest of the team. However, that was all to change in the late 1960s, and a radical shift in the quarterback landscape was to take place, and they would never be “just another player” ever again, and the man behind that revolution was none other than “Broadway” Joe Namath.
Joe Namath was the first true superstar quarterback in the NFL. He was very good on the field, but coupled with his off-field antics, he became something much more similar to the quarterback today: the most important player on the field. He was a media darling, he had swagger, and he elevated his team like a quarterback never had before. Joe Namath let the cat out of the bag in the sense that the quarterback was the most important player both on the field and off the field. And, over the decades, this distinction would only get bigger. In the 1990s and 2000s, the league started to favor passing, giving quarterbacks even more prominence in the offense. Additionally, many rules were created specifically to protect quarterbacks. In today’s game, any sort of hard hit on a quarterback is at risk of being penalized, since an injured quarterback brings down the value of a franchise greatly.
Because of the unprecedented superstar status of quarterbacks both on and off the field, which has grown and grown as the years have gone by, quarterbacks are starting to be paid like never before. It seems like every single offseason the biggest deal a quarterback has at that time is dwarfed by somebody else. The 2023 offseason will be the best example of this yet. Three star quarterbacks, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and Jalen Hurts are all due for new deals. Hurts has already gotten paid, and he predictably is now the highest paid player in the NFL. His monster 5 year, $255 million contract extension tops both Kyler Murray and Deshaun Watson, who were paid last year, and there is no doubt in my mind that Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert will both be paid even more.
This creates a civic issue in that the quarterback market in the NFL is so massive that it almost seems unethical at this point. Sure the United States is a free market and players can be paid as much as owners want to pay them. But, with the highest quarterback salary from the 2020 offseason looking like a cheap, bargain deal just three years later, should the NFL step in and do something? Personally, I do not think so, but it is something interesting to consider with how out of control the quarterback market is.
“Broadway” Joe Namath, the first true superstar quarterback in the NFL. He arguably started the trend of the quarterback being the most important player on the field
Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts. He is currently the highest paid player in the NFL but I have no doubt in my mind that he will not be very, very soon.