Vataha: NFL Players ‘Beg’ for Salaries

The agent for two of the players suing the NFL for free agency testified Wednesday that under the current system of movement, players are reduced to “skilled begging” to get the salaries they merit.

Randy Vataha, who represents quarterback Don Majkowski of the Green Bay Packers and guard Dave Richards of the San Diego Chargers, spent the morning on the stand detailing the problems he had negotiating contracts for his clients. Majkowski and Richards are among eight plaintiffs in the suit.

“Skilled begging is what it all comes down to,” Vataha testified. “I’m convinced the teams start negotiations with a figure in their head as to what they want to pay. Then you have to engage in skilled begging to even get near that figure.”

Vataha, a former NFL receiver, maintained that under the “Plan B” system in effect in the NFL, which allows teams to protect their top 37 players each year, his clients were shortchanged because of their ability and paid far less than they might have commanded on the open market.

During cross-examination, Frank Rothman, the NFL’s lead attorney, questioned Vataha sharply about Majkowski. Rothman noted that after the 1989 season, Majkowski received an increase in salary from $250,000 a year to $1.5 million.

That figure increased to $1.7 million last season even though Majkowski finished 21st in the ratings among 28 quarterbacks after an injury-plagued 1990.

Rothman also questioned the characterization of “skilled begging.”

“Was it skilled begging that got the Packers to get off their initial offer of $600,000 to $1.5 million?” he asked.

One of the nine jurors apparently asked to be dismissed because she had made up her mind in favor of the NFL. But the woman continued on the jury, at least through the end of the day.