Ah, the broadsides that inevitably come with labor negotiations. Per the AP, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is planning to take a crack at reducing the rookie contracts many think are ridiculous — considering they are much more than what veterans will earn. The commissioner called deals such as the ones Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan and Miami Dolphins O-lineman Jake Long signed “ridiculous.”

It will be particularly difficult for Lord Rog to be able to extract a change in the rookie salary scale out of NFLPA head Gene Upshaw because the union can and will demand some serious concessions in any change to the draftees’ first contracts.

“He doesn’t have to play a down in the NFL and he already has his money,” Goodell said during a question-and-answer period at the end of a weeklong sports symposium at the Chautauqua Institution. “Now, with the economics where they are, the consequences if you don’t evaluate that player, you can lose a significant amount of money. And that money is not going to players that are performing. It’s going to a player that never makes it in the NFL. And I think that’s ridiculous.”

Rookie contracts inevitably contribute to the revenue stream for the players that the owners decided they’d like to have back when they opted out of the CBA earlier this year. The logic train pulls into the station here: why should a freshly drafted rookie make more money in his first contract than he will likely ever see again, which is significantly more than some veterans make on the open market?

We likely got to this point because the average NFL career is not terribly long. Even in the case of first-round picks, there are busts and injury concerns, and this is what the union has negotiated in exchange for very liberal rules about when players can be cut and non-guaranteed contracts.

Given the clout of the league, expect a rookie scale similar to the NBA to come into play after some serious bargaining.