Will the LA Rams ever pay a player in Bitcoin over Benjamins?

First NFTs. Then Bitcoins?  Comes the recent news about Kansas City Chiefs tight end Sean Culkin planning to become the first NFL player to take 100 percent of his salary in Bitcoins rather than Benjamins. Assuming he makes the team, of course, because he’s signed to a reserve future contract. So the Bitcoins don’t rain until he makes the Chiefs’ roster. So how much is a single bitcoin worth? The market value of a single bitcoin is currently worth $54,768.30 (as of the end of business on April 26, 2021)

Still, that’s 9,200 C-notes, 9,200 Bennys for the mathematically challenged. No matter how you slice. it, dice it, or try to comprehend why an NFL player would do so, that’s a lot of coins, err Bitcoins.

Culkin wrote on Twitter that he “wanted to prove he’s got skin in the game.” Props to you. Objective achieved.

You got 9,200 virtual Bitskins coming to you in the future. Maybe you will truly have a Brinks truck back up and drop off 9,200 bags of physical coins of Bit-gold (mined by licensed crypto-miners, of course) to your home. Maybe even by a gigantic armored drone. That would be cool.

You can’t say Culkin’s not putting his Bitcoins where his mouth is.

I don’t claim to be much of an expert on this subject. Actually, this tweet kinda sums up how I feel about the whole crypto thing, Crypto is Crossfit,  but nevertheless. I am intrigued by this move on the part of an NFL player.

Here come the bitcoins?

And wondering what it all means. It’s much more than just a symbolic gesture. And it’s more than  Carolina Panthers’  OT Russell Okung’s earlier move to take half of his salary in Bitcoins, the other half in Benjamins.

Okung was just dipping his toe in the shallow end of the pool. He’s only halfway in. Culkin’s all in. Culkin does a cannonball off the high-dive into the deep end of the pool. He’s wanting all his duckets delivered in this new-fangled mode, not just a slice of the duckets’ pie.

I know this much about Bitcoin accounts – they cannot be frozen or examined by tax inspectors, and banks are unnecessary for bitcoins. Law enforcement and bankers see bitcoins as similar to the gold nuggets of the wild west — beyond their control, outside their purview.

And I imagine that probably pisses them off. And I’m OK with that. Kinda like it, actually.

“Bartender, I’d like a whiskey, and here’s some virtual gold dust to settle up with the house for my tab.”

I kinda like the image of LA harkening back to its wild west frontier mentality roots in the future.

A new negotiation tool for the NFL?

But since LA is a land of early adopters of new ideas and emerging global technologies, maybe there will come a time when an LA Rams player will make a similar request.

The conversation, the negotiation might even go down a little like this: “Ya know. . .  Les. . .  I’d like to help you out with restructuring my contract, in consideration of how you’re up against the salary cap and all, but . . .  you’re gonna have to kick down a few Bitcoins to make me seriously consider your proposal.”

In fact, there’s probably an agent out there right now who’s about to become the first players’ agent specializing in writing crypto contracts for NFL players. And his office will be in – where else? Los Angeles. Maybe even Wilshire Boulevard. In a high-rise. Fresh flowers in the lobby.  A blonde receptionist.  And the agent will have professionally messy hair.

A flaw in the system?

Of course, there is no NFL team paying players in bitcoins, yet. Do you know the Okung story? He was paid in US dollars and converted his money into bitcoin.

Because this Bitcoin crypto stuff is global. And ‘cuz LA does bidness globally. And the NFL wants to become a global game. And the NBA is already two steps ahead of the league in that department.

NBA says, “We see your games in London, and raise you one.”

But less we forget our manners. If Russell Okung was able to convert half of his salary ($7.5 million) to bitcoin as he stated On December 29, 2020, he would have purchased 274.1 bitcoin (then at a market price of $27,362.44)

Today, that $7.5 million payment in bitcoin is worth $15,006,248.12. That’s a hefty rate of return.

Yep, in some form or fashion and in the not-so-distant future, an LA Rams player (maybe someone not even on the roster now, but some as-yet-unknown future Ram) will want Bitcoin. . . . and when that time arrives, the Rams will most certainly be up against the league-imposed Bitcoin-cap. 🙂