LA Rams VP Tony Pastoors should really take a bow right now

Current value

So isn’t this all a bit of a shell game? A kick-the-can down the road strategy that eventually results in a day of reckoning, when the road ends and the LA Rams must ante up for all of those delayed payments? Well, yes in a way. But each year, the popularity of the NFL increases the revenue stream. Ticket sales, merchandise sales, and broadcast licenses inflate each year, and more and more dollars to the pile each year.

For Aaron Donald, the LA Rams are using voidable years. In essence, the contract adds years that become voided after the playing years expire. That allows the LA Rams to push significant amounts of today’s obligations into future years.

It’s legal. All teams use these tricks to an extent. But the LA Rams do so with that extra bit of pizzazz that makes everyone sit up and take notice.

Pastoor, Pensions, and annuities

In fact, many of us use this trick but in the opposite direction. Retirement pensions and annuities work like this but in reverse effect. In those examples, we pay in now to ensure a future income. The LA Rams simply apply that current value effect in real terms. Since the NFL does not convert those future dollars, the Rams are able to ‘borrow’ the millions from future caps to pay players today.

When the dollars become available, the amount seems less shocking because it works out to a smaller share of the team’s annual salary cap allotment.

If you are confused, don’t fret. The key is that LA Rams VP Tony Pastoors understands all of the nuances of drafting NFL contracts. From what we are witnessing recently, he seems to have it all down to an art form.