A look back at summer | The Press

Here’s what caught my attention in the sports world over the summer.

1. New surge in wages

Imagine: in the NFL, four quarterbacks signed five-year contracts worth more than 250 million, or more than 50 million per season (all amounts in this column are in US dollars).

1. Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals, 275 million

2. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens, 260 million

3. Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers, 262.5 million

4. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles, 255 million

In the NFL, salaries aren’t completely guaranteed, but regardless, these young quarterbacks broke the bank.

The phenomenon is even more pronounced in the NBA. Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics has agreed to a five-year contract extension that will pay him $304 million, an average of $60.8 million per season.

The Los Angeles Lakers added three more seasons to Anthony Davis’ deal for $186 million. Clearly, the Lakers star will receive 62 million per season from 2025-2026 to 2027-2028.

To fully understand how stratospheric the salaries of NFL and NBA stars are, just compare with the NHL. Last month, the Toronto Maple Leafs gave Auston Matthews $53 million. But this new agreement, which will come into force next year, is valid for four seasons, an average of 13.25 million.

For the NHL, such a number is immense, since Matthews will surpass Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid as the highest paid player on the circuit. In the grand scheme of things in North American professional sports, however, this sum is modest. In fact, even Major League Soccer is paying its new headliner, Lionel Messi, much better.

On the social network X, player agent Allan Walsh published some revealing data. The currently highest paid player in the NHL would be 88^e in the NFL, the 103^e in major baseball and the 113^e in the NBA.

Two elements explain these differences. First, the NHL’s revenues are lower than those of the other three leagues, especially in terms of national television contracts. Then, commissioner Gary Bettman always played hardball with the players during collective negotiations and that had long-term effects.

2. Sensation Carlos Alcaraz

The young Spaniard lost in the semi-final of the US Open last week. But he remains the most exciting athlete of the summer.

After collapsing physically and psychologically in the semi-final of Roland-Garros in front of Novak Djokovic, Alcaraz got back up by defeating the Serbian champion in the Wimbledon final. It was an electrifying match, especially since we didn’t give much of a chance after he was beaten 6-1 in the first set.

The two men did it again a month later in Cincinnati. Their final was an anthology moment, a duel worthy of the Grand Slam. Djokjovic won by drawing on his resources.

Really too bad we didn’t see another fight between the two stars in New York. The final would have been much more exciting than this victory in three short sets for Djokovic at the expense of Daniil Medvedev.

Labor Day weekend was my first time watching U.S. Open matches. The complex is gigantic and money flows freely: souvenir shops, food concessions and restaurants, there are lines everywhere. The tournament broke an attendance record: nearly 800,000 people passed through the turnstiles.

More than 400,000 Honey Deuces at US$22 each were sold during the fortnight. It is a cocktail made with vodka and raspberry liqueur served in a hard plastic souvenir glass, on which the names of all the champions since 1968 are written. In this chapter alone, revenues reach around 9 million US!

3. Disappointment

The days when the tennis world marveled at the successes of Canadian athletes already seem long ago. Of course, Félix Auger-Aliassime (14^e) and Denis Shapovalov (31^e) occupy good places in the ATP rankings. But do they have the potential to win a Grand Slam tournament title? I believed for a long time that it was possible for Auger-Aliassime, but he has not progressed this season.

This year, in major tournaments, Auger-Aliassime reached the fourth round in Australia, but he was eliminated in the first round in France, England and the United States. The year 2024 will be decisive for him.

The problem is that the competition is always fiercer. If Alcaraz stays healthy, he will be the dominant player of his generation. And other hopefuls, younger than the two Canadians, have a bright future ahead of them: the Dane Holger Rune, the Italian Jannik Sinner, the American Ben Shelton…

Among the women, Bianca Andreescu, victim of numerous injuries, has still not found form. And Leylah Annie Fernandez is having a disappointing season. Quite an uphill climb in both cases.

4. New York fans

Are you impatient with the difficulties of the Canadiens, the Alouettes and CF Montréal? Take comfort, other fans are suffering too.

In New York, the Jets pinned all their hopes on the arrival of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. We know the rest: his season ended after four games due to a torn Achilles tendon.

As recalled by New York Timesthe misfortunes of the city teams do not end there.

Also in the NFL, the Giants started their season by being corrected 40-0 by the Dallas Cowboys.

In baseball, despite colossal investments in salaries, the Mets are dropped in the standings. The Yankees, who also spend a fortune, will not participate in the playoffs. Things aren’t going much better in Major League Soccer with the Red Bulls and FC.

“This summer,” writes Timesthe Liberty of the WNBA [basket féminin], which begins the first round of the playoffs this week, is the only team to be better than mediocre. »

Yet all these organizations can afford the best leaders. So how can we explain these failures? One theory: Maybe big budgets diminish creativity and flair in team building.