Posted 26 February 2014 - 11:07 PM
QBs are paid the most by far because their position is judged to be (imo, very correctly) the most important and difficult to play. Franchise QBs are generally paid 20+ million over 5-7 years. However, the market rate for QBs is only increasing, so by the time Peyton Manning's original "highest ever paid contract" was up, he was making less than a number of QBs, at which point he then gets about a 30% increase to around 28 million per year.
Basically, you can't succeed without an elite QB. While that isn't 100% true, it is true the vast majority of the time. To win the SB you've got to get to the playoffs and to get to the playoffs you have to win 10+ games every year. A team without an elite QB isn't going to do that year in, year out. The NFL has judged that it is better to be weaker at every other position on the field than QB, so they are paid as such.
Trouble arrives when the opponents to such a system institute its extreme opposite, where individualism becomes godlike and sacrosanct, and no greater service to any other ideal (including community) is possible. In such a system rapacious greed thrives behind the guise of freedom, and the worst aspects of human nature come to the fore....