Last Sunday saw the US National Football League (NFL) bandwagon pull up at Wembley as the Miami Dolphins crushed the Oakland Raiders.

As a fan of the NFL, I enjoyed the spectacle and the increased media coverage it is getting in this country with talk of there being a London franchise in the near future.

While many sports fans don’t understand the game and wish England didn’t get involved in a sport with so many problems (problems which have been documented on these pages) there are some things that our sports can learn from the United States.

This isn’t the first time I have spoken about taking features from other sports or teams to improve ours and it won’t be the last.

It is a well known fact that England’s young footballers are paid way too much before they fulfil their potential.

Raheem Sterling of Liverpool is reportedly in talks for a new contract at the age of 19. While i have no problem with that, the figures being whispered are in the region of £100,000 a week. That is ludicrous. 

He is a very talented player, don’t get me wrong, but he still has a lot to learn and there is no guarantee that he will become the world superstar that people think he might.

In the NFL, athletes don’t sign their rookie contract until they finish college (the equivalent to our university) and in 2011 the league introduced a rookie wage scale to stop young players earning vast amounts more than the veterans in the league. Something I believe could improve the English game. 

It means that no matter how talented a player may be, he can only earn a certain amount when he signs his first professional contract and if he wants to be paid more then he has to put the time and effort in on the training ground and improve as a player.

While NFL rookies are paid multi-million dollar contracts (something I do not agree with) the money in the NFL is far greater than the money in the Premier League. I personally believe a football equivalent should be that the maximum a player can earn at 18 is £5,000 a week.

The most a player can earn between the ages of 18 and 21 should be £15,000. 

If this were to come in play in the future, England may produce more youngsters.

Imagine the scenario, Player A and Player B are both 19 but one is at Chelsea and the other is at Derby.

Both are very talented and are on course to have bright futures in the game. Player A is yet to feature for Chelsea due to the amount of global superstars in the first team while Player B is enjoying his football at Derby in the Championship because he is allowed to play week-in week-out.

Chelsea see that Player B is progressing well and want to bring him to Stamford Bridge. However, due to the wage cap they cannot offer him a huge contract in return for sitting on the bench.

Player B has no real incentive to move to Chelsea at this stage of his career as his chances of breaking into the senior team are slim. 

He is better off staying at Pride Park for two more years and at 21, if Chelsea want to offer him silly money to play for them he will have the years of experience of competitive football behind him to stand a better chance of making it in the Premier League. 

If he does decide to join Chelsea, he won’t earn that much more and the chances are the Blues will have to promise him a certain amount of first-team games in order for him to move clubs.

This may prove to be a lie from the Premier League club but it could be one way to stop the big clubs from throwing money at kids.

Yes I am aware that this is a hypothetical situation and we don’t live in a perfect world. But something has to be done to stop talented youngsters losing motivation at a young age because they are handed riches the moment they break into the first team.

Not every player is motivated by money, I mentioned Sterling earlier and to give him credit he seems to be grounded and is not letting this money talk affect his game.

But for every Sterling there are a number of young English players who have ruined their careers chasing the pot of gold at an early age instead of doing what is best for their career and continuing their development at smaller clubs.

I’m not expecting players to turn down money to stay on lower wages in the lower leagues. Just wish more would think about what the move will do to them long-term.

I keep harping back to Jack Rodwell on these pages as a player who made the wrong choice early on his career and I will continue to do so as an example of a player who chased the money.

If you think I use him as I don’t know any others then you are mistaken. John Bostock was a very talented player at Crystal Palace who left to join Tottenham in 2011 at the age of 19. At 14 Chelsea offered Palace £900,000 which prompted Simon Jordan — the chairman at the time — to say: “We had a £900,000 offer from Chelsea when he was 14 which we turned down. It’s beyond me and it makes me question why I bother with football.”

Bostock, 22, is now playing for OH Leuven in the Belgian Second Division. What a waste of talent and I’m afraid he won’t be the last.