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Guys - Who Hates Football?

#161
Mike N said:
Unless someone is a complete buffoon they should know the risks of playing the game. There's a real chance you will be screwed up for life from playing a contact sport, if you accept that risk it's not my problem.
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What we're talking about is the justification for the millions of dollars in compensation. My point was exactly that both the player and the team who pays the player know about the serious health risks that go along with playing in the NFL. That goes a long way toward explaining the high salaries. That, and the fact that only a handful of people can perform feats of strength, agility, stamina, skill, etc.. like pros in the NFL.

The bottom line is that millions of people are willing to spend billions of dollars to watch only a few hundred uniquely qualified (and willing) individuals perform for their amusement every Sunday.

I don't know too many mechanics my age that don't suffer from hand, back and knee issues yet we don't go on strike looking for better benefits when we do give it up. We play the game and we take our chances, the responsibility is all mine.
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Yup. I'm in the same situation since I've been a blue collar grunt my entire working life. I'm 45 years old and, honestly, my whole skeleton hurts every day from the years of Repetitive Stress Syndrome that I still infllict upon myeslf 40 hours every week. But I'm one of the lucky ones who is only "inconvenienced" by chronic discomfort and not "debilitated" by extreme pain.

I have to face a certain reality. There are millions of people who can do my job, provided they are willing to regularly get up and go to work everyday and punch a clock for a regular paycheck that feeds their families and pays their monthly bills. If I quit, or fail to adequately perform my job and get fired, then some other drone will take my place and get paid the same hourly wage that I once earned. There is no shortage of people willing to work for decades for a regular paycheck, knowing that the work will eventually wear out their bodies and cause them discomfort in their old age.

So it sucks to be me. Boo-Hoo. :smug: Yet, I wouldn't trade my life for all the fame and fortune to be found by any player in the NFL. Yes, honestly. I would hate to live through the ordeal that is their everyday life, even while earning their millions of dollars. Screw that. I would hate such a lifestyle and the vast majority of normal people would hate such a lifestyle. If someone wants to shovel millions of dollars into their wallets in exchange for the bullcrap they have to put up with, then I have no problem with it. I don't have a dog in this fight because I don't even watch the NFL and I don't give a squirt about any of the teams, including my own supposed home team, but I have no animosity toward the poor saps who play the game and I consider their gigantic paychecks to be at least a token compensation for what they sacrifice.
 
#162
While I agree with you that it's basically a pure form of capitalism, the high salaries come from the high volume of people taking seats at the stadiums or tuning in every week (heck, it's what we see with the upper tiers of professional football (soccer) ), but I have to disagree with the point about it being only a handful of people who can do what they do and by extension your mention of how you could be replaced by another "drone".

Think of all the players who are out there in semi-pro leagues, amateur leagues, college teams and high school teams. The absolute standard of some of those players isn't going to be far off that of the current standard of pro. You have a feeder system, which has 10's of thousands (probably more) players involved. All the pro system does is skim the best of those players from the top so there will always be someone else to take the place of a Pro who leaves. I think you'd have to cut a long way down through that feeder system before it would have any negative impact on the NFL and it's viewership.
 
#164
I love football...especially the NFL. I think if you grew up playing the game from a young age and have a thorough understanding of it, it aids in the "pleasure" you get from watching the competitions. People always assume that all the players are driving truck loads of money home but really if you look at the salary breakdown, only about 6-8 players out of the 53 are raking it in. Hell simple math will tell you that 125 million dollare salary cap divided by the 53 players is only about a 2.5 million average but being that most qbs make 15-22 million a year and high skill position players make anywhere between 8-12 million. ...this means the majority of the roster is filled with guys pulling in 400k-800k per year. Google an nfl roster salary breakdown. ..you will be shocked that most of the guys aren't bringing home the bacon except for a skewed handful of high priced salaries and really that is indicative of most american capitalist corporations isnt it??? Ceo, cfo, pres, vp's, etc make an exorbitant amount of money compared to the brunt of the workforce. Then as a person posted earlier, the average career of an NFL player is 3-4 years and you dont have to be a rocket scientists to deduct really that only a small percentage of the NFL players are makin it hand over fist.
 
#165
Several hundred grand a year? Aww, poor things :p

In rugby it's pretty common to see professional players have real world qualifications behind them. More than a few medical doctors are in the top international teams (Geoff Cross [Sco], Jamie Roberts [Wal], Felipe Contepomi [Arg] for instance).

Heck, we had a long time player, played pro for 14 years (10 years playing internation ontop of that). When he retired from the game, he went back to his previous training, as a plumber.

Even if they are only working in the sport for a few years, what's to stop them working beyond that? Injury is only going to rule out a minority. Don't most players go into the NFL from the College circuit? Don't they have qualifications? Of course, they could always stay within the game and take to coaching etc.

Though I do agree that the money the suits make is exorbitant.
 
#166
It does amuse me when the limited career span of a sportsperson is used as a justification for their massive salary. It is actually possible to carry on working after stopping playing professional sports. An average wage after retriring from sport, plus ridiculous money for a few years before that - I think most people would think that's not a bad deal.

But while the teams charge big money to the fans, and the fans pay, the team owners can afford to pay these big salaries after taking their own sizeable cut. The only people with a right to complain are those who pay for their salaries - the fans - and they can act by refusing to pay up. But most won't

Disclaimer: despite my previous handegg dig, I do vaguely follow NFL, will be staying up for the Superbowl and taking the next day off work (it starts around midnight here) and am going to watch the Cowboys versus Jaguars at Wembley in November.
 
#170
OP: I'm indifferent to major league sports. I have no personal time to spend watching or following, not really that interested in seeing a game played by different people repeatedly. It's not like I am going to pick up "game" from watching them like I might from watching another bass player. :) But I have enjoyed playing most of the games. I prefer watching boxing and individual sports over team sport. Sometimes I resent sports fans when their interest causes me trouble/issues. But there are certainly worse things that people could be doing. DS4DF - different strokes4 different folks.
 
#172
i_got_a_mohawk said:
. . . I have to disagree with the point about it being only a handful of people who can do what they do and by extension your mention of how you could be replaced by another "drone".

Think of all the players who are out there in semi-pro leagues, amateur leagues, college teams and high school teams. The absolute standard of some of those players isn't going to be far off that of the current standard of pro. You have a feeder system, which has 10's of thousands (probably more) players involved. All the pro system does is skim the best of those players from the top so there will always be someone else to take the place of a Pro who leaves. I think you'd have to cut a long way down through that feeder system before it would have any negative impact on the NFL and it's viewership.
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I 100% disagree with your assertion. In my experience, I've seen quite a few professional minor league players (in various sports) who are among the very best in their league and then go on to play in the majors - and suck at it.

Just going by the statements of a few of my friends who play professional hocky and baseball, I understand that it's common for the top players to get called up to the majors and then fail to perform. A player who gets 40 goals in a season playing in the minors might be lucky to score a single goal in the NHL. Someone batting a phenominal.500 would be ecstatic to hit .200 in the majors.
 
#173
As far as the obscenely high salaries go, while I personally think it's crazy that people get paid that much for what is essentially running into each other and tossing a ball around (i.e., these people aren't curing diabetes or engineering a better space shuttle), at the end of the day, they are creating value for a bunch of other people who profit from these people. Fans aren't showing up to see Team X because of the team's owner.

:| <--- Dead-pan smilie, since this post has a very Unrepresented vibe to it.
 
#175
hbarcat said:
I 100% disagree with your assertion. In my experience, I've seen quite a few professional minor league players (in various sports) who are among the very best in their league and then go on to play in the majors - and suck at it.

Just going by the statements of a few of my friends who play professional hocky and baseball, I understand that it's common for the top players to get called up to the majors and then fail to perform. A player who gets 40 goals in a season playing in the minors might be lucky to score a single goal in the NHL. Someone batting a phenominal.500 would be ecstatic to hit .200 in the majors.
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Of course pro players aren't all to the same standard, but my point was more that there'll be a top tier there, there always will. Those players in the Majors, who are at the top of their game, didn't start there. The standard of the top tier will always vary and it won't have a massive impact on the fans support of a team (not talking about a single team dropping relative to the rest, more the absolute quality of the top teams as a whole).

Also as someone who knows players who have moved about in different sports and has played with players of various standards.
 

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