Anyone read this article on Yahoo this morning?
Thoughts...
Yahoo! Sports - Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and more
slug=ms-laborquestions090810
Anyone read this article on Yahoo this morning?
Thoughts...
Yahoo! Sports - Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and more
slug=ms-laborquestions090810
**ChiefsChick**
I'll play if it means I get health insurance and a guaranteed 6-figure contract!
I think that there will be football next season. Maybe not 16 games. But when the paychecks are not comeing in to the players and the owners are not makeing all there money. Both sides will get motivated to FINALY give something to the other side.
According to NFL.com, they're hoping to have something ironed out in November, but we'll see.
The average NFL player isn't making that much. And he is taking a huge phisical risk to his body, therefore life.
The players union isn't about the well-being of Drew Brees. It's about the well being of the avergae guy who hones his skill for a lifetime, and injury shortens that.
Guys like Drew Brees standing up for them is is very respectable.
16 games, or 18?
Well, are you cool with working six days a week, instead of five, for the same pay? And are you willing to risk your ability to walk for it?
I am going to side with the players every single time. As I know players who aren't millionaires. Does anyone, anywhere on earth, know an owner that isn't a billionaire?
I am no fool. I see right where the greed is.
I have a huge problem with this line by football players. I have friends that are Firefighters guys who also put there well being on the line when others would run away. They don't make half of what the players in the nfl make. The Lowest pay for a guy in his rookie year is over 200k You go tell the police and firefighters that playing a game of football is more dangrous then what they do. I understand the wanting of insurance and all that good stuff but they also want MORE MONEY. They want to take and give NOTHING.
As for the owners they should have given players health insuracne a LONG time ago. I agree. And yes the owners are just as greedy as the players. BOTH sides are being greedy and that's the problem. I hope things get worked out. But if they dont I won't feel sorry for one player or owner when I here how tough things are going for them. BOTH sides made there beds now they have to lay in them.
Just out of curiosity, how much money does the firefighting industry profit per year?
I agree that there is too much money going into The NFL. But, since we keep sending it there, instead of to our military, law enforcement and other emergency services, then someone is going to be keeping that money.
The only people to blame for the massive amounts of money that are going to The NFL is the fans. We actually made their bed, so-to-speak.
Now, you say that the owners are being just as greedy as the players.....
How many owners are leaving the league without ever seeing $1 million, and with a lifelong disability?
And to say "Just as greedy", when talking about guys who generally make ten times as much as the NFL's highest paid player, I think "just as greedy" may be a slight understatement.
One more thing....
It is more than just "playing a game". It is dedicating your life to that game, to become one of the best in the world at it.
It is playing a very dangerous game. The fact that someone else does a more dangerous job, will never change that playing football against the best in the world is extremely dangerous.
It is playing a game that has an average life expectancy that is over twenty years shorter than the national average.
We agree that there is far too much money going to The NFL.
But that is capitalism at work. The market has spoken.
Now the union, capitalism at work again, wants to stand for fair treatment, based on the income of the industry, for the people that are creating the consumer-base for those profits.
Not that I have sympathy for the Ray Lewis', Payton Mannings, or Tom Brady's of The NFL. But, with the amoutnt of money that the league is bringing in, I do not despise the amount that players are making.
And keep in mind that it was the owners who opted out of the CBA. And it is the owners who are threatening a lockout.
The players have not been making any demands... yet.
The average football player plays three years for about $1,000,000. Let's say $1,000,000 exact. 15% off the top goes to the player's agent. That leaved $850,000. Their federal taxation rate is 35%, and the average state taxation rate is 9%. The total after that is $476,000. Which totals $158,666 per year. Factor in cost of living, rookie hazing, and all of the rest, and they're making basically nothing their first contract.
And we're not factoring in long-term effects. Players who get dementia at age 40. Whose hearts explode from over-conditioning. Who have repetitive joint disorders and concussion syndromes.
No profession compares. There are 2,000 football players in the league. There are more rocket scientists walking the streets. These are guys who cannot be replaced due to their physical and mental capabilities. Lawyers, doctors, firemen, teachers - all worthy professions but they don't compare. And each and every player is a bad hit away from never being able to work again.
So when players are seeking not to work 12% more for no pay, seeking a better pension, and seeking some real health insurance, it's hard to say that they're in the wrong.
Not to mention that they *owners* opted out of the CBA and forced this whole issue. If there's a stoppage in 2011, they are 100% to blame.
What you say about the game being dangrous is true it is. SO WHAT. They CHOSE to play it.
There are alot of things you leave out.
1 FREE EDUCATION. MOST nfl players got to go to school for FREE or at least at a HIGH discount. That should provide them the abilty to set up life AFTER football. If they chose to blow through school that is there fault and no one eles. The players have a pretty nice life they just want more.
2. What other industruy do the employess gets a higher % of the money then the ownership?. For example I work for a major chain store. Ownership for that chain makes FAR more then what I as a employee does and it's not even close. The employee who like the players provides most of the service makes very little compared to those in ownership and managment. And because they CHOSE to play a game that should be diffrant? Ijust don't buy it. I don't no the excat number I just no that the players get more the 50% of the money that the NFL brings in. You make it sound like its just the owners Rolling in Money keeping the players down. It's not. It's BOTH sides.
The owners did opt out. But It's also the players REFUSEING to give an inch on there demands like the owners that is the players. If the players would be willing to give something back then it would be much easier. Likewise with the owners. It's going to take BOTH sides fianly giveing in and giveing something to the otherside to work things out. Not just 1.
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