In his defense, the M is sometimes used to denote thousand instead of million. However, it should have been pretty clear in this case that it meant million. There's no way the NFL would allow a franchise owner to only be worth $150,000 - they would have forced some kind of sale or other ownership arrangement.
If the NFL Players win
- Thread starter alaskaguy
- Start date
This whole situation is ridiculous. The name of the game is GREED! Even players making the NFL league minimum are picking up some nice checks that pay them more then the average American worker makes. Sorry players... as much as you want me to feel sorry for you for how you are "modern era slaves" (Thanks for that one Adrian Peterson) I will never feel sorry for you. While not all NFL players are millionaires they do make a pretty nice living. These guys aren't curing cancer here folks, they aren't helping to stop world hunger, etc... They are playing a freaking game. A game that they have willingly chosen to play even with the threat of serious injury, brain damage, etc... This is their chosen profession and if they don't like how it is run then they can quit. I don't really care.
The owners... I can somewhat understand their stance. They are running a business. Does the CEO of Nationwide insurance make decisions about what is best for his company? Yes. Does he decide what benefits he will provide to employees? Yes. Does he determine how much his employees should be paid based off the industry averages? Yes. He doesn't have to negotiate with his employees, he offers them employment and an opportunity to make a living. Does he want to put money in his own pocket as well? You better believe it. That is the beauty of being the owner. The same goes for the NFL... if the players don't think they get paid enough, get good enough benefits, etc... well then nothing is stopping them from walking away from making a couple of million dollars per year and going and getting a job at the local 7-Eleven or wherever.
At the end of the day the most important thing to remember is that the people with the real power in all of this are the fans. These NFL franchises only exist because of the fans purchasing tickets, buying their merchandise, etc... These players only get the luxury of playing a game and making millions because of the fans and the amount of money they drop into the pot. Maybe just maybe it is time for the fans to come together and threaten the players and the owners that if they don't get their **** straightened out immediately that we will all just walk away. The fans stop buying merchandise, stop buying tickets, etc... and both sides will come together real quick. Maybe it is time the fans/taxpayers who are forced to fund these new stadiums should be going to their local government and demanding their involvement. Threaten to stop tax payer funded payments for these gigantic stadiums that these "poor" franchises couldn't afford to pay for themselves. Do whatever it takes. I for one as a fan of the NFL will only become more angry with this whole fight the longer it continues. There are other options for my entertainment so I don't need the NFL.... well not nearly as much as the NFL needs me as a fan. People need to remember that.
The owners... I can somewhat understand their stance. They are running a business. Does the CEO of Nationwide insurance make decisions about what is best for his company? Yes. Does he decide what benefits he will provide to employees? Yes. Does he determine how much his employees should be paid based off the industry averages? Yes. He doesn't have to negotiate with his employees, he offers them employment and an opportunity to make a living. Does he want to put money in his own pocket as well? You better believe it. That is the beauty of being the owner. The same goes for the NFL... if the players don't think they get paid enough, get good enough benefits, etc... well then nothing is stopping them from walking away from making a couple of million dollars per year and going and getting a job at the local 7-Eleven or wherever.
At the end of the day the most important thing to remember is that the people with the real power in all of this are the fans. These NFL franchises only exist because of the fans purchasing tickets, buying their merchandise, etc... These players only get the luxury of playing a game and making millions because of the fans and the amount of money they drop into the pot. Maybe just maybe it is time for the fans to come together and threaten the players and the owners that if they don't get their **** straightened out immediately that we will all just walk away. The fans stop buying merchandise, stop buying tickets, etc... and both sides will come together real quick. Maybe it is time the fans/taxpayers who are forced to fund these new stadiums should be going to their local government and demanding their involvement. Threaten to stop tax payer funded payments for these gigantic stadiums that these "poor" franchises couldn't afford to pay for themselves. Do whatever it takes. I for one as a fan of the NFL will only become more angry with this whole fight the longer it continues. There are other options for my entertainment so I don't need the NFL.... well not nearly as much as the NFL needs me as a fan. People need to remember that.
- Mar 27, 2006
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They can also take the league to court, which has proven to be a much better tactic than quitting, so far.
It would be nice, but that's not going to happen. Fans have the potential to be powerful, but are very unlikely to mobilize that power. You might have some defection if games are lost, but most of them won't be gone long. Most will wait, like good little sheep, ready to wave their team's banner and put their favorite player's jersey the moment games are resumed. Just watch. Here we are in the midst of the crisis, and I can almost guarantee that the Draft will have it's best ever ratings. Saying that the fans need to come together is a nice sentiment, but it's not going to happen.
The anger towards the players is amusing. There is nothing wrong with negotiating for better pay. If you aren't doing this in your own career, then the joke is on you.
I think some of these players need to come to the realization that if it wasn't for football they would be pumping your gas, bagging your groceries, and coming to your house once a week to pick up your trash. In most cases football is their only option to make crazy amounts of money and without it they would be making a mere fraction of what they make per year just like the majority of Americans. They seem to forget just how lucky they are. Without football where would they be? No fame, no fortune, just average everyday Joe's like the rest of us. Talk about taking things for granted.... WOW.
I think some of these players need to come to the realization that if it wasn't for football they would be pumping your gas, bagging your groceries, and coming to your house once a week to pick up your trash. In most cases football is their only option to make crazy amounts of money and without it they would be making a mere fraction of what they make per year just like the majority of Americans. They seem to forget just how lucky they are. Without football where would they be? No fame, no fortune, just average everyday Joe's like the rest of us. Talk about taking things for granted.... WOW.
Really? So basically you've just dismissed the ability of every NFL athlete to do anything other than play football. What is it about the average football players that leads you to believe that had they not spent their entire lives training to become professional athletes that they could not have focused that energy elsewhere and been equally successful? That is quite a bold statement and I'd really like to hear how you can back it up.
Also, even if I were to concede to your ridiculous notion that all NFL players are nothing more than ignorant jocks, if the NFL did not exist it is very likely that many of these gifted athletes would've gone on to play other professional sports and be equally well compensated.
- Mar 27, 2006
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I think some of these players need to come to the realization that if it wasn't for football they would be pumping your gas, bagging your groceries, and coming to your house once a week to pick up your trash. In most cases football is their only option to make crazy amounts of money and without it they would be making a mere fraction of what they make per year just like the majority of Americans. They seem to forget just how lucky they are. Without football where would they be? No fame, no fortune, just average everyday Joe's like the rest of us. Talk about taking things for granted.... WOW.
This actually supports the player's case. If their alternatives are pumping gas and bagging groceries, and the average NFL career is 3.5 years, then why would you expect them to do anything but fight as hard as they can to get the best possible deal in their likely short time in the league? If I knew there was a 3-4 year window for me to make more money than I would at any other point in my life, and my options after this window closed fell off to minimum wage type jobs as you proclaim, I would fight like hell to guarantee that I squeezed every drop out of that opportunity.
You want me to feel sorry for these guys?
"The NFL's average salary for 2009 was $1.896 million, with a median of $790,000. Of the 118 players selected to the Pro Bowl (including replacements and non-participants), more than half carried contracts averaging at least $4 million a year, including 15 with averages of at least $10 million."
No, but I do not think you should feel so jealous. Nor should you collectively mock their ability to earn a living outside of football.
The argument that they already make millions and should just be happy is one born of jealousy, not logic. Or do you really feel it's not OK to negotiate a better situation for yourself based on how much money you already make? Be sure to let your employer know your stance before your next review.
No one's asking anyone to feel sorry for the players. But to imply that they should just take what's given to them because they're not good for anything but playing football or pumping gas is ridiculous.
They can do things that no one else on the planet can do. They're a scarce and valuable commodity and they're leveraging that fact to make more money. There's nothing wrong with that.
I don't think it supports the player's case at all. Their alternatives are their alternatives and it isn't anyone else's responsibility to help them make up for their potential loss of income once they are out of the NFL. Take an NFL owner and put him in the same position that the owner of the LA Dodgers is in? Do the players then have some sort of responsibility to bail out their owner who is going through a serious shortage of cash due to personal issues? I don't think so. The only thing those players are worried about is if their huge paychecks will bounce or not. IF the owner can't financially continue to run the organization then he will just be replaced and life goes on uninterrupted for the players.
Nobody's asking you to feel sorry for them. I don't really know where that is coming from. They are trying to get the best deal they can for their labor. Whether or not you think they have the right to is a different discussion. People in the general public also do this. If you're not, then I guess you either don't feel you're worth it or you are likely missing out.
They're not even negotiating for better pay. They're negotiating to keep the SAME pay that they were getting before. Some people really look over the fact that this isn't a player strike. It's a lockout.
Cyclonestate78: They play a game for a living, yes. They aren't curing cancer. But they bring in over $9 BILLION in revenue each year. I'm sorry, but they deserve a pretty big cut of that, since they are the ones generating it. If you don't like how much players get paid, then stop buying tickets, stop buying jerseys, stop watching the games on TV. If everybody stopped doing that, then these guys would go broke in a hurry.
They're just trying to keep their fair share, not take more. And if your boss told you to work more hours, for less pay, I'd bet you would be none to thrilled either, and would try to fight it if you could. It's not about the money per se. It's the principle, which is why the players will, and should, win this.
I don't think people here are seeing the point. The lockout is NOT about money. Both the owners and players were bringing in record revenues under the old agreement. This is almost entirely about power. The owners were unhappy with the fact that they didn't get everything that they wanted in the 2006 agreement (which is unavoidable in any bargaining negotiations) and because of that, they are trying to crush the union, just so they can let everyone know that they are the ones in charge. So, it's hard for me to get too angry at the players for not wanting to give in to the owners demands, since the owners are only doing this for their own egos.
- Mar 27, 2006
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It supports their legal case, I mean. One of the requirements for a court issuing an injunction to stop the lockout was for the players to show harm caused by the work stoppage. Your own argument that they are not qualified for any work beyond pumping gas combined with the average length of an NFL career pretty clearly shows that any lost work time does significant damage to their earning potential.
Clonestate78- I wouldn't use Frank McCourt of the Dodgers to try to gain sympathy for the owners. McCourt and his wife have basically been raping the team with outlandish spending, including a number of expensive homes and spending something like $300,000 on some kind of fortune teller. Owners generally want everything their way. They want to control incomes (except their own), get tv contracts that pretty much guarantee a profit no matter how the team does, and the government to build or give huge tax breaks for their stadiums. Funny how the same "free market" and "get the government off my back" guys will flip flop when it's to their benefit.
Here is my view of this whole thing. The fact that no one will just sit down and negotiate is very telling. Both sides are just holding a ******* contest. If a player is having financial problems right now it is their own damn fault. They have known that this was coming, they should've saved up.
Also, do many people realize that if the players win their case, football as we know if will probably go away. When teams can pay players what ever they please, you will have teams that won't pay much of anything to their players and it will be very hard for them to attract any free agents to their teams. There will end up being 5 or 6 absolutely dominant teams and the rest that meddle around in mediocrity.
The best resolution to this whole situation is for everyone to actually sit down and negotiate. Until then this will go absolutely nowhere.
Personally I hate both the players and the owners. While the country is in economic turmoil and there are many millions of people all over the world living in extreme poverty, these guys are arguing over billions of dollars. They both need a reality check.
Also, do many people realize that if the players win their case, football as we know if will probably go away. When teams can pay players what ever they please, you will have teams that won't pay much of anything to their players and it will be very hard for them to attract any free agents to their teams. There will end up being 5 or 6 absolutely dominant teams and the rest that meddle around in mediocrity.
The best resolution to this whole situation is for everyone to actually sit down and negotiate. Until then this will go absolutely nowhere.
Personally I hate both the players and the owners. While the country is in economic turmoil and there are many millions of people all over the world living in extreme poverty, these guys are arguing over billions of dollars. They both need a reality check.
They don't seriously want the salary cap gone. It's basic negotiating: aim high, because you know you'll come up short of where you're aiming. If they only asked for what they really wanted, they wouldn't come close to getting it.
When I accepted the job I currently have I knew exactly what my compensation and benefits would be. When I have had reviews I negotiate with my boss for my raise based on the structure that was set up by the owner of the company. If I don't like the raise I get then I can either A. Accept the raise that I was given. Or... B. Go seek another opportunity somewhere else. It is really that simple. That logic is the same if you make 30k per year, 100k per year, or 4 million per year. We live in a free market... we have the power to seek out any opportunities that we choose.
Tom Brady seems like a pretty smart guy... He chose to play football and he gets paid quite well to do so. I am sure he could have chosen to work in the business world instead but he would most likely be taking a huge pay cut. He chose to play football and in signing his contract he understood the compensation and benefits he would receive for doing so. He is under contract. If he decides he no longer likes his compensation or benefits then he can go find something else to do outside of football. Simple. You and I both know these guys aren't just going to walk away from the game though... What else are they going to do that will pay them nearly as much? No... instead they will try to tell their boss exactly how their pay structure should be, how their benefits should be, what their raises should be, how much work they should have to do, how much training they should have to do, what their job responsibilities will be, how their job performance should be judged, etc.... This isn't about their work, this isn't about being fair, this isn't about their job performance, etc... this is about the employee trying to tell the boss how things are going to be due to their inflated sense of entitlement. In this NFL dreamworld they live in that might work but in the real world their plan is an EPIC FAIL.