Date Posted: 20th Nov 2006 at 2:19 AM
While getting prepared for my much needed vacation, I found myself sifting through Yahoo's newswire. I came across an article that stirred up my long dormant ire about pro sport player salaries. (For those interested the aticle is
here).
I don't even want to get into the social commentary aspect of player salaries in comparison to us everyday human beings. We all know they get paid well beyond the scope of rational thought.
That's a given.
Since we've accepted that these athletes get paid obscene amounts of money, I want to address the Big Three - Baseball, Football (American) and Basketball. Now I know pro basketball and baseball supporters will try and burn me at the stake for the claims I'm about to make, but so be it. I've never been one to hold my opinion back.
Without a doubt in my mind, football is the BY FAR the more physically and mentally demanding sport of the three. *ducks shots*
I don't say this from an Armchair Quarterback's perspective. I used to play... and I was damn good. Unfortunately injury prevented me from going further than I did, but I learned an awful lot in that time span. It taught me that in football your career can be over just as quickly as it got started. That concept alone should garner a higher payrate than any baseball or basketball player.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not taking anything away from baseball and basketball players. They ARE pure athletes (unlike golfers...*ducks shots again*). I'm just saying in regards to the enviorment of play, the level of contact, severity of the injuries, pure physical strength and mental endurance required football players should be the ones having these $136 million dollar contracts.
It's disturbing that a NBA league minimum contract for a free agent player with NO experience rings in somewhere at about 470k. The league minimum for a free agent NFL player isn't even 180k. Where's the justice in that?
I dunno... maybe I'm just biased because of my playing experience. Maybe if I played at the same level in baseball or basketball, maybe I'd have more respect for the wages they get paid.
Regardless...for some reason getting paid $136 million to hit a round ball with a round bat somehow doesn't seem right. Maybe if I had a few more drinks it'd seem right....