Football season is upon us and everyone is gearing up to cheer for their favorite team. As always, you have the pre-season hype going about who’s the best and worst team, what veteran is calling it quits, and who’s holding out. When Fall Season rolls around, you can literally smell the pig skin in the air. It just feels like rough and tough road ahead to make it through the winter. Nothing warms the heart more during that time than to see your team win the Super Bowl. Seems you forget all your troubles and you have bragging rights for the year until the next season begins. Your social circle has to bear the brunt of your words talking about your favorite team. I, myself, am an avid fan but I’m not a fanatical. I guess I look at real life too much to really get into the rigors of my favorite team. I don’t know stats of players. I don’t know the teams winning percentage through the years. I can only tell you how many championships they’ve won. Funny thing is I’m not even from the state my favorite team plays. Everyone asks how that had happen and my reply has always been, because of the colors I started following the team and became a fan because of their tenacious defense. I know you’re trying to figure it out now and I won’t let you off the hook. I’m not here to talk about my favorite team. I’m here to talk about professional athletes in general.
Through the years, media has been allowed to places and report on things we didn’t know about in the early years of professional sports. You never heard about contract disputes. Nowadays, it’s all you hear about, nothing positive about other players who are donating to children organizations or teams adopting a wounded veteran to come in and sit the sideline to coach a game. I guess it’s because media is trying to reach the player and make them understand that your issues are not even close to the problems of the average American who spends an ungodly amount of money supporting you. Less than one percent of Americans play professional sports. Kids these days spend their days dreaming of one day, paying in front of millions of people emulating their favorite star while they play the game they love. Game they love huh? I heard one professional athlete proclaim, “I love this game and will do anything to play it.” Really? Then why was this very same player complaining about he’s not being paid enough so I’m holding out until they redo my contract? My response when I heard this you might ask? YOU PLAY A GAME!!! Are you kidding me?!! Everyone’s argument to this seems to be; well the owners are making money so why can’t they get some of that? Good point to the argument. But he is playing A GAME. Is it real work? Give me a break. He’s got to study because of all the complex offensive and defensive schemes they run. Wow….that is soooooo difficult. Here are the two key elements of being a professional athlete. 1. Instincts 2. Agility. Let’s really boil it down. Think back to when you were a kid. For some of us, like me, shouldn’t be too hard since I already act like one anyway. Was it that difficult playing the game you loved? Can you imagine getting paid to do only that? I am getting paid better than 80 percent of Americans to play a game. Please, professional athlete, reconsider your position of not being paid enough. I do feel sorry for the injuries as a result of your professional game and you should be compensated for those injuries but I will not feel sorry for your paycheck.
Draft day come for your favorite team and I used to follow that until some of these so called athletes held out because they wanted a bigger contract. WHAT?!!! You haven’t even proven yourself at the professional level yet. Greed is going to take this game into bankruptcy. This is what professional athletes fail to see. They are affecting the fan base when they ask for all this big money. Regardless of what you believe, the owners are going to get theirs because they know, the fanatical will support. I looked at tickets for a professional football game and the seats were the 50 yard line halfway up the stands. These tickets cost $350. Guess I’m not going to see that game where my favorite team was playing. I can just as nicely watch it from my couch. I started to purchase the Sunday Ticket until I saw the end price. I was thinking, wow what a deal; $65 for the Sunday ticket. Yeah right, I was totally lost on that one. That’s what you pay over a period of 4 months. You do the math. A sport is not THAT important. A lot of my friends have that and I’m sure some of you reading this have it to. You go. I can think of a lot of things I’d rather spend money on that I can actually claim to be mine and see it year round. Learn to separate a want and a need. I don’t need the Sunday ticket to survive life and that’s for sure. With the way things are going, we’ll be paying to see Sunday highlights on ESPN pretty soon. Guess what America? You will buy it. Guess where this all boils down to; the professional athlete demanding more money which in turn drives the price up on other things affecting the consumer. Get a grip world. We treat athletes better than God in this country. We let our kids fantasize when they’re playing their favorite game of being that athlete. I overheard my daughter talking amongst her friends one day while they were playing a game. All the other kids were calling out famous people they wanted to be like. My daughter told them, I’m going to be like my Dad because he does cool stuff. I started laughing. It’s comforting to know she is grounded and that there’s nothing she cannot accomplish with hard work. She even asked why athletes are so greedy. What do you know about greedy I ask, you’re only eleven? She responds with because I look at the cars they drive and the starving kids in America could use the money they spent on that car. Of course my mouth dropped hearing this because my daughter is a clown like me but pays attention to her surroundings.
Athletes and their paychecks have gotten way out of control. There’s more to life than a game and you should really appreciate the fan base that supports you. It shows you don’t care when the ticket prices go up because of your negotiations. Everything is affected by your actions when it comes to fan base support. When you’re out on the town, we treat you with royalty and stand with jitters just to get a photo of you. Well the fanatical does. I could care less if you’re standing next to me. You’re just another American who gets paid a lot more money than I do. Looking at it, I guess the true answer is money is power and those who worship it, could care less about who they step on to get it. When you see those kinds of dollar signs, I guess it’s hard to feel what you’re stepping on. It’s just a game and it’s full of people who haven’t grown up. I’m not going to lump every athlete in this category because there are a lot of awesome athletes in the world who give their time to worthy causes. To them, I give you my best military salute and a hearty drive on. As I used to tell Soldiers when they did an awesome job, keep pushing big time and make it happen. Thanks for stopping by and checking me out today. Remember, this is just MY opinion. I’m just sayin!!!
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