The NFLPA Can Barely Feed Its Starving Children

Don’t we all feel bad for professional athletes? Really, isn’t this one occupation that has given us so much and asked for so little? And when they ask for more money for their labours, shouldn’t we indulge them? Don’t they deserve another property in The Bahamas, another mistress, another dog fighting compound?

This is the state of the NFL right now: the Player’s Association has called a lockout, in the face of threats of a pay cut. I mean, the idea of a pay cut to a pro athlete’s salary is despicable. Do you know how much the property tax is on a mansion? And let’s not forget that lots of these players have drug habits to tend to. Shit, they should get a pay increase.

Obvious sarcasm aside, it really is too bad that this is something forced on us again and again: pro athletes making clear the fact that their passion is not with the sport they excel in, but with the money this excelling makes them. Cynics like me put one more notch in the belt, but this message is surely bad for children. What does a twelve year old who loves the game, an aspiring quarterback, think about his hero Peyton Manning refusing to play unless overpaid to do so? Sadly, this child probably thinks this is only fair, and that heroes are measured by how large their paycheque is.

No question, part of the issue is that the players are probably being screwed by corporate bitches. But that’s not the way it looks from the outside looking in. It just sucks that what’s being tampered with here is akin to an art: its validity is severely compromised by money becoming the ultimate question. After all, part of a player’s appeal is not just their skill, but the notion that they have some love of the game, just as we don’t view a beautiful painting with admiration because it’s a work of perfectly straight lines and perfectly round circles, but because it is the work of a passionate soul.

That’s what’s at stake here. I feel bad for anyone who’s asked to take a pay cut. In theory. I feel less bad when the person being asked makes enough money in a week to have me killed without anyone ever knowing. I love my football, but the entire NFL is making itself look bad right now. Alas, this is the state of modern professional sports.