I have heard it all.
Though I can't say I'm surprised. It was only a matter if time.
"It's modern day slavery", Vikings RB Adrian Peterson claimed in an interview with Yahoo Sports.
It has come to this. Comparing being paid millions of dollars to play a kids game with the plight of a people caught, shackled, shipped like cargo, humiliated and displayed on that original market showroom, then sold to the highest bidder to perpetual servitude.
Now THATS perspective.
It's also why professional athletes will never win the batle of public opinion when it comes to work stoppages. Be it a strike or a lockout.
Owners are already seen as old, white, stiff ,egomaniacal billionaires with little or no public sympathy to begin with. From the ever-meddling ultra gaudy, everything BIG in Texas Jerry "bling bling"Jones to the ultra frugal LA Clippers' owner Donald Sperling. The one that charges the players for athletic tape. Nobody's going Johnnie Cochran for these ole boys.
Unless.
Unless a bunch of rich, pampered, overgrown, over partied, mega adored, 'roided up frat boys who's lone skill in life is to run fast or catch good do something which they should never be allowed to do.
Talk.
Cause when they talk, they say things like "we're thoudands of miles away from our families" or "we sacrifice our bodies". Or my personal fave, "if it weren't for the players, there wouldn't be a game". Opening up themselves to the average fourth grader's retort, "if it weren't for the game there would be no players".
They use terms such as "solidarity". Conjuring up memories of Poland's Leck Welesa standing on the walls of the Gdansk Shipyard leading an anti-soviet social movement. Then take part in public signs of "solidarity" by saluting themselves with the #1 sign before kick off. You know, frat boy stuff.
Or unless.
They do something brilliant like have someone on the brink of signing an estimated 60-70 million dollar contract sue the NFL to complain about anti-trust laws. Yeah, like the NFL being a monopoly has been so financially destructive to the players. Other poor, exploited plaintiffs in the suit are 100 million dollar Peyton Mannnig and 100 million dollar Tom Brady. "Well we also represent the players who make minimun salries as well", they will say. Right, cause the minimum salary for an NFL player rising to $340k in 2011 then $355k in 2012 is such a cross to bare. Poor guys. The average professional worker in America only has to work about 5 years to make the league minimum. So the average player career of 3.2 years equals 15 of the average professional's years. And that's the minimum. You know, the 53rd man on the roster, usually the guy wearing a backward Saints cap on the sidelines. Not bad work if you can find it. Besides, the Brees's, Mannings and Bradys of the world can donate portions of their salaries to those poor players down there at the bottom of the depth chart.
Let me say up front that I am an unapolgetic Ronald Reagan conservative. I believe the biggger the company, the bigger the tax break. I've never been a fan of labor unions. I always seem to side with the people who provide the jobs as opposed to the people who take the job then complain about the way they are treated, instead of just quittng and working for someone else who would hire their sorry ass.
I've been in three unions and the only thing I could count on was dues being deducted from my paycheck, everytime, without fail. I wacthed my union president give away benefit after benefit with each passing contract then spend my dues backing a political candidate I disagree with. Cause he's a "friend of labor" From auto workers allowed to smoke pot during lunch breaks to "make work" days at a grain elevator, I think unions have collectively bargained our country to the brink of financial ruin. But I do think unions have a noble cause. Protect the "little man" from the exploiting evil corporation. However,a good labor lawyer can be just as effective as any union. Just ask Curt Flood.
What the players don't seem to realize is they don't need to collectively bargain. What can they collectively bargian for that's not already covered in their mammoth individual contracts drawn up by their uber-agents. More time off? Better hours? Dental? Please.
The owners talk about opposing the negotiated percentage of revenue sharing with the players. But if you caught one of them in a weak moment, he'd tell you they actually love it. They know exactly how much their salary expenses are for years to come. Every owner spends the same, only spreads it out differently. It's like that holy grail of union accomplishments. The minimum wage. Corporations publicly rail against it while privately loving it. They know what every other McD's, Popeye's or Burger King is paying. "You mean I only have to start you off at this low rate?"
Which brings me back to the slavery comparison. The thing that is astronomically light years from the truth is that NFL players are like slaves.
They are incredibly well compensated pawns on that 100 yard chess board.
