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Alright I’ve put a lot of thought behind this, well actually I was doing a lot of drinking and this story just happened to be dominating the news at the time. Whether we want to really think about it or not, this whole CBA thing is going to affect us all. I personally don’t think it is going to be pretty. Seriously I can’t see Al Davis embracing the idea of giving the “help” more of “his” money. He still has a hard time dealing with the decision to let black players in the league in the first place. I think until last year they had to ride a different team bus and to this day he refuses to put grape soda in any of the vending machines at the Raiders training facility.

Let’s look at what kind of money we are talking about here. Since the NFL is a private company, they keep their books locked up tighter than Lindsey Lohan’s grip on stupidity and that kind of makes it difficult to get a clear picture. I think for the sake of this discussion, let’s just say the average NFL team makes about a shitload on an annual budgeted basis. This is a fact of life. The original owners took a gamble that this “game” could become a profitable venture and they were right. They could just have easily been wrong. Just ask John DeLorean. What seems like a really good idea on paper, or during a coke fueled bender might actually lead you to financial ruin. Oh…yeah, that’s right you can’t ask DeLorean he’s dead. Much like Jamarcus Russell’s career with all same drama and crying but without the cool looking underpowered gull wing cars.

According to National Football League’s Player Association the average earned income per player is $1,800,000 with a base salary (yes I said base salary) of $990,000 per year. The NFLPA also reports that the average NFL player’s career lasts 3.6 years. The United States Census Bureau reports that the annual earnings of the average American is about $46,000. Now I’m not good at math (wink) but in that 3.6 year career the player would have earned $6.48 million dollars. It would take the average American wage earner 141 years to earn that amount of money. For the sake of argument, let’s say they NFL player played for the Jaguars and only earned his base salary every year and never even sniffed a bonus. They would still amass $3.564 million dollars in the same 3.6 year period. Bringing that number down to Earth, Johnny Lunch Pail would earn the same amount in just over 77 years.

I’m not defending the owners here, but that is a damn good living. I have the benefit of a very good education and I’ve worked very hard over the years for all I’ve got and I’ve never even come close to earning that kind of money. Hell I’ve never even been in the same ballpark, let alone zip codes of income like that. This isn’t a master/slave relationship here. No one is making them play the game. I have a hard time feeling sorry for the players at all. You hear them talking about the toll on their bodies and the sacrifices they make. Try working in a coal mine for a while. These people abuse their bodies all year round in a horrible environment for fractions of pennies on your dollars while you bitch that the water in the whirlpool isn’t 105 degrees.

Well I’m sure I just got kicked off several Christmas card lists for that little outburst, but that is how I feel. And to be completely honest (because I’ve been in and out up until here) I really don’t need the uber paid celebrity football player on the field for me to enjoy the game. Would I miss people like Peyton, Dallas, Reggie, Dwight and Gary? You bet I would, but would I stop watching football altogether because the superstars weren’t out there? In a word, no. In two words, hell no. I enjoy the game. High school football is really fun to watch and those guys don’t get paid to play, well unless of course you’re talking about Carmel or Franklin Central. The players need to realize that they have it pretty good and that the average employee is never going to make as much as an owner.

I am all for supporting the home team, I’ve been doing that since 1984 and I will continue to watch the game I love whether number 18 is worn by Peyton Manning, Billy Jack Ticklefish or a trained chimpanzee named Mr. Fuzzykins. Oh, just think of all of the personal foul flags that would be thrown (as well as the feces) if they lined up two squads of chimps. It’d be just like a night at Charlie Sheen’s house, just substitute hookers for the chimps.

You have it pretty good players. There are literally millions of guys out there dying to step into your endorsement laden shoes and take the ball and run with it. I really don’t think the owners are trying to “screw” you like you think they are. As my grandmother used to say, “Count your blessings, not your Bentleys.”

So sayeth the Meanie