Wrong.

"The team" = the organization, it' has owners, and management represents them and their will.

Players are employees of a team, they are not the team. Pedantic fail.

I think for this instance I'm considering the "team" as the ppl on the field. Eventhough the management have a big part in what happens with the players and coaches, the commradery I was talking about seemed to go mostly through the the ppl on the field.

Okay, I get it now. I'd agree with you, then. That was matter of miscommunication. You are being quite the [censored] about it, though. Nice.

Having played football (4 touchdowns in a single game for Polk High! *does a pose with a football*), I certainly understand what you're talking about, but that to me is also a bit overblown. Camaraderie is a must for players to retain their jobs, it's part of the type of synergy that produces a winning team. Teams that lose fall apart, lose fans, lose attention, which translates to less money, for everyone. While players play football (we'll use this since it was in your OP example) for the fun of it to begin with, and need to like it to go through what they do to get to the NFL, in the end they still are simply employees of a team and their bottomline matters to them just as much as the team's (i.e. the owners and their representative management). I don't see Brees any more greedy than someone wanting a raise for carrying a significantly greater weight for, say, a corporate department. What Brees doesn't get, and since he has a ring probably doesn't care about even if he does get it, is that the NFL is capped so he's taking away from the team paying someone else which means they have to pay a less talented player for a position which might end up hurting his chances later. Make no mistake, though, the Saints have their own bottomline to look after, and if they feel Brees takes up too much of the pie and hurts the team's chances, they'll aptly get rid of him. Part of the gamble for any professional sports team is weighing cost-effectiveness. No teams know better than the small market ones who constantly lose star players due to the inability to pay for them.

i completely understand what you're saying....and almost agree. But, football for example, is different. The employees (players and coaches) have direct teamwork. It's not like creating a chart and giving speech at a meeting and then everyone does their job. Drew Brees actually physically and directly relies on those offensive linesmen to have his back or he could have no more career.

The players have to, on the spot, rely on the coaches to call the right plays. All that is direct. It;s a little more personal and hands on than say someone in an office.

I dunno, it's late and I might not be making complete sense of what I'm trying to say.

He destroyed the passing record that no one thought would ever be broken, in addition to pretty much turning the Saints into a SuperTeam. Some players with outstanding careers will use this as leverage when it comes down to contract renewals.


Years passed - players were all about having that Franchise tag, but times have changed. If you don't have the money they want, then they will go elsewhere. I do understand how you feel though, it is this kind of thing that is the reason why, football is the last sport I take seriously and even then my interest is waning. The NBA and MLB is really bad with this.

No, what I don't get are the people who like sports. Bunch of lunatic fanatics who put athletes on pedistals. Why tgese people get millions of dollars to play sports is well beyond me. The same could be said about movie stars. I just don't get it.

Society has to have someone to look up to -- to mythologise, if you will -- and who better than the jocks and the pretty people? (Obviously, the smart and capable people would be better. But for reasons we won't go into here, that hasn't been the case for... oh, 50 years. Times may be changing, though. )

ROLL TIDE! Just kidding I like auburn more.

I sincerely hope so.

I'm not into football really, although it's always fun to go to the local when the World Cup is on. It's just a good atmosphere for me, the sport is incidental. I love watching people play pool or snooker - that stuff is mesmerising to me, especially trick shots. I like to play pool but I'm useless at it. Doesn't help that when I look down the cue I'm looking over my glasses so can't see well. I need to get some Dennis Taylor glasses. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081126184554/uncyclopedia/images/a/a3/Dennis_taylor.jpg
I thought that it wouldn't be too high paying, but I wiki'd it and apparently they can have multimillion pound careers too.

It's all relative. Do you have a particular allegiance to the company you work for? If another one offered you more, would you jump ship? Most would, it's the same in Football. There are a few loyal players, but at the end of the day, their career could be over tomorrow, so I don't blame them for trying to get as much pay as quickly as possible. They're supremely talented athletes, they're not like normal people, that's why they don't get paid like normal people.

I used to say its nothing more than greed, but what a lot of people dont understand is the players self worth is based on how much they make compaired to the next guy. Yes its silly but to them its not. Drew is one of the top 5 elite quarter backs in the NFL so he should demand top dollar. However, to the average joe who makes little to nothing busting his hump every week has a reason to be angry too. It shouldnt be at the players, but at the system itself imo.

He's not asking for 5 million a year. That'd be half of what he made the past 6 years The talking heads are reporting the team and Brees are 5 million apart. The contract is going to be in the 18-20 mill a year range. And it is not guaranteed money, BTW. And really, who can blame him? He's basically been the best QB in last 6 year span on a $60 mill contract, and seen other QB's like Vick get a $100 mill contract, or Bradford get $50 mill guaranteed, or Kolb get $64 for 5 years, or the Mannings, etc etc etc... So market value-wise...

The thing with football players, or any professional sport for that matter, is that the players are the product the leagues sell. You are going to pay a Drew Brees not just based on his performance on the field (which even if so in the case of Brees, that'd have to be a lot, no?) but also based on the money his name and likeness are going to bring in, in the way of marketing, TV revenue, merchandising, etc.

And remember, NFL players are a hit away from the end of their careers, on an already short average career or 3 years, and their medical bills will pile up as they age.


Oh, and BTW, Go Tigers! The real ones! So I hate you too

The rest of your points are valid. It should be pointed out that the players probably don't pay for their sport-related injuries.

Part of the issue is that there's so much money floating around the industry, and little of it is technically "deserved", if you want to get into who contributed what. There are millions of dollars available because millions of people buy tickets. Who gets it? The team owner, who isn't directly helping win games, and already gets a large share? The stadium, who already got their portion per sale? A lot of people will idolize the star athletes, for whatever reason, and watch the game specifically to watch them. That money goes to them, because they're the ones drawing in a lot of it in the first place. Even if their records aren't much better than another player, if they have a famous name, a team will pay big bucks to acquire them, so that those viewers will throw more bucks in that direction.

It's like acting. A famous celebrity will probably be a better actor than the bit players, but are they ten thousand times better? Not likely. Their famous name is what draws those viewers to spend millions of dollars on them, though, so they get those millions of dollars while the other actors struggle for work. It's not really "fair" or "deserved", but that's how business works; you throw the extra money at whatever will give you even more extra money.

Isn't that the backbone of capitalism?

Depends on how you think of the players, as suppliers or supplies.

The backbone of capitalism is competition. On one hand, if the players are considered suppliers of their skills, competition prevents them from making as much as they can because if they ask for too much another player will be hired instead. On the other hand, as a supply of talent the sports teams compete amongst themselves to offer the highest price, which increases what they can make. I'd say the supply of players sets a cap on how much they can expect, while demand for their particular skill keeps the price near that cap.

I wouldn't say capitalism is all about getting as much as you can because you can. It's about taking advantage of supply and demand for short-term profit, in case of changes in long-term market. In this case that change in the long-term would be the players getting old and crappy.

Most of you rationalizing it are right. Drew Brees deserves the money. The NFL is like any other company where it's business. But thats my point. It's just business.

If you like a college team, theres more of a chance that those players love that team as well and will stick with that team if possible. With the exception of that player breaking the rules or not getting enough playing time. Those things effected the alleigience after the fact.

Does anyone see what I'm saying? I dunno...it just seems so empty.

To everyone who's replied to me:

Okay, okay, I can see I've struck a nerve here. I should have put a bit more thought into that post.

I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with sports. In the past I've played organized soccer for years, I've taken martial arts, and currently I bike. Exercise is healthy, and I try to get it. Playing video games and playing sports can be compared. But I don't think that playing video games and watching sports can. Whether you view games as repetitive or not is irrelevant: you're still doing something. But when you're watching professional sports you're watching total strangers play the game for you. That's where I don't understand the appeal. Why not play them yourself?

As for watching game videos: I don't, for the same reasons as above. I'll occasionally watch a review before buying a game, or a commentary because of the commentator's direct interaction with the audience. But I don't generally watch just for the game.

And finally, I don't think I'm speaking from ignorance. I may be disagreeably opinionated, but the last thing I want to do is discourage someone else from doing something they enjoy. I just don't understand it.

I'll stay with my job til I retire, and I wouldn't jump ship for more money because..often when that happens, your hours get slashed 2 weeks later at your new job, and then you're fired =/.

String him up, tar and feather him!!!

Pro athletes get payed entirely too much money, but the money does have to go somewhere. I'll admit, it is greedy for Drew Brees to demand so much money, but I think there are other factors. Obviously his agent has a huge say in the contract talks, and he's trying to set the market and beat the market for QBs. The more money he can make Drew Brees, the more money he makes, and the more clients want him as their agent. It's big business. Plus, athletes get thrown into a new way of life, they get used to having loads of money and having everything they want, and that just drives the greed. At the same time though, he has a family, and the economy isn't that great right now, he's got a right to secure his and his families futures; anyone doing a job has a right to be secure.

Still, I don't like how it went down. It's greedy any way you look at it.

Because they're the best at that sport. People enjoy watching excellence. Seeing someone be really good at something is entertaining. Pro athletes can perform in ways that normal people can't.

I really don't think you've thought any of your argument through. It's pretty nonsensical.

Watching Messi dance around every player, or Ronaldo (the Brazilian, and in his prime) cannonball through the defense is/was beautiful. Can't understand how you can't see why most of the world enjoy people excelling at sports.