I agree. Everyone should boycott the NFL until they do something about this horrible travesty.
This is rookie hazing pure and simple. What are the NFL rules on hazing and if they exist they should be enforced.
No, obviously what I’m proposing is very different from that. A pension is nothing like an investment program.
If someone offered me a $500k job with the stipulation that they’d get to punch me in the dick, I’d take it.
I’d still think mandatory dick punching should be stopped though. Not really a difficult concept.
No MMA career for you then.
Like a 401k plan that they already have?
Sure, but:
- in this case the job involves playing football, not buying people dinner.
- why the middle man? Just pay the player $487k and, as the employer, spend the $13k directly buying the others a meal.
No matter how ‘trivial’ the sum seems, it’s still represents a sum that is a major portion of a first year teacher’s salary. The NFL wants to encourage responsible money management among players. This sort of thing is antithetical to that drive.
Strange, I wasn’t aware that paying for dinner was mandatory. Is that like, in their contracts, or part of the Union agreement?
I don’t really know what the NFL or the teams can do about this. I’m sure there’s very much a snitches get stitches attitude on NFL teams so even if these dinners were banned, they’d still happen. And, NFL coaches aren’t like college coaches, they don’t really have the ability to punish players by having them sit a half against West Arkansas State or whatever.
I’m sure even during the rookie financial education forums, the players are on their phones and dreaming of everything they’re going to buy.
Not the only stipulation, now, is it. Comes with risk of significant injury, including brain injury. Also comes after dedicating your life to even getting to that point where any kind of offer is made, often to the exclusion of building skills that could provide a living after the NFL chew you up and spits you out. Now, that is a choice, and n my opinion a poor one, but the notion that 500k is easy money when made by an NFL rookie is ridiculous.
“Oh, well, he has/makes more money than me so fuck what happens to him” is an unappealing line of reasoning.
But most important, hazing has no place in adult society, and often the biggest hazers are the ones who earned the right (if such is even possible) the least.
Hey, I’m a Giants fan… don’t tempt me.
:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Coaches and staff still have considerable power over players. They can threaten to sit a player (though that’s really rare, especially if a player is critical to the team’s success), but they can fine them. That’s how they’ve managed to eradicate a lot of preseason hazing, or at least limited it to the trivial (i.e. carrying the veterans’ bags, singing a song before video reviews, providing snacks for the team or squad, etc.). They could very easily levy fines that would stop this immediately.
No, it’s more like “He makes $500,000 a year. I really don’t care about one measly dinner. Boo Hoo”
I mean, that’s really it. Can’t believe that people here are really worried about a guy who makes $500,000 a year having to buy one $13,000 dinner.
You know he will have to pay almost $200,000 in taxes, right? Probably should worry about that more if you think he deserves any sort of worry.
No, we’re worried about the hypocritical silence from the NFL on an issue that they pretend to say they care about. As many have pointed out, the NFL has rookies go through financial responsibility programs and classes, then turns a blind eye to their veteran players pressuring rookies to be financially irresponsible.
So you bitch at people for suggesting that the NFL create some sort of self-funding deferred compensation retirement program, and THEN bitch at them for not worrying about their tax situation enough? Someone got a Jelly of the Month Club membership from work instead of that big year-end bonus, didn’t they?
I don’t see this as being taken to the cleaners. You or I might see a $10,000 bill and realize we might have to sell a vehicle or take out a loan to cover something like that.
But, 10,000 out of $5,000,000? That’s like an average person that makes $50k per year (or getting a 50k bonus) having to spring for a $100 dinner. It’s not going to break you.
I also assuming they’re not being forced to do it so it doesn’t rise to the level of hazing.
I could see this being a bigger issue if, say, when the rookie signs, someone steals his credit card and then the team goes out for dinner. Ignoring for a moment the legal implications of it, the $10,000 tab is being forced on him.
I’m shocked that the NFL is hypocritical and really only cares about wringing every last dollar out of treating players like slaves with no regard for their personal or financial well-being. When did this start?? :rolleyes:
You gonna stop watching football because of it? (if you do watch football)
This is a strange statement because nowhere have I “bitched” at people for suggesting something that the NFL already has.
While we’re at it, we should really do something about the guy that drinks two beers that someone else paid for, then “has to hit the road” before buying a round. In fact, I think this is more important than the football dinner thing.
You sound exactly like the “if you don’t like the country then live somewhere else” crowd.
You can enjoy a sports organization and still criticize aspects of the way it is run. You’re implying that anything other than a boycott is hypocrisy. That’s childish.
I don’t believe anyone has expressed anything resembling shock that the NFL is full of shit and doesn’t entirely have their players’ best interests at heart.
Doing/saying nothing or enacting a complete boycott aren’t quite the only options here. I’m going to be a rebel and walk this razor thin gray line of “attempt to have a civil discussion on the internet about an issue I mildly care about this afternoon”.
The NFL has a 401k plan. That’s great, but a $19,500 annual contribution limit is pretty low (it won’t even pay for 2 dinners with you and your friends from work!).
The NFL has a player pension, paid for by the individual teams. This is also great, but not what I was talking about.
The NFL has an Annuity Program with both Qualified and Non-Qualified components, paid for by the individual teams. This is pretty nice, but it’s also not what I was talking about.
The NFL also has a Capital Accumulation Plan, which is a defined contribution plan. As you may have figured out, this is also not what I was talking about.
But since you keep saying that the NFL has a self-funded deferred compensation option, please - tell me all about it.