I read a story online earlier today about MLB and the baseball commissioner re-opening talks about union representation. And there’s been some media attention recently to the “plight” of former pro athletes who now need soup kitchens and free nursing home care to survive. And this thought came into my brain: “Not ALL of these guys are pissing away their salaries on dogfighting schemes and defense lawyers – doesn’t professional sports pay better than, say, teaching English to a bunch of spoiled high school ‘graduates’?”
So I looked up the salary schedule for NFL athletes, figuring that was somewhat representative of pro athlete pay. Here is what I found. Gillis Wilson, sixth in the depth chart at defensive tackle for the North Carolina Panthers, makes damn near 200 thou a year. God damn! That is five times what I make! If I made $190,000.00 a year, you can bet your ass I’d be socking at least $90,000 of it into mutual funds, every fucking year! And all I’d have to do is be better than the seventh-best punk-ass college kid who walks on during spring training!
Can somebody please explain why in the hell these guys need unions!?
They need Unions to get a reasonable share of the gigantic pie that is Pro-Sports in America. Football, Baseball & Basketball and to a lesser extent Hockey bring in huge amounts of money. If I recall correctly, the MLB earned $6 Billion this year.
Sadly the Unions don’t do a great job of helping older and injured players and the NFL is particular notorious in this area. Mike Ditka is leading efforts against the NFL and their corrupt pet union to change things. NFL player live a much shorter average life than the general public. Many are left crippled and broken by the time they are 50. These men make a lot of money for a brief period of time and do not have enough help in managing their money and preparing for what future they have.
Thankfully, for all its other faults, the Baseball Union does a far superior job advising and helping their players in need and in general.
The heart of your post, as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure I have no concept of the mindset of a seventh-string defensive tackle, but wouldn’t preparing for the future be at least somewhere inside the helmet?
Honestly, in many cases, it is these borderline players that make better life decisions and investments. If they end up out of football for just not being good enough and not being crippled, they will have invested their short years of very good but not spectacular earnings into a house they can afford and have positioned themselves in the business world or as a coach in a high school or college.
I met and got (bad & useless) training from a guy that spent 3 years as a backup lineman on the Dallas Cowboys. His name was unremarkable, but he made enough contacts to land a decent job when his short career dried up. He thought he might have been able to hang on another year or two when he got cut, but decided he was leaving with a small nest egg and his health. He sold insurance for a short time and then became a quality system trainer. He had successfully peddled this verbal snake oil for 12 -13 years when I met him.
It seems like it is more often the 22 year old that gets the huge contract that totally screws up and blows all his cash or the poor soul that got a debilitating injury and cannot work after loosing his pro-football job that end up destitute.