Pro Sports Salaries

Labor disputes? I thought this was sports?

Labor disputes? I thought this was sports?

By DAN HOEHNE

daniel.hoehne@newssun.com

Each week Sport Illustrated puts in a little blurb noting 'This week's sign that the apocalypse is upon us.'

I can only think that next week's sign was reached in the wee hours of Friday morning, when the NBA lockout officially commenced.

When the old collective bargaining agreement expired at midnight Thursday, with the sides apparently miles apart in their negotiations, the owners did what they said they would do, locked the players out and as of now, the business of professional basketball is closed.

So, at the moment, two of the top three professional sports leagues in America are not open for business due to labor negotiations.

Granted, it is the offseason for both the NFL and NBA, so in some ways it doesn't really matter.

But pro football is getting dangerously close to a time where things will be effected.

And we should be in the NBA's free agency signing period, which was one of the most intriguing parts of last summer.

It's kind of hard to get your mind around it, really.

At least people can identify with, or maybe it's better to say, can understand the plight of NFL players.

Sure, the top-tier guys make crazy money, but there are plenty who don't get the "set you up for a lifetime" contracts, or get injured too early and the non-guaranteed portion of the contract is never picked up.

For the vast majority of professional football players, there is little to no job security and the risk of a career ending injury around every corner.

An average career length of 3.5 years, I believe, was the latest number I saw, so it's understandable for the players union to want to get what they can in the short amount time they have.

Professional basketball players, meanwhile, have guaranteed contracts, make more, on average, and have longer careers.

They made out like bandits, as it turned out, with the just past CBA, and aren't willing to give much back.

They claim it's not their fault that the owners signed too many bad contracts and are now losing money because of that, combined with the bad economy.

But it's more like, the last collectively bargained agreement was set up with too many ways for the big contracts to be allowed.

Bigger market teams could afford to sign the often ridiculously long and costly contracts and pay the luxury tax.

The worth of the man | eLetters

This column on the exorbitant increases in pro athlete salaries was spot on. Krieger quotes John Beauparlant, who states we should “bring back the days when pro … players had to have a real job in order to play.”

I would go one step further. Professional athletes, at the time of contract negotiations, should be evaluated by a psychiatrist to see if the size of their egos crosses a certain threshold. If they do, they should then be sent temporarily (6 to 12 months) to “ego restructuring camp” to perform some less “ego-centered” jobs, such as working as a nurse in a nursing home or teaching at an inner-city school, etc., and be paid the typical wages for these positions.

It seems that nowadays much of the worth of our lives correlates to our salaries. So in this respect, the life of an athlete who makes $12 million per year is worth 300 times more than someone who makes $40,000. I disagree. Maybe one day, it will be realized among sports fans and athletes alike that the real idols are the ordinary citizens who make the world go round.

Shaun McCullough , Arvada