So you are saying that unchecked false and unsubstantiated claims of racist white owners is good for football?? Its the EXACT OPPOSITE. Race baiting social justice warriors are the downfall of more than just the NFL. This forum and many other groups online are infested with hate talking racist claims all over regarding McNair and the NFL. I look for sports entertainment to escape BS politics and social justice crap. Yet, its everywhere I turn. ESPN, twitter, online sites, sports shows, forums, etc, etc... yet you back those wanting to continuously interject more? Yea, Im the downfall lol. If the Texans ever win it all I hope the non stop haters get far less enjoyment out of it than I will.
The race baiters here are not social justice warriors and social justice warriors are not race baiters. You demonstrate a poor understanding of these terms and the people you oppose. In fact, your hate spewing is indistinguishable from theirs. Race baiters here are single issue people, by definition not SJW.
Didn't take long to hear from one of CF's most obvious racist race baiters. Anyone who confuses this tragedy of a poster with an SJW doesn't know what an SJW is.
I’m 33, live in St. Louis, and consider myself fiscally and socially conservative. I and my friends love the NBA but have little regard for the NFL. Now I don’t know exactly what demographic you’re trying to hit with your SJW labeling, but in my mind there are many more of those people who follow the NBA and even baseball over football. The problem is not with the SJW demographic, it’s with the fading, triggered demographic holding steadfast to the sport they identify with, the sinking ship of the NFL that will slowly fade away in the decades to come.
I guarantee you there are plenty of fans who are pissed that Arizona let Honey Badger go and that Dallas let Dez go. But sure... woe is you player.
The thing is that these two things are not even remotely equivalent. When a player holds out, he violates his contract out of his own selfish interests. When a team releases a player, it is not a violation of a contract but is explicitly what teams must do to be competitive. Worse yet, in a salary cap world, when a player holds out for more pay he's actually violating his contract in order to take money from other players. Holding out isn't a "pro players" move, it's a "pro me" move, but then again this is Deion Sanders...
I was trying this thing where I try and relate to the opposing view and show them its not all what they think. But it rarely works, I agree with you.
Honestly, I've seen a lot of fans go at Mathieu but none going at the Cards. I'm sure there are some there who fault teams for letting players go but most of the hate is towards the players. Reality is the NFL is set up like this. Player signs a contract with a team. If the player outplays the contract, he holds out for a better deal. If the player underperforms, the team asks for a paycut or just cut the player. This is the deal both parties signed for. The team has as much right to cut the player (and pay the dead money) as the player to hold out (and pay the fine for missed practices). It just seems a little more harsh when a player is cut due to injury.
That piddly 500K would buy much in goodwill and moreso, and make this story vanish. It's not like Bob would miss the cash, he can just hike up beer prices by .01 next season.
This is what's so messed up about the NFL. The league needs a better way to address the short and long term risks to which players subject themselves. The answer is in a more equitable distribution of profits. Frankly, NFL organizations face no risk and reap most of the benefits. There is an endless supply of players and the public demand for the product will remain the same regardless who plays. The league benefits tremendously off the violence of the game, yet the players bear all the risk. Worse, they aren't compensated well in the scheme of things. The NFL should either guarantee larger portions of each contract, or at the minimum provide better post-career services for any player who makes it to the league. Most players dont' make life-changing money. The average career lasts just over (3) seasons. Players are left in the dust, and most without formal education or post-career training to do anything else, simply by virtue of how much is required to even make it to the league. The league, from a public policy standpoint, has a duty to assist players who are no longer rosterable in lieu of the current profit breakdown. Don't @ me with the whole the whole "they're paid millions to play a game" counterargument. That's a weak, straw man stance, and it avoids the reality of the situation. Athletes are commodities. They have market value. JJ Watt, this generation's best defensive player, had his big payday at 50mm-ish guaranteed. Meanwhile, the MLB and NBA are riddled with Kyle Seagers and Will Bartons, players who make 100mm guaranteed. I have such a hard time supporting the NFL sometimes, and today is one of the reasons why. No one looks good under the current format. /rant
The 4.750,000 that he was paid last year to do nothing clearly didn't buy any goodwill, why would paying him another 500K that he didn't earn move that needle?
I'm with you on the NFL needing different radically different salary approaches but not for the same reasons as you. This is wildly untrue. The owners have an enormous capital investment and expect a rate of return, as we all would. This represents substantial risk that most people fail to understand. On the other hand, to say that owners "reap most of the benefits" is also absurd. Owners make a lot of money because they have a lot of money, players make money because they play a game for a few years. The reality is that players receive obscene benefits for what they bring to the table. There is a balance here and it is negotiated. Larger guarantees do nothing in the context of the current labor agreement because what it really says is less non-guaranteed money. The cap is still the same. Teams need non-guaranteed money to help field a competitive roster. As far as post-career services, you know the league has those and they are rather extraordinary by most people's terms, right? Absolute nonsense. Even if a player had a 3 year career his earnings would be mind-blowing by almost anyone's standards, especially for a 20-something that may have no education or job skills. Players commonly blow this money, though. That's why I think salary needs to be different. Players make "life-changing" money but don't change their lives with it. Imagine "how much is required" to make it as a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or whatever other educated profession that takes work to achieve, then compare the earnings in the first 3 years of those professions with what an NFL player makes for merely being good at playing a game. You need to get over this idea that players are victims, they are not. A doctor or lawyer will likely have years left before they are licensed to practice when the average NFL player ends his career and often faces a decade of paying off student loans and STILL won't make the kind of earnings the player has received on his rookie contract. Get real. Ridiculous, in no other profession would any such thing be suggested. It seems like you don't have any appreciation for this contradiction. The best thing the league could do is radically increase the chances that ex-players achieve lasting prosperity in retirement by deferring large portions of their earnings. The players union wouldn't agree to that though, it's not the American way.
Wow, them not winning a Superbowl here had nothing to be with this organization being toxic. Good grief some people be on some straight up BULL. They had a great shot. But Kubiak's conservativeness always hunted this darn team. Matt's softness killed us when it counted the most. So please stop with this crap about certain players winning the Superbowl somewhere else. It's not relevant.
Yeah, I'm sure he was "do[ing] nothing". Look, all I was saying is that Bob could have handled this behind the scenes and with a nominal amount of money and it would be a non-story. Bob, however, has the kind of PR acumen that makes Martin Shkreli cringe. The guy has verbally stepped all over his dick 3 or 4 times now in the past year, who is advising him? Cal?
He was doing nothing to benefit the team in any way. Was he working hard trying to have his career not be over? Absolutely, but that doesn't change the fact that he got paid for an entire year just to attempt to rehab what we all knew was a career ending injury. I mean, it's still a non-story. Player wants money he didn't earn, film at 11. Now sure, the non-story will still be spun by certain people trying to push a narrative, but there's nothing you can do about those kinds of people.
