Friday, March 02, 2007

"Where'd my money go?"

In this modern world of sports, where athletes make millions of dollars often before they've even proven themselves at the professional level, it's difficult to feel sorry for them or sympathize with their “difficult” situations.

But when it comes to NFL players and their non-guaranteed contracts, I feel their pain. Imagine one day being on top of the world, having been drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft. You sign a multimillion dollar deal and endorsements are on the way. Then, out of the blue, you fall down the stairs, or get hit by a car, or struck by lightning. Whatever the catastrophe, it causes a career-ending injury.

Almost magically your money disappears. The companies knocking on your door to sponsor you run in the other direction. You don't have a college education. You don't have any money. You're S-C-R-E-W-E-D. Such is the life of an NFL player.

Yesterday was a perfect example of how NFL players are thrown around by their supposed "loyal" teams in order to save money. Several top-notch players - such as Pittsburgh's Joey Porter and New Orleans' Joe Horn - were released by their teams so the organizations wouldn't have to pay their bonuses. Releasing a player also ends whatever contract he had with the organization, and teams will often waive a player and then attempt to resign him for a smaller amount of money - a scheme that can certainly work if the player had a poor season.

In baseball it's very common to see a relatively unknown player put together one great season and get a huge, guaranteed contract for his good six months. In football, a big season might get a player a nice contract, but how much of that cash ends up in their bank account is a completely different bag'a beans. As long as a team either doesn't believe it needs a player or feels it can re-sign him (for less money), there's no harm in waiving him before free agency begins, especially if it means not having to dole out a bonus.

Players such as Porter and Horn shouldn't have a problem finding new homes and fat contracts. They're impact players in the NFL. Teams will do anything to win, and Porter and Horn are winners - with Porter’s Steelers winning the Super Bowl a year ago and Horn helping the Saints put together an amazing comeback season last fall. But plenty of other players whose names aren't in the headlines every day are waived by their teams and forced into signing wimpy contracts by professional sports' standards. It's either that, or call it a career at a very young age.

No, I don't feel sorry for NFL players. They still make a few bucks here and there. And they get to retire at a very young age. But when compared to new San Francisco pitcher Barry Zito, who is making hundreds of millions to pitch a game every fifth day, NFL players are getting... yeah, that "screwed" word again.

Poor guys.

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