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SPORTING RAGE!

“I’m still underpaid”.
– Milwaukee Bucks point guard Sam Cassell, after signing a three-year $17 million         contract extension

On the same day, last Saturday, this quote appeared in the Washington Post, some other items of sporting interest made the news:

  • It was reported that NBA player Stephon Marbury of the Phoenix Suns was arrested for Extreme DUI, and speeding. His blood level was almost double the legal limit as he cruised at 75 mph through Scottsdale. Perhaps he was trying to drink away his rage over his lack ofcompensation.
  • The Washington Redskins, who have not had a good team in years, raised stadium parking rates by $5, to $20-25. If want to park so far away as to ride a bus to the stadium, parking remains a mere $15. The Redskins are also raising ticket prices; they already had the highest ticket prices in the league, at an average of $81.89, last season. The worst seats in the house will go for $44 next year.

    Of course, the Skins may need to raise prices, as they just hired a new coach, Steve Spurrier, and agreed to pay him $25 million over five years, despite the fact that he has never coached a game in the NFL. The Redskins are also offering some assistant coaches salaries approaching $1 million per year.

     

  • Terry Glenn, in offering to accept a Super Bowl ring from the New England Patriots, said “I felt like I was still part of that organization.” Glenn was suspended at the beginning of the year for failing a drug test; he was later inactive because of an injury. He was suspended again for refusing to practice. He returned, but was suspended yet again for the playoffs.
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0 thoughts on “SPORTING RAGE!

  1. I don’t go to any Professional sports events. Nor do I watch them on TV. What really bothers me about the salary issue is the amount of money various TV sponsors fork over to the networks who broadcast the games of the NFL and the like to pay for ads which in turn cost us the consumers a bundle.

  2. Dear Editor,

    I have followed sports since I was 16. I am 68 years old and some 10 years ago I gave it up when it went out of control and to me it became a laugh. I would not pay them what they are getting now. Don’t care how good they are, they are not worth it in my book.

    Sincerely,

    Pete Brennan

  3. There are two things that need fixing in this country.
    Profesional Sports and Politicians, and I’m not sure which is worse.

    I will watch a non pro sports event, but woulden’t pay one red cent for these poor examples of so-called professional athletes.

  4. No I don’t go. Who in their right mind would pay such extravagant prices to watch these self-centered arrogant jerks play games that most of us would play for fun!! Now here in New York State we have 2 teams that are waiting for us the tax payers to build them stadiums. Then those owners are going to charge us to watch games in OUR own stadium. What is with that??? Who the HECK can afford to go anyway????

  5. Sports is mainly for the dedicated non-thinking to further their endless quest for a hero and an escape from their mundane lives. Yes, “sports” stars are exceedingly overpaid!

  6. No…I don’t go to sports games.

    I support reasonable sports programs in the high schools, grade schools etc. They do have some value. What I don’t like is that these programs are the intentional feeder talents and resources to the colleges, who are the feeders of the talents to the pro teams.

    The problem is… it is the taxpayers who are funding these feeder programs. I know of no direct financial support of all these pro teams to all the grade schools, high schools, and colleges. Seems to me, that us taxpayers are funding the development of this raw material/resource over many years. The only ones benefitting are the corporate pro teams and the players themselves. Oh they have charities they all donate to,and get some PR mileage from,but this is not enough.
    The issue is that many, even most of these athletes, benefited from public funding in their very early years for training, equipment etc. The pro-teams benefited in a secondary way from the early training of these budding athletes at public expense.

    It is time that the leagues, organizations take a percentage of the gross cash flow of owners, players, concessions etc. and put this into a fund where EACH school in the Nation gets a piece of this pie. (Example: If there’s 10,000 colleges, high schools, grade schools
    …divide the fund by 10,000, and provide to each school)

    This may or may not make a significant difference, but it is the matter of doing what is right!

    The taxpayer deserves some return on their investment. Pride in having a star performer from your school / state is a mere pittance and is not enough.

  7. After the year without a World Series, because the players and owners were too busy trying to rip each other off, I stopped watching professional sports. Now, I devote myself to making sure I don’t have to pay anything out of tax dollars for sports stadia. Let them move, let them fold the teams, I don’t care anymore. They can all go to Hell.

  8. Athletes are not overpaid. Neither are Madonna nor Michael Jackson. They are paid exactly what they’re worth in terms of the money they can earn for the people who pay them. The Redskins are paying assistant coaches $1,000,000 per year? Trust me — the ‘Skins would much rather pay them $100 a year, if they thought they could keep them from being hired away by other teams for that little. We should applaud these people for doing what we all rightly seek to do — get from our employers what our labor is really worth to them.

  9. Compare working hours and skills to a teacher’s, and then tell me who is overpaid and who is not. While you’re at it, see if you can tell me who plays a more valuable role in our society. Also, did you see the judging for the Olympics figure skating. The general consensus around my house is that Canada got screwed.

  10. I don’t know why everyone is surprised by the way professional athletes act, off (and sometimes on) the field. They are, after all, just entertainers. Professional sports are big business. It’s no longer about the love of the game, it’s about the money. No one is surprised by how the Hollywood crowd behaves off camera, why do we express shock, surprise and dismay when the ‘actors’ of professional sports behave in the same manner? The real tragedy here is that we as Americans elevate these folks (both the Hollywood and sports field ‘actors’) to such high levels of esteem. After all, they are just entertainers. While Sept. 11th has sort of changed our perspective, our focus is still on the wrong people in our society. The heroes (and highly paid) in our society ought to be those who give of themselves in service to others, not to those who strut around on a stage or a playing field. I guarantee that if Americans stopped paying the high prices for tickets, gear and memorabilia, these folks wouldn’t be so highly paid or venerated. The whole pop culture has evolved out of a society with too much time on its hands that has become lazy and wants to sit back and be entertained. When was the last time you got as excited about your child’s education as you do when your favorite quarterback hits the long one for a touchdown? America, wake up!! You’ve become fat, lazy and complacent and you put way too much priority on the wrong things and people. Oh and by the way, your favorite news anchor is just an entertainer as well. Otherwise they wouldn’t be worried about the ratings and awards that their programs receive.

  11. I am also outraged by the extreme salaries paid to sports figures. I stopped watching baseball after the strike in the mid ’90’s and have not attended a professional sports game since 1989. I would love to see the fans boycott these overpaid spoiled players.

  12. I think sports is disgusting, but they reflect the evils and selfishness of society. too bad they didn’t put their energy into something. It is all a bore and it is a mystery to me why anyone would be suckered to paying top money in sports to feed the poor sport attitude which knows little about sacrafice and love,

  13. What you see is what you get. For all the mindless saps that sit around
    watching this BS, drinking thier six packs, oh 24 packs,
    What do you think. All a bunch of poor liberal VICTIMS!!!

    People need to wake up and get a life !!!

  14. Stop whinning!!!! If the teams couldn’t afford to pay these guys, they wouldn’t!!! Don’t want them to make that much more than you? Then stop watching them on TV & stop paying $80/ticket to see them!

  15. I make $50K a year and am a responsible adult. These bozos get paid millions a year to act like children. What a waste of precious resources it is to build one of these huge stadia that cover almost a square mile of landscape! I agree that America needs to get her damned priorities straight!

  16. I wouldn’t waste my hard earned money on watching grown (for the most part rather ignorant)men “play” for millions of dollars per year. They need to quit their incessant whining about their salaries and be VERY thankful they aren’t working in a fast food dump which is where they actually belong with the questionable “english” they “speak”

  17. Sports is a supply/demand industry. I don’t go to games, and I don’t support the industry. Why should I care what the players get paid?

    If you don’t like the player compensation, don’t support the games.

  18. I am of the opinion that sports personalities are paid far too much, and in time this corrupts them, the sport, and maybe even the values of our country.
    Baseball for instance is no longer the sport it was. “The Great American Pastime” with kids being able to go to a game (unchaperoned) with a modest charge for admission, maybe even free, and a hot dog and coke and chips for less than a dollar or two.
    I met a man who was going to play for the Pirates, for $5000 a year, at the time alot of money, when WWII interviened, and instead he enlisted. Would that ever happen today ??
    And would one of our overpaid primadonas today, ever be able to live without their legs as the man I mentioned?

  19. Congratulations George Steinbrenner For Making “The
    Pastime” A Contest Between 2 – 4 teams rather than the 30 that exist. Nobody Repeat Nobody In the realm of entertainment/playing games is worth more than $500,000 per year.

  20. If proffesional sports were outlawed and only amature sports reigned there would still be a ton of money in it.
    Only difference is the owners would get it all like they use too. So why not spread it around the players,(I’m sure
    most appreciate the fortunate
    situation they are in and probably most spread it out to family friends and charities. For those fools who think the world should lick their boots – Break a Leg, literally.

  21. I wouldn’t care about professional sports if I weren’t dragged into by the cowtowing city I live in.
    I am a firefighter in San Diego. After 17 years on the job here I make 53000. Houses start at 250000. you do the math. I don’t qualify. I can hardly afford to go to a Chargers game, but as a city resident I am forced to pay my share for the seats that don’t sell out each sunday during the season.
    We, the taxpayers, are helping to build a new downtown baseball stadium for the Padres, lest they go elsewhere.
    I wish the Mayors of the major cities would put their heads together, and try to stop this nonsense of trying to lure a franchise from another city. I gives the owners too much leverage, which they are obligated to use.
    I once was a big fan of most of the sports. I could name the offensive linemen of the 71 Dolphins. But it all went sour in the 80s, and I now have little interest in it.
    The attitude and demeanor of the players while on the field is disgusting. Need I mention the off field shenannigans. Something along the lines of a hip hop singer. Where does this leave me? How can I root for these guys. I hope for injuries. Nothing delights me more than to see an over paid, over weight, no tackling, drugged up, trash talking slug writhing in pain and grabbing his knee. Good riddance!
    This is giving me a headache. Enough!

  22. It is an outrage. I am an avid sports fan and I also feel that because I care about sports, maybe I have contributed to their downfall. After all, where do the millions of dollars come from to pay athletes? You and I, of course.

  23. It is getting to the point that the average person cannot enjoy professional sports on a regular basis. The athletes make so much money that in order to pay for them, the ticket prices have soard to unrealistic levels. For example here in Toronto, to see the Leafs play you will shell out $50 CDN minimum for standing room. The platinum seets go for $450 each. Then on top of that there is the cost of $30 for parking and heaven forbid you want to eat or drink during the game. A beer is $10 at the Air Canada Centre and a hotdog is $4. Figure out how much it would cost for a family of four to go to the game. Then figure out what it would cost to go to 2 games per month. At this point there is little that can be done about the prices unless the fans all decide to boycott the sport industry and since the fans could not live with that, we need to lay the blame where it is due and that is with the federations that run and regulate all the different brands of sports. They should have insisted and legislated that players could only be paid a certian amount and that ticket prices could only be a certian amount and so on to assure that not only the upperclass can enjoy these games but everyone equally. I have no problems with having different seats at different prices but when they start at $50 for standing room and rise to $450 during regular season, it makes it very difficult for a person to bring their family out to a game even once, let alone 4 or 5 times during the season.

  24. These players are in a SYSTEM that pays a ton of money. Don’t blame the players! Each franchise is a business, and a business is run to make a lot of money. Think Michael Jordan was ever overpaid? How much revenue did he bring because of the American consumer? More money than anyone could possibly imagine.

  25. How do you figure that pro athletes don’t get overpain. For the president of the USA to make as much as, lets say Brett Fave< he would have to work 42 years for 4 year term. Hello a president isn’t even allowed to be the president for that long. How is that far.

  26. I think its ridiculous that people, particularly those in the spotlight and those who we pay millions of dollars to, can’t learn to be responsible for themselves. If you make $17 million a year — hire a damn risk management consultant!

  27. aright I agree Sports athletes get paid a lot but look at what they do! All of your other jobs anyone can be trained to do it! But being basketball player or a baseball player involves a certain skill no one here would have! You see these athletes exceed in their sport better than anyone in the world and thats why they get paid soo much! There the best in the world at what they do and they also have to play infront of thousands of people! None of you people here would ever think about doing that! Or if you thought about it could not accomplish it! They get paid a lot but its worth it.

  28. What is the outrage? The exorbitant salaries sports figures earn today are the result of the same economic principles that have governed this capitalistic country from its beginning, the law of supply and demand. If the owners are willing to invest in a player, whatever the cost, they expect and often times receive their estimated rate of return.
    Perhaps the outrage is a society with such askewed priorities, that it values the recognition of athletic prowess more than the welfare of the sick, the homeless, and the hungry. It is society as a whole that is responsible for the money in professional sports, not the owners and the players, but you and I as well.

  29. Athletes are clearly overpaid. They take our money for the stadiums and then ask for more when we purchase a ticket. Athletes are entertainers. They dont save lives, yet they get payed more than someone who does. How about we start taking a better look at our society and what we can gain from it. Take away there money and put it somewhere, where it counts. Schools, policing, housing and crime ec.

    Take a look at it this way. Im not here to argue over who’s right, when I know for a fact that there overpaid. Dont be blinded by the fact that its your team out there, and you would do everything and anything for them.

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