You hear it all the time, pro athletes are spoiled, they get paid millions of dollars to play a kids game, just take what you can get and play the game you spoiled babies. A couple posts ago I talked about the "Stick to sports" crowd and those people are usually saying the things I said above. After that post my friend Jenni who is much smarter than me sent me a message saying often people see athletes as commodities instead of people. I of course in all my ramblings about sticking to sports didn't see that and since then I've been thinking a lot about that. Now the last couple days with the MLB owners and MLBPA having their fight about profits and schedule, there have been feuding factions, some blame the players, I'm on the side of hating the owners. With all this bickering, instead of making a case about why they owners are to blame, I'm going to talk about the idea that Jenni gave me, players are commodities and why we think they are the spoiled ones.
The thing about being an athlete good enough for the professional levels, or even the upper echelon of college sports is that they are special. They are so special you'll shell out anywhere from 30-250 dollars to sit in a seat and watch them play a game. The thing about athletes is they don't have much choice in where they play. They get a choice in high school to choose and when they sign that paper they are required to stay at the school or forfeit a year of eligibility. So that's strike 1 in the commodity box. They belong to that school or face a penalty. If you or I go to college and decide to switch schools we can do it whenever we want without penalty. Then if you're good enough after 1-4 years you get drafted into the professional levels. They get to visit all the teams and choose what's best for them, no instead a team drafts them, and they automatically belong to that team. Now you can threaten to not sign but you'll get labeled as selfish and not a team player. That is another check in the commodity box, you belong to that team and until the end of your first contract you belong to them or can't play. If you or I graduate college we go work for an insurance firm, don't like how things are going, we can quit and go find a new job with another insurance firm, a football player is stuck playing for the Jaguars, they can't just go work for the Chargers. Those are just how the players are treated by their employers, that doesn't even talk about the fans.
Your favorite team just drafted the future QB or signed the big free agent starting pitcher. You're very excited, you go online and order that guys jersey. Boom I'm this guys #1 fan, he's taking us to the promised land. Then the season starts and he doesn't do any of that, instead he's a bit lazy and underachieves. Now he's an overpaid BUM, go home loser he hears as he walks off the field. You invested in this player and he's let you down, he's a failing stock. But here's the thing, his performance wasn't going to make you any more or less money. So he isn't a stock that you invested in, no you just bought a shirt with a number on it and another person's # on the back. However since you have that piece of laundry you feel like he owes you something, and that again makes him a commodity, your commodity that you should get something back from.
Fantasy sports is another step in the commodity process. We have these drafts where we sit around and pick guys to be on our team. The team we run, manipulate and do everything possible to win. We trade, we cut, we add, we buy low, we sell high. Fantasy sports is the stock market for jocks. We invest so much time and energy into winning, that even if you do bring home the championship and some dollars if you look at the time spent for that money it adds up to like .50 cents and hour, and that's if you win. If you lose you do all that work for nothing. I understand fantasy is fun, I quit watching the NFL and still play fantasy football. I'm not bashing the fantasy games, just using them as an example of why we think of these guys as commodities.
To get back to the owners vs players debate, I think there is another commodity train of thought. When a player signs a contract, you know what he signed for. Bryce Harper 13 years 330 million dollars, what a spoiled ass, nobody is worth that money. When you watch Harper play, every game that contract will be brought up, whether he's overperforming or underperforming. What you don't hear though is how much money the owner is getting for the broadcast rights for that game, how much money the owner gets in profit sharing from the league, how much the owner makes at the gate, the concession stand, the suites, everything. You hear when they make the deal, but those numbers are forgotten because they aren't brought up during every slump. The TV broadcasters aren't going to say, can you believe my bosses paid money so you can watch these guy play the Marlins. No you never hear that instead it's the players fault because his contract is easy to find, Google his name and it's right there. Highest paid QB in the league, and when a new QB signs that contract you hear well he's not worth that. But when someone pays to broadcast the Mets, nobody says they paid too much to air Mets games.
Another thing is for the most part these owners stay out of the limelight. Yeah I know Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder are up front a lot, but for the most part you can't name who owns your favorite team. You know your players because that's who matters, those guys make the difference for how you feel. I have no idea who owns the Giants, they have a CEO whom they had accept all those trophies but the principle owner I have no clue. I can though name the starting 8 from all 3 World Series teams, those guys made the difference on the field so they get the memories.
It takes 2 to tango, the players need the owners to pay them and the owners need the players to make sure the best product is on the field. Of course that isn't always true, in fact the Marlins are a terrible product and they had 5 people bidding to give the last owner a $1 billion profit for the sale of the team. Just being affiliated with these leagues gives the owners the money they need. My final point is, if it's so profitable for players to play sports and they are so rich and spoiled, how come only 1 former player is an owner of a team? Michael Jordan owns the Hornets, that's it that's the list. Several former players are investors but other than Jordan nobody is the principle investor. These guys are owned by any of us, and they certainly don't owe us a damn thing. They are paid what the market will give them, they can't just demand 15 million dollars a year and someone gives it to them, they have to show they are worth that money. Stop thinking of them as commodities and instead see them for what they are, people.
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