FanHouse

"Fans and the media often complain that pro athletes are overpaid,
and I've never agreed with that: After all, if you can fill a
60,000-seat stadium and get millions to watch you on TV, don't you
deserve to be well-compensated?"

-?????? This is how you rationalize your opinion?!

People love sports, and people would continue to watch and be a part
of whatever game they choose to enjoy. Little high school seats fill
every Friday. College arena's are packed to the point that kids are
practically standing on eachother.

It's just unfortunate, and yes i mean unfortunate, that people like
you build up certain players to be royalty status and to a point to
where they are worth more than people who are actually productive in
the work-force and the economy.

Atheletes aren't heros. They don't risk their lives for the greater
good of society. They don't provide anything more exceptional than
the average hard working joe(which is the reason why atheletes get
paid this insane amount of money). All they do is provide
entertainment and that's all. The media builds them up to the point
to where they are made out to be special. People in the special
olympics have more class and character than most of these lumps of
meat.

Michael David Smith, you're a fool and you are most over-paid for
your plagiarism and idiocracy. Most of your stories are copied and
pasted into a table - then you ad your asinine remarks.

"We play a game-a kids' game-and get paid a king's ransom." Trust me,
if the average salary of an athelete was 40-50k, the stadiums would
still fill.

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Argh.

I guess you have the right to your opinions in this country. I have the right to think you're wrong, too.

However, calling MDS a plagiarist pretty much crossed the line. It's a perfectly defensible opinion without the name-calling.

It comes across as blatant jealousy that you can't get 60,000 people to watch you do whatever it is you do for a living. If you had the kind of talent that people would want to pay to watch on display, you'd want to be compensated for your work.

I applaud Tommie Harris for saying what much of America thinks when the dollars involved in these contracts are revealed.

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Tommie Harris has always seemed like a quality individual - and this does nothing but reinforce that

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Advocate Fan. You've completely misinterperted MDS's quote. You think MDS meant that since 60,000 seats are filled, therefore athletes deserve the salaries they make. Your missing the point of how much athletes earn in revenue for there franchises. You think athlete salaries are high, take a look at the franchise's bottom line. They make billions in revenues. Now look at it this way, your company is making a billion dollars, and the players(employees) are the primary source of the entertainment(work, football games), don't players deserve just a tiny bit of that billion dollars. The answer is YES. Your comparisons are completely inane. How much revenue is a high school baseball making off tickets? Very Little. College athletes are given full scholarships to an accredited University or college. They are given the opportunity to showcase there talents for the next level, or if there not good enough to make it, they are given a free college level education to prepare them for jobs in the real world. Thats worth more than whatever revenue they make at there home games. Dude, your the real fool.

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I guess it depends on your definition of "deserve"..Tommie has good points but somehow I dont think he is too upset over 40 large..and I agree with my fellow posters in having no idea what #1 is getting at

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No professional player deserves the money they get, unless it is Tiger Woods.

It's amazing in this world that athletes get paid millions and millions while the police and fire fighters, along with other heros, are getting 40-80k.

http://www.collegefastbreak.com/

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Bruce Ciskie - LOl... I guess when any one who has a valid point like myself, expresses it and is also agreed by most - even the atheletes themselves, it means i'm jealous? Nope not at all. Plus i don't "do" what i do for a living for the the fame. I do what i do because i love what i do and it saves thousands of peoples live each year. - But if you feel like coming to see what a real hero does for a living, feel free to ask, maybe i can get you front row seats.

"However, calling MDS a plagiarist pretty much crossed the line. It's a perfectly defensible opinion without the name-calling." - Well when most of the stuff you write has already been written before you and you copy the article then ad your own little opinion. I believe that qualifies for plagerism....But it's ok when you only give certain info of an already previous article. ..lol

ED - who do you work for? Check into how much your company makes then tell me you are getting the same percentage as these atheletes? I sure don't and i work for an over billion dollar company. When you come to realization you'll find out what a fool your ideology really is. - Now there is the name calling.

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Ok. For all I know, you could be the CEO of a company or the janitor. Look at the nature of your job and look at the nature of a professional athletes. Do you have to train all year long for your occupation? Do you have to make public appearences? Do you execute your job in front of millions of people that either hate you or love you? Do you have paparazzi and media members harass you whenever your in the public eye? Do you have to try to avoid 300 pound men trying to take your head off? Do you have to try to hit a 95 MPH fastball for your paycheck? And remember in the NFL, contracts aren't guaranteed. Only the signing bonus is pretty much guaranteed. If you begin to underperform, your cut and all that contract with all that money is ripped up. Anyway, the real point is that you ranted about something you didn't understand the first time and now your just digging yourself deeper in a hole.

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Advocate fan-

I think you can make the same basic point you are making without the unthinking angry name calling in MDS's direction. I'm not sure why MDS's blog post should have got your knickers in a twist.

In other words, you can disagree with someone's point of view without freaking out.

Personally, for me, no amount of money would be worth living my retired years with a broken down body and mind like many of NFL players. Of course, lots of people get broke down without getting paid like the NFL players, but ultimately, America values worth based mostly on free market principles (and negotiated bargaining agreements in the case of the NFL).

You can do what Tommie Harris does, you get paid. Supply, demand--basic non-commie stuff.

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Twenty years ago the athletes wanted a bigger piece of the pie because there was money there with TV money and gate money. But there salaries have out paced that money and now I have to spend $300 to take my wife and two kids to one basketball game, between tickets, parking $5 sodas and $8 natchos?

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