04-30-2017, 07:56 AM
(04-29-2017, 11:52 AM)fredtoast Wrote: There are lots of people with problems in their past that go into every type of employment in this country. There are bankers, lawyers, stock brokers, and doctors who also got into trouble in college or high school. So the NFL is no different. And some of the most succesful businessmen ruin their health by working 60 hours a week and suffering from stress related problems
This is not like during the industrial revolution when the poor were forced to work under conditions that killed them or destroyed their health. The way coal barons and industrial magnates treated labor back then was close to slavery. they forced them to work in deadly conmditions and if anyone complained they were removed. But the NFL is not like that either. these guys are paid millions of dollars in exchange for any damage to their health. I think that college athletes should get paid something, but they are still in a situation that is NOTHING like slavery.
Yes 'toast, lots of people make mistakes in their youth. But I will suggest the NFL is different. Point me to a bank, a law firm, a stock brokerage, or a medical practice where their reputation at the local level and beyond is as a haven for thugs (or white collar criminals) and I may stand corrected. The entire NFL is seen that way and the Bengals in particular are viewed as the epitome of a franchise where character is irrelevant if you are athletic.
To say that working 60 hours a week (which by the way, far more people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum do than at the higher end) is the same as being paid to do what has been called like "being in 60 car crashes in an afternoon" (playing football) is not accurate.
The poor, as already noted, still often work under conditions that kill them or destroy their health, including having to work 2 and 3 jobs for 60-80 hours a week to make ends meet. No those people aren't drug addicts, and they aren't living above their means. They are the millions of working poor who live a subsistence existence. I honestly thought you knew better.
Ever heard of a guy named Chris Kluwe? But you're right, the NFL never removes people who say things the league doesn't want to hear. And who are the biggest proponents of the NFLPA? The owners right? Yeah, sure they are!
JOHN ROBERTS: From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the value of justice... I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.
