I often wonder why I was not blessed with about six more inches of height, and why I am not a half of a second of faster in the 40 yard dash. At some point in most sports fans lifetime they have these types of thoughts in regards to their physical limitations that I do. Many of these fans want to be like their idols, or the athletes that they went to school with who received all of the attention. Most of these fans dream to be known as “THE MAN” due to their athletic prowess. My desire to have the physical capabilities that I described above is not rooted in the aforementioned reasons. When I was on campus I got plenty of attention. The athletes that I watched then as well as the ones which I watch now are not my idols, and I do not have a desire to be known for my athletic ability. I look at sports completely different than most fans.
Sports is a form of entertainment. Now I will admit that my choice of entertainment can at times seem consuming to outsiders, but I assure you it is purely a form of entertainment which I have under control. However many other fans view sports as a microcosm of life. They see different scenarios playing out with their favorite teams that they can relate back to their own lives. These people are delusional. How can the average person making $40,000 a year relate something from a multi-million dollar athlete to their lives? This is impossible. They live in two different worlds, and it is very difficult for one to relate to the other.
Just as I view sports differently than most fans, I feel that the players should look at sports differently than they did when they grew up. They have been taught since Peee-Wee or little league that the game is about passion, emotion, fun, and teamwork. I feel for the pure entertainment of the fan, the player should view their craft as a business, this would eliminate the nights when the player is not giving the game their all, which would in turn increase the competition of games and make them more entertaining. By viewing their roles in their sport as a business that the player would attempt to perform his best on as many nights as possible so that they could make as much money as possible. In essence what I am proposing is that every game be a winner takes the majority of the purse competition.
Let’s look at a player such as Brandon Keith who was a 7th round draft pick of the Arizona Cardinals out of Northern Iowa this year. Being that he was a lower round draft choice Brandon’s contract called for him to make $335,500 in base pay. With the NFL’s system of paying people for their post-season performance (which is broken down by a payout of Wild-card games [division winners]: $20,000, Wild-card games [fifth- and sixth-seeded teams]: $18,000, Divisional games: $20,000, Conference championship games: $37,500, Super Bowl winners: $78,000, Super Bowl losers: $40,000) Brandon could make $155,000 or almost half of his regular season base pay because his team wins. This should increase Keith’s desire to win dramatically, if he is looking at the sport as a business. He is not competing just to win the holy grail of his sport, but he is competing for the financial security of his family. This is how every game should be. This mentality would go a long way in erasing the perception for leagues like the NBA, many people feel that NBA players do not play hard until the playoffs, and thus are not willing to shell out their hard earned dollars for what they perceive as an exhibition game during the regular season.
There are those that disagree with my premise that athletes should play the game strictly for financial gain. They say that this way of thinking would cause players to cheat, and would detract from the competitiveness of the game. I argue the exact opposite is true. If athletes were to play the game for financial gain exclusively, they would police cheating better amongst themselves, and they would compete at a higher level on a regular basis. Do you think that if baseball players pay had been slotted by the amount of home runs which they had hit in a given year, they would have allowed admitted steroid users Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGuire to continue to use “juice” and take shortcuts while they turned a blind eye to the situation? I would ague that there is no way that the steroid era would have been so prevalent if there had been an established pay scale for players to tie tangible dollars to for their performance. I also think that if players are playing for their pay and not having it handed to them that the vast majority of them would play harder because they would be able to see how their action translated into real dollars.
Imagine how intense the Super Bowl game would be, if a player’s entire next years base salary was based on him winning the Super Bowl. The phrase “blood, sweat and tears” would truly take on new meaning. The competition would be as fierce as that of mid-evil gladiators fighting for their lives. These players would go at 110% for as long as they possibly could, and every missed assignment and dropped ball would be magnified. The Super Bowl would no longer just be remembered for its flashy ads, but for the vicious his by linebackers like LaMarr Woodley on offensive players like Anquan Boldin. This would bring an similar excitement to all of sports which is usually reserved for boxing.
I ask the question why is this way of thinking any different than what the owners do. They are business men who are in business to make money. If their team began to hemorrhage money, they would attempt to find ways to stop the bleeding. These owners usually want to win at all cost because the more wins their teams accumulates usually translates into a higher profile which translates into higher merchandise sales revenue. This adds cold hard cash to their bottom lines. If these owners begin to lose money they usually change their course of action and go to a strategy that will make them money, whether that entails changing coaches or players, the end goal is the same win and make more money. Players need to have this same mentality.
So here’s to hoping that the slight difference in the winners and the loser’s portion of the purse will inspire players to play for more than just pride and the love of the game during Sunday’s big game. Let’s hope that these players play for a lifestyle just like I anticipate Brandon Keith will be doing, if he is allowed to step between those white lines. So let me leave you with this question, is Allen Iverson’s performance this year really worth $20,840,625 (25-19) compared to LeBron James’s (35-8) at $14,410,581.
Johnson is a contributor to The Sports Information Hub and can be contacted at johnsonthesportsguy@gmail.com
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