An Obscenity
“Imagine the National Football League in an alternate reality. Each player’s salary is based on how long he’s been in the league. It’s about tenure, not talent. The same scale is used for every player, no matter whether he’s an All-Pro quarterback or the last man on the roster. For every year a player’s been in this NFL, he gets a bump in pay. The only difference between Tom Brady and the worst player in the league is a few years of step increases. And if a player makes it through his third season, he can never be cut from the roster until he chooses to retire, except in the most extreme cases of misconduct.
Let’s face the truth about this alternate reality: The on-field product would steadily decline. Why bother playing harder or better and risk getting hurt.”
–Fran Tarkenton, What if the NFL Played by Teacher’s Rules?
Average Salary of a U.S. High School teacher: $43,450.00.
Average Salary of an NFL player: $1,9000,000.00
So yeah, let’s imagine, for a while, what the teaching profession would look like if we ran our schools like we run the NFL.
Let’s do that.
What if teachers played by NFL standards?
1) Teachers would only have a career of 3-4 years on average
2) Once retired, they would endure debilitating injuries that will drain their bank accounts of any money they made right into the health insurance industry.
3) Suffer from depression, parkinsons/various forms of brain damage, anxiety and drug addiction because of the numerous concussions from the hits they took.
4) Be discarded like last year’s hero.
5) Be told that regardless of what happens in their life that they gotta play through the pain.
6) Told by their coaches that footbawl is life and that it’s also war.
7) Treated like gawds and heroes from age 8 on up. Spoiled endlessly till injuries or old age stopped them at whatever level.
I personally think that Fran Tarkenton is suffering the lingering effects of brain damage from taking some 400+ sacks in his footbawl career which is why I automatically discount ramblings of olds who played professional contact sports.
@ManchuCandidate: You left out post-career endorsement moneez!
@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: And painkiller addition, depression, suicidal thoughts, playing around, shooting other people . . . and the Hall of Fame.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1190867/index.htm
Breaking – ESPN cans Hank Williams Jr. – shitty song won’t be heard on Monday Night Football anymore, per Colin Cowherd’s “The Herd” on ESPN Radio.
@redmanlaw:
Gee, that’s too bad.
If only Chris Berman will say something stupider than usual.
@ManchuCandidate: Feelin’ that Grey Cup fever yet?
@redmanlaw:
No. The Argos are awful again this year. Got that election fever though… provincial elections today.
@ManchuCandidate: remember condredge holloway, cfl mvp (i think most outstanding player in canada) in 1982 as torontos qb? he was the SECs first black qb and played here on rocky top in the early 70’s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condredge_Holloway
if condredge was playing today he would be like scam newton, mcnabb or that guy in philadelphia, but in the 70’s the nfl still had no place for a black qb.
@jwmcsame:
Yep. He was a great QB. Same with Warren Moon who played 5 or 6 years with Edmonton till he joined the Oilers. Led them to five Grey Cup wins.
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