As Super Bowl Sunday draws near, it’s important to remember the systemic labor issues that plague the nation’s most popular sport.
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I can’t imagine what football would be like if the players didn’t have a union.
Oh, wait, that’s called NCAA and high school football. Violently exploitative and permanently injurious for zero pay.
So is your local library.
You don’t usually get CTE while working in a library
Minimum wage at my library is also quite a bit lower. Risk/reward.
Thing is, no one in pro football starts playing after they’re adults, so we’re asking minors to make the choice about lifelong CTE risk. By the time someone is eligible to play in the NFL, they are already deep into that life path, and have likely already put considerable stress on their bodies, and sacrificed other career options.
That’s a really shit attitude my friend. Also, Librarian’s can work for most of their life. Most people in the NFL cannot.
True, but most NFL players don’t need to.
On a realistic, rather than sarcastic level, CTE and the prevalence isn’t the result of an abusive workplace, its the result of an unsafe workspace. Even in today’s TikTok/Click Bait Headline world, words and their meaning should matter. Having a pit without a guardrail or a rotating machine in a manufacturing plant without limb guards and lockout station is not an “abusive workspace” it’s an unsafe one. We need to stop referring to CTE, and damage in other injurious professions, as if they’re something that Human Resources can address with an annual training course on proper workplace etiquette and start identifying them as the (prohibited) injurious practices they are.
True, but most NFL players don’t need to.
That’s not even close to true. This article from 2015 estimated that 80% of players go broke within three years of retirement from the league. One of the reasons stated in that article is due to financially supporting extended networks of family, friends and community. The NFL earned $19 billion in 2022. The league pushes a narrative about the fact that the average player salary is $3.3 million per year. But statistically, averages are a shitty way to represent that dataset. The median wage is just $860,000 per year. 50% of players are paid less than that. While they might earn a comparatively large wage, NFL players are part of the same exploited labour class.
Here’s an excellent video about the 1987 NFLPA strike by Jon Bois. I dunno, maybe try and learn a bit first instead of running your mouth about something you clearly don’t fully understand?
Not to mention a large amount of NFL players don’t play for very long. A quick Google shows an average player career of just 3.3 years, which is ridiculously short even by modern sports standards. The average goes down depending on which position there is as well. Most other major sports have an average of 5 - 8 years for careers.
Imagine getting to the NFL and then only staying for a couple years. Sure you’re set for life with that paycheck but expecting somebody who’s like 24 years old at most to be able to be financially responsible with that money is just absurd.
I’d imagine there’s also a lot of similarities to the stories of lottery winners. Coming from a poor, working class background into sudden wealth almost always ends up with the person losing that wealth. Like I feel like there’s this image of a 24yo playboy spending his fortune on cars, drugs & partying. But 70% of the NFL roster are African-American and the vast majority of them come from poor upbringings. They go back home and spend money on housing for family & friends, on medical bills & other emergency living expenses for members of their communities. People that have genuine & heartbreaking stories. But they also get targeted by con artists and other people who would want to fleece them of their earnings.
Football isn’t the only activity that can lead to CTE. Ever bounced a book off your noggin?
When you get paid in fame/legacy the pool of people willing to work for cheap is endless. The problem is widespread
You’re not wrong, but these players you’re talking about actually opposed the league’s punishments for headhunting and bounties in the sport, which if you ask me, would seem to indicate that they’re fully aware of the issues and simply don’t care.
It’ll be interesting in the coming years to see how many games the NFL hides behind a paywall, though. They may end up shooting themselves in the foot a little via enshittification.
