A Public Apology to Kam Chancellor

[morgulon1]

Folks are always looking for that one athlete that really would just play for the love of the game. That athlete does not exist.

Today the average pay for an NFL player is around $2 million. The average league salary at the dawn of the NFL was $25,000 a year, which would be for about $156,400 when adjusted for today's dollars. If you were an NFL player in 1969, you got paid roughly the same amount of money as the cameraman that was filming you play. And you wouldn't be doing it long, as players had even shorter careers in the olden days since they had less health protections.

Yet the NFL still had no shortage of people who showed up to play. Obviously these guys wouldn't play for free, but they would play for a hell of a lot less than what they are getting paid today if they had to. The NFL isn't just some job that pays well. It's a lifelong dream to play in the NFL.

In fairness to your point, some players do play mainly for money and we shouldn't hold that against them. Their priorities in life are none of our business.

Great post! I was listening to a radio interview with Hall of Fame qb Fran Tarkenton the other day. IIRC he was a first round pick who went on to receive rookie of the year honor and and eventually would own ALL the passing records that have since been broken but he at one point in time the most prolific passer in NFL history.

His rookie salary? 20,000 dollars.

He held a job with a trucking company in the offseason to make ends meet like many (all) of the players in those days.
The most he made in a season? 250,000 dollars. I can't do the conversion into todays dollars like Kip but you get the idea.

This was in the days when there were no rules specifically protect the qb and many of them called their own plays.

 

[Rob12]

Lol I almost can't believe this thread is real.

Sure it is. No problem if you don't agree.

 

[Rob12]

I know most here probably think that it's silly that I would drop an apology to Kam on .NET where he will probably never see it. That's fair. It is a bit ridiculous.

But it's the right thing to do. I don't really have a means of directly contacting the man. He posts a picture on Instagram and within minutes there's hundreds of comments.

My stance was a bit weak. All I've ever tried to say with this thread is that I shouldn't have been forming opinions and judgments on another man's predicament that I have no inner knowledge of. That's it. I still don't like the holdout from a sheer fan's perspective, but I think his reasoning encompassed a large area of his life and future.

 

[AVL]

I thought this was a romantic comedy.