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Home > Blogs > Big C's NFL Blitz > Archives > 2011 > July > 22 > Entry
Fan blasts NFL players, offers reality check
I often receive emails from readers who like to share their opinions about what is taking place in the world of professional football. I received the following email from a fan who wanted to express his or her thoughts on the NFL lockout. I share some of the same views as this reader and believe that it puts everything in perspective. Please read on….
Let me start by saying, I don’t claim to have hundreds of facts or stats on quarterbacks, wide receivers and kickers stored in my brain. I have followed only two football teams my entire life, the Cincinnati Bengals and Seattle Seahawks.
As much as I would be crushed if professional football didn’t get this CBA done and the lockout continued, season shortened or cancelled, something much greater bothers me. Last evening before bed, I did much like I have every night since the lookout. I checked ESPN, MSN and Sporting News websites for any late breaking news. However, last night as I went to these pages I looked at the other headlines on my home page. Heat Emergency, two people killed. Then another story about the debt crisis looming if our government doesn’t come to an agreement. Another story about the unemployment and foreclosures all over the country.
Perhaps I have been blindly focusing on the lockout to avoid these other more pressing news stories about the state of our nation. I am the first one to admit when the political pundits come on, or the President ties up the networks, I turn to ESPN.
I am sure it is a diversion or defense mechanism. I have been completely consumed since February with this lockout and how it profoundly and selflessly would affect me if they didn’t play a 60 minute game on Sunday’s. My selfishness and short sightedness astounded me and shocked me into a state of reality. Neighbors, co workers and family members are facing these gigantic hurdles in their lives and my focus is on if billionaire owners will get richer, or if a millionaire player will have to play two more weeks during the season. I need to get my head out of the gigantic heap of sand it has been buried under.
I truly appreciate that the owners take a huge risk and they put all the money on the line to invest in stadiums, scouting, coaching and players. I understand they should get a return on their investments and they are trying to please perhaps share holders, investors, advertisers, coaches, etc. I understand that the players have invested their lives in this sport since Pop Warner football. They work hard at studying their game and improving their craft. I know many of the players work out daily and study film late in to the evening. I know there bodies take huge hits and pay the price for those blows well after they have left the game of football. I understand all that and I am a fan, truly a fan. However, firefighters, service men, police force, roofers, plumbers, they all do the same thing. Most American’s I know work hard, they try to improve their skills, most pay some price with their bodies that they feel well into the retirement years. Some have lost limbs, sight and in some cases the ultimate sacrifice, their lives. The difference is that most of us are scraping by trying to earn $40,000 a year, struggling to pay mortgages, kids dental care, car payments, insurance and a host of other items the list could go on and on.
My point is this, SUCK IT UP CUPCAKE, get this deal done. Your fans want you on the field! We want to share our Sunday’s with our families. We want to take our sons and daughters to games, that we no longer can afford, but we are willing to work overtime to afford the $65 nose bleed last row of the bleachers seats in Paul Brown Stadium. We are willing to fork out a ridiculous amount of money for a team jersey for a guy who just decides he no longer wants to honor his contract and is threatening to take his ball skills and go home if not released. (Just a question can I return my Carson Palmer jersey for a prorated refund due to the fact I paid $300 last year for it and now he is leaving?) We are willing to pay $30 to park outside a stadium taxpayers paid for, to see a team that has not produced any consistent good team for decades. We are willing to pay more than our monthly mortgage to go to a professional football game for a mediocre team. That is how much I love this game. I am willing to sit in seats built for a size 4 Super Model with short legs, and willing to pay $10 for a beer and $6 for a soda. So if I am willing to do all this, will you please, please just play the game!
Without fans you could not be talking about billions of dollars. You would not have merchandising or TV deals. We would watch your games on our local public access station. You would be a foot note in our sports section underneath the bowling scores for the previous evening. Without fans willing to pay ridiculous money and committing to watching you every Sunday, you also would have to have two jobs to support your family. So put away all the decimals and take care of the long term care of your players. Take care of the players that got you here, the ones who played in leather helmets, the ones who played with broken bones. The players that made this game what it is, just take care of them. I think it comes down to two very specific things that most of us learned in Kindergarten.
- Respect those that came before you
- It’s only a game and it’s not if you win or lose just have fun
There is much more I could say on this topic. I know I am tired of spending too much time with angst on this topic. So just play. Honor your fans on 9/11/11 and play the game. If for nothing else, play for those fans in NY who weeks after enduring the worst thing imaginable, those fans came to support you. They stood for our National Anthem, they cheered you on and for a few hours they forgot the horror that had engulfed them and their city. If for nothing else do it for those fans that get up at 4 AM in the morning in Baghdad Iraq as they serve this country so you can play the game of football and rest your head at night. Do it just because it is the right thing to do. Please!
Sincerely,
A Fan
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Comments
By preacher franklin ohio
July 22, 2011 12:27 PM | Link to this
get hooked on jesus not nfl ipray for salvation and healing for everbody god bless you all love in chirst to you all.
By Tony
July 22, 2011 12:32 PM | Link to this
Well said.
By Michelle
July 22, 2011 12:45 PM | Link to this
I agree 100%!!!!!
By Scott
July 22, 2011 12:55 PM | Link to this
Great letter. Too bad no one will listen to this passionate and sensible pleas.
By Lloyd
July 22, 2011 1:20 PM | Link to this
Our superheroes are turning into a bunch of overpaid wimps and crybabies!
By Rip
July 22, 2011 1:38 PM | Link to this
Love it! These players should be happy they have jobs! It’s brutal out there in the real world trying to find a good paying job. Also, the good people in Canton, Ohio got screwed by the league and its players. I can’t believe the Hall of Fame game got canceled!
By Grumpy
July 22, 2011 2:08 PM | Link to this
THE LETTER WAS BEAUITFUL AND AS TRUTHFUL AS COULD BE. I JUST WISH THE WRITER HAD TOLD THERE NAME.CAUSE I WOULD SURE LIKE TO MEET YOU AND SHAKE YOUR HAND. GOD BLESS YOU
By Randy
July 22, 2011 4:07 PM | Link to this
If you actually paid $300 for a Carson Palmer jersey, or ANY NFL jersey for that matter, you need more then the NFL you need the AMA (for some mental help)!
By Tom
July 22, 2011 4:49 PM | Link to this
Hey DDN, I will comment here if you take away from the Archdeacon article. Quit deleting posts pointing out your own mistakes. At least give credit to the reader for pointing it out and then making the correction.
By Annie Rection
July 22, 2011 5:26 PM | Link to this
This is the same thing everyone else has been saying? What’s so special about it? It sounds like 4th grade garbage with a little pandering by bringing up 9/11, which has zero to do with it.
By nyc
July 22, 2011 7:25 PM | Link to this
yea ..i am a fan also…but if they decided to not play for the next ten years…i could care less….there are too many more important things in life that i can occupy my time with..you need to get a real life…and the jersey you bought..tells it all..lol
By David
July 23, 2011 12:42 AM | Link to this
A lengthy diatribe noting that football players make a lot of money. Missing from the diatribe were the relevant facts: 1) The owners started the lockout because they didn’t like the deal they had signed. Plain English; they broke their contract. 2) The prices at games are only so high because people can’t quit football. It’s time that people stopped paying king’s ransoms for seats to NFL games when they could go to college games or high school games. The Flyers have a team guys, I’m sure tickets are cheaper.
By jack
July 23, 2011 10:52 PM | Link to this
i would like to see them schedule a game and no one attend.this would demonstrate who really was calling the shots and make the overpaid players and the greedy owners think.
By PROFESSOR FOOTBALL
July 25, 2011 3:47 PM | Link to this
“However, last night as I went to these pages I looked at the other headlines on my home page. Heat Emergency, two people killed. Then another story about the debt crisis looming if our government doesn’t come to an agreement. Another story about the unemployment and foreclosures all over the country.” Glad to her that you are moving toward sanity—keep up the good work and read a bit MORE to learn that the team owner’s are not paying for those stadiums—-you, and other taxpayers are. Feel better now?