When Five Years = Four Years + Holdout
There seems to be a growing epidemic among professional athletes to show their greed by holding out from pre-season activities. The current examples are Devin Hester and Steven Jackson. I think this “tactic” some athletes use is complete crap.
First off, you signed a contract for your athletic services for, let’s say five years. You have agreed to play for this team for five years. Where in this statement — least of all the contract — does it say that you can play for four of those years, and then hold the fifth year hostage while trying to squeeze additional years — at a higher salary no less — from the people you are already contractually obligated to? Plain and simple, you have a contract for five years, so just shut up and play out the contract.
Second, you can (or more likely your agent can) negotiate an extension while you are working your tail off in pre-season drills. All you are doing is keeping yourself from being prepared for the season, and making it harder on your teammates for them to be prepared for the season. Every athlete will tell you that it is totally different in speed and intensity between reps in practice and the actual game. For an 11-man team sport, being on the same page, going at the same speed, knowing what each other is going to do and when is vitally important to the success of said team. It’s just plain selfishness. Show you are a “team player” and they will reward you.
And to top it all off, league minimum salaries are set way, way, way above what anybody truly needs to live on. An example of this greed and selfishness comes to us from Devin Hester, “I can’t go out and play this year making $445,000. Come on, man.” Come on, how else is he going to afford the 4000 sq. ft. house in L.A. and Miami. And you can’t forget the garage loaded with tricked out cars. Gotta get me a Bentley to go with my Mercedes and Porsche and Hummer and Escalade.
I get frustrated when I hear athletes complain about being underpaid when there is somewhere around 5-6% of US citizens who can’t find jobs. There are millions of families that live in poverty conditions in the US, let alone around the world. There is a rapidly growing list of people who are being foreclosed on. Be grateful that you have a talent that someone wants to pay you for, and you are not huddled in some shelter somewhere in downtown Memphis.
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