I'm not sure if anyone here is going to be interested in this discussion (and I realize this is a long post) but I thought I'd just jot down some things I had been thinking about lately.
Players make their paycheck regardless if they win or lose. So do the coaches. While players and coaches may be out of a job if they don't maintain a certain level of skill and performance at what they do, for the most part they will continue to earn that paycheck.
Owners don't like to lose, and might feel a monetary pinch if they don't produce a winning product that pleases the fans. But, for the most part, they make profit off their NFL teams.
It's us, the passionate fans, that live and die by our teams every success and failure in a perpetual cycle of obsession and dependence, a cycle that simply continues to generate money for the NFL and its employees year after year and is, at its core, nothing more than a very well-run business.
There are those players and coaches that truly love winning. That need to win. That feed off winning. Because they want to be the best at what they do (meaningless as it is in the grand scheme of life) and they want to prove that to the world.
But how long is it before just about every player comes to the realization that playing professional football is a matter of earning a living, getting paid to play a GAME, and being part of....an entertainment business? It is NOT the same as college football, or olympic athletics. I think some of the very "smartest" players understand their role as athlete-entertainers. A celebrity status earned by athletic ability but defined by overall entertainment value in terms of $$.
I'm rambling because I sense the frustration of my fellow Fin fans and it got me thinking about how much WE the fans (at least some of us) hurt when our team loses. And I don't think the players hurt nearly as much as some of the fans do. They don't like losing (who does?), but at the end of the day, they still get paid. A LOT. I can't help but wonder how many of the players (especially the more mature ones like JT) understand that it's all a game with a purpose vastly different than college football. I wonder how long it takes them to teach the younger ones. They are, after all, simply employees that need to look out for one another. They are individuals who must take advantage of their situation as best as they can.
I wonder if THAT understanding, that natural development that comes with understanding one's role in society, is exactly counter to the type of players we/Parcells want in our lockerroom. We fans want loyalty to our team, we want football prioritized over salary, we want absolute dedication to nothing but the improvement of the team we root for. To me, those sound like players that haven't quite figured it all out yet...
Players make their paycheck regardless if they win or lose. So do the coaches. While players and coaches may be out of a job if they don't maintain a certain level of skill and performance at what they do, for the most part they will continue to earn that paycheck.
Owners don't like to lose, and might feel a monetary pinch if they don't produce a winning product that pleases the fans. But, for the most part, they make profit off their NFL teams.
It's us, the passionate fans, that live and die by our teams every success and failure in a perpetual cycle of obsession and dependence, a cycle that simply continues to generate money for the NFL and its employees year after year and is, at its core, nothing more than a very well-run business.
There are those players and coaches that truly love winning. That need to win. That feed off winning. Because they want to be the best at what they do (meaningless as it is in the grand scheme of life) and they want to prove that to the world.
But how long is it before just about every player comes to the realization that playing professional football is a matter of earning a living, getting paid to play a GAME, and being part of....an entertainment business? It is NOT the same as college football, or olympic athletics. I think some of the very "smartest" players understand their role as athlete-entertainers. A celebrity status earned by athletic ability but defined by overall entertainment value in terms of $$.
I'm rambling because I sense the frustration of my fellow Fin fans and it got me thinking about how much WE the fans (at least some of us) hurt when our team loses. And I don't think the players hurt nearly as much as some of the fans do. They don't like losing (who does?), but at the end of the day, they still get paid. A LOT. I can't help but wonder how many of the players (especially the more mature ones like JT) understand that it's all a game with a purpose vastly different than college football. I wonder how long it takes them to teach the younger ones. They are, after all, simply employees that need to look out for one another. They are individuals who must take advantage of their situation as best as they can.
I wonder if THAT understanding, that natural development that comes with understanding one's role in society, is exactly counter to the type of players we/Parcells want in our lockerroom. We fans want loyalty to our team, we want football prioritized over salary, we want absolute dedication to nothing but the improvement of the team we root for. To me, those sound like players that haven't quite figured it all out yet...
