A professional athlete has in
one-way or another devoted every piece of their existence to their chosen
sport. So what happens when athletes lose their sense of existence? It is a heavy term set inside an all to real of a
question. Professional athletes in the modern world of sport, make enough money
to support the average American life style, ten times over. Yet, many athletes
find themselves checking their bank statements and asking themselves, how? Imagine hearing about a friend who
has just lost their job. The first thing you would do, as their friend would be
to ask, “Are you ok? Anything I can do for help?” They might respond in a
variety of ways, varying in expression of their emotion, but there will come a
time to which they will need to get another job. Maybe your friend searches for
a job in a similar field, or uses their degree they earned after attending
college for four years to earn a job based on their acquired skills. If all
works out, they get a new job, and the world keeps spinning. Now imagine this
scenario as if your friend was a professional athlete. Your previous friend did
not devote his mind, body, and soul to become an account manager for Best Buy.
Yet, your professional football player friend did…and nobody seems to feel pity
for them. Sure, they may have made millions of dollars and led the life style
of the rich and famous for what? 8 years? Athletes do not fall on this type of
money aimlessly, but they do enjoy it—that is all we see. We fail to realize
the aftershock of players entering the real-real world. We only see their
salaries posted up on the city newspaper. Again, we subconsciously ask
ourselves, why should we feel bad?
The
short answer is, you are not supposed to feel bad, but rather find understanding.
Facts will show that most of us are not receiving the amount of zeros on the
back of our paycheck that professional athletes do, so naturally we do not
sympathize with their sudden loss in funds. Players go from receiving big
checks week after week, to receiving nothing once their career is over. These
players are now left in a world with possibly no marketable skills, no working
world experience, and little concept to anything other than sport. There is
blamed to be shared in this situation, and our American sports culture has been
behind almost all of it. Athletes’ competitive nature and monetary zealous
cause them to spend money at will on things that the average American may or
may not find valuable—so we can assign some blame there, but why is this the
case in the first place? We see on billboards, Internet cites, and TV shows
that the rich and famous need these overpriced trinkets to be successful. So
when a competitive human being sees what it takes to be considered
successful—while also having the means to prove so—spend frivolously to keep up
with those in a similar monetary state. Contrast that with the business world
on Wall Street. How many times do you think the white-collar workers playing
the stock exchange try and out muscle and out shine the other brokers in their
field? My point being, whether or not you deem what an athlete sees a valuable
to be valuable in your eyes, you need to understand
that it is the nature of our culture to try and attain these things…you do
not need to necessarily feel bad.
My
opinion on it all? I understand. I have watched sports my entire life, as well
as pay attention to the business side of it all. These young athletes, some of
whom have grown up with next to nothing, are now rewarded for their life long
efforts with a colossal amount of money. Sure, I don’t really strive to wear
the gold chains and drive the Ferrari down the city streets, but I understand
why they do. When they go broke, I understand. Would I do it differently than
some have? I sure I would, but only because I wouldn’t want people to feel
sorry for me when it was all over.
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