Football's Important Too

             My family and I are in the living room, on a Sunday night staring intently at the television. Our palms are sweating, heart racing, and we can barely stay seated. There’s about 6 minutes left in the 4^th quarter of the Patriots game and were down by a field goal. With minutes left were all clenching each other’s hands, now dropped to our knees, and screaming at the television as if our screams will motivate them to victory. Once Welker’s arm crossed the line and the ref’s arms flew up making it obvious that the touchdown was good, my family and I jumped up for joy. The living room was full of smiles and everyone was happy to see the Patriots walk away with a victory. Some people view football as another group of overpaid athletes, but I think football is much more than that.

                When the NFL players went on strike because they wanted to get paid even more money, it gave the sport of football a bad reputation. People would say that we didn’t need the NFL if they were going to be greedy like that. I think that football is something way more than just a bunch of greedy players. Yes, there are some players who make the whole league look bad but those are only a selected few. The same people who argue that the NFL is a waste of time and money are also the same people who think nothing good comes out of this professional sport; but I say they’re wrong. Football not only teaches a lot of life lessons, but it’s also a good source of entertainment.

                It is said that people get way too competitive and into their football games. This may be true but I think having pride in a team and having something to root for is worth more than people think. For all the people who think society would be just fine without the NFL should take a second look at all of the fans paying money and supporting their favorite team. I understand there are some players who represent the NFL poorly but just think about how long these players actually stick around for. The players do make decent money but not all of them are widely known, for example Tom Brady is widely known.

                Let’s take Tom Brady for instance… he’s very good skill wise, he’s on a very popular football team and he’s had a lot of years of experience. What some people don’t know is an NFL player’s salary varies upon these three factors I stated about Brady. For someone like Tom he makes roughly 1.4 million dollars a year. On the other hand for the average NFL players, who no one even knows exists, make roughly 200,000 dollars a year. People think that every NFL player makes somewhere in the millions but it’s only the extremely talented and known ones who make a lot of money.

                Not only does the pay vary but NFL players don’t “work” for that long. The NFL is very competitive and every year players have to compete to keep their spot along with their pay. Think about it, every year thousands of new college players want to make it into the NFL and take other players spots. It’s a lot of work trying to keep a job as a professional football player. The average career span for an NFL player is around 3.3 years. So even though these players make a lot of money, it’s not like they have a steady job. They make that much money in a short amount of time.

                Football is one of my personal favorite sports to watch and I think the players do a great job earning every penny they make. I’m not saying some of them don’t represent the sport very well but if you put into consideration how much effort they put into their job on a daily basis it’s easier to understand why they’re like that. It is said that NFL players make too much money but if you look at the big picture it’s really not as much as you think. Watching the NFL is something my family and I look forward to doing and it’s something we take pride in. We respect the football players because we know how much effort they put into their job every day.