Provocative article on voluntary workouts

Synovia said:

Only if you work for ****ty companies.

(Google and Apple are actually really good to their employees. And actually pay people for overtime).

Click to expand...

Apparently you never read any Steve Jobs' biographies

primetime said:

But your thinking about this is completely backwards. It should be about the players and not about competitiveness, which benefits owners. Currently, players have no choice but to play - or intern, essentially - for three uncompensated years in which they are employed at the will of the university and risk injury that could completely annihilate their future earning potential..

Click to expand...

The idea that players who receive free $200K+ education/housing/food packages are "uncompensated" is patently absurd.

College athletes are compensated better than about 80% of the employed populace of this country. $50K a year is pretty decent.

Synovia said:

The idea that players who receive free $200K+ education/housing/food packages are "uncompensated" is patently absurd.

College athletes are compensated better than about 80% of the employed populace of this country. $50K a year is pretty decent.

Click to expand...

Amen. I went to Syracuse. It costs about $53k to go there. Most football players get a redshirt season so they stay 5 years. During that time they get free tuition, books, housing, food, all the top-shelf Nike elite gear they can get, tutoring, and even per diem cash. And when I was a student there I worked in catering and we fed the football players...they ate like KINGS.

So all that is worth around $60k a year. x 5 years = about $300,000. PLUS they get the exposure that television brings, so they can be seen by potential employers. That kind of exposure is worth something for sure.

So they do work hard - these guys put in serious hours and it isn't easy. But they DO get very, very well compensated for it, make no mistake. Anyone who suggests otherwise is out to lunch.

PatsWickedPissah said:

Apparently you never read any Steve Jobs' biographies

Click to expand...

I was in a living room a few weeks ago here in the DC area, talking with Walter Isaacson about his time with Jobs. There were some amazing encounters between the two while Isaacson was writing the book. And Jobs is unbelievably bright as a designer and in his understanding of consumers. But a leader of people? A lot to be desired. And in private moments, Isaacson will say the same.

And keep in mind how unprepared Apple was for his departure - one of the most significant metrics of organizational leadership is the ability of the organization to prosper in your absence.

patfanken said:

Sounds like whining to me.

If he needs more time than 4 full months off to be a good dad, then he sucks as a dad. Almost every working stiff in the land works tons of hours each year. Many more than any football players will put in, and most won't make what an NFL player makes in a week for a full year.

Click to expand...

Not whining.

A very solid argument can be made that the greatest blow to fatherhood in the history of western civilization was the industrial era, when men were taken away from having a routine presence in the daily lives of their children, and the artificial separation of the 9-5 workday was created. In the span of a few decades, after hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, fatherhood was reduced to whatever a man had to give at the end of a mind numbing day doing repetitive work. The "working stiff" is a literal term.