Football season, that is. The season for game playing may be over, but there's still a lot going on in the NFL world.
Free agency began at midnight last night. This is the first year I've really kept up with much off season activity--other than the draft. I tell you something, this is almost as exciting as the game itself. Watching to see who releases who and who signs who. Teams trying to build up their weak spots. Cutting any players who just aren't what they need at the time. Picking up veterans released by other teams. All the while trying to stay under the salary cap, and still leave room for draftees.
Dallas gave Marion Barber the highest tender available. They also re-signed Flozell Adams, which brings a sigh of relief from every Cowboys fan, not to mention quarterback Tony Romo. Adams is the left tackle. He's the one who protects Tony's blind side. A Pro-Bowl left tackle is worth his weight in gold. Unless your quarterback is left handed, then it's the right tackle who is worth his weight in gold.
There are a lot of people who think pro football players are spoiled, over paid brats. But are they really? Let's look at this.
Now, as in any sport, you have your superstar players, who naturally are going to make more money. The 2007 salaries for professional quarterbacks range from Carson Palmer's $13 million, all the way down to DJ Shockley who draws a mere $224 thousand. For my purposes, I will just use the average player salary for the 2006-'07 season--the last complete season for all four sports.
Of the four most popular salaried sports (and by salaried, I mean you sign an contract and get paid a salary--not you win this event and earn this much money), NBA players drew the highest salaries, with an average of $5.215 million per player. That's almost twice as much as the next highest sport, baseball. MLB players earned an average $2.7 million in 2006. The next highest salaries went, not to the NFL, but the NHL. That's right, the National Hockey League, with an average salary of $1.46 million. Bringing up the rear, with a lowly $1.4 million average salary, are the "over paid, whining, demanding, steroid ridden freaks" of the NFL.
Gee, they make less than anybody. The question is, are they worth it? If you judge by popularity, they are. So how many Americans watched the 2006-2007 season championship series/games for these sports? Let's see:
The least watched championship for the four sports was the Stanley Cup finals, which drew only 2.3 million viewers. The NBA finals nearly quadrupled that amount of viewers, drawing 8.5 million of them. The next most popular championship was the World Series, with 10.1 million viewers.
And the Superbowl?
The Superbowl topped them all, drawing nearly twice as many viewers as the other three sports championships combined. That would be 41.6 million viewers, Gentle Reader.
Not a bad return on a middling $1.4 million investment.
Stats courtesy of Doc's Sports Service.
No comments:
Post a Comment