Tag Archives: football

Contributing to the Salaries of Millionaire Professional Athletes

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Of course, it is possible that you contribute to that baseball or football player when you go to see that game. It only makes sense. It’s what you pay tickets for.

However, I really don’t think it works that way. My guess is that doesn’t cover half of the salaries. I might be wrong. Still, I would like to see a breakdown on where the money comes from and where it goes.

Regardless, if the cities did not build the stadiums, the clubs would have to. It is sort of the way it started out. As time went by, more and more, the cities and counties started paying for the stadiums as a draw to pro teams, or for that matter, the semi-pro stadiums.

So, with your tax dollars, they pay to put the stadiums in, which allows the teams to put their millions toward the players. To me, the way I look at it, the taxpayers are helping to pay the players, even if they never go to a game.

So, isn’t it nice to know, even though you can hardly pay your car payment or grocery bills, they involuntarily make sure a dollar or two out of your paycheck goes to pay for that multi-millionaire player’s contract and bonuses.

If you don’t believe me, if none of the cities pay for the stadiums, just watch how fast those contracts decrease in value.

The hitch is this. If you take a little from each player, they’d not miss it and they could pay for the stadiums. Then the cities would not have to reach into our wallets to build the stadiums.

Then, the only folks that would pay for the contracts would be the ones paying for the tickets. I would imagine the concessions could pay for the stadium upkeep.

It does make me wonder though. Why do I write this when I know very few will read this, if any. Well, I also like talking to fence posts.

First, Catch the Ball

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Okay. I wasn’t the best in the little league, though I thought I was better than the coach thought I was. One thing I will say, I never missed a ball during a game while I played first base. It was because of something my brother taught me. First, catch the ball.

That is to say, no matter what you plan to do after you catch it, make sure to catch it. It seems so obvious but I have seen even the pros start to throw someone out at first before he caught the ball. That is embarrassing. Even more, it can cost the game. Not only can’t you not make the play without the ball, but if that ball goes on out into the field, it can cost runs. Worse, it allows that other batter to come to the plate and hit the little pill over the fence.

To be sure, it takes determination. The instant that hard hit grounder starts in your direction, you must make the determination to catch, or at least stop that ball. No matter what else you did before or will do after, that is the number one concern.

Strange as it might seem, I saw first one football player, then the other a short time later drop an almost perfect pass. They had both their hands on the ball and it was very catchable. In both cases, they started making their plans for what they were going to do after getting the ball… then they dropped the ball.

Excuse me, but aren’t these guys getting at least 6 figures a year. Perhaps I have it wrong, but I would think the coach would really want a receiver who would first catch the ball. I mean I’m not one of those high paid coaches, but as I have said before, I am available. I mean, I do understand the basics, like catching the ball.

It is really nice to be the fastest on the field. However, it won’t do you a bit of good if you can’t put your hands around that ball and secure it firmly. Then you can run. Then you can go through all those elusive moves. But first catch it. As I said, I learned that in Little League. My guess is that most of the football players learned the importance of holding onto the ball in high school. I am sure it has been stressed repeatedly in college.

It is as that architectural engineer wrote, “The most important thing, is to keep the most important thing, the most important thing.”

It is important in baseball. It is important in football. Actually, it is the most important thing in just almost everything. This means, it is really difficult to keep a nation a representative republic when you can’t even keep the elections honest. I mean, it is sort of the most important thing.

How to Win at Football

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It’s easy. I have been observing and I believe I have the perfect method to win and I could beat any of the other teams.

  1. Don’t get penalized. I have noticed that penalties almost always kill drives, especially the 10 yard variety. The 15 yard types are the really bad stoppers. When I see a fifteen yard penalty on TV, the cameras almost always cut to the coach, who is generally ready to start pulling his hair out. On occasion, I have seen one of them jump up and down and yell. It doesn’t do any good. Better to tell the players not to commit the penalties.
  2. Do not fumble or get intercepted. Turnovers are particularly bad when it is close to one end of the field or the other. Imagine the team is on the five yard line and drops the ball. Yeah. That is not a good way to get on the good side of the coach. On the other hand, fumbling the ball on your own 10 yard line isn’t good either.
  3. Long gains are good. However the real secret to winning is to make sure you gain 5 1/2 yards per play. This will get you first down after first down with a good margin for error, especially in light of item 4.
  4. Make sure the quarterback never gets sacked. All offensive plays should result in positive yardage.
  5. Make sure that each possession of the ball should result in some kind of score, even if it is a field goal. For this reason, it is good to have a kicker who has a cannon for a leg. If he can kick a field from the 50 yard line, it will have a very positive outcome on point production. It means that it is not necessary to reach the goal to score, only the opponents 40 yard line. It really puts a lot of pressure on the opponent’s defense.
  6. Defensively, remember, don’t allow the other team to do any of the above.

Now that I have shown I know how to win football games, I offer my expertise to someone willing to pay me a few million dollars. I am not greedy. 10 million will be fine.

As an aside, I find it interesting that football coaches get paid more the the commander in chief. This is true even though the coaches army is far smaller. Does that mean that a football coach is more important?

Yard Sale

Posted in Going Green by

As we were driving home from eating, I happened to see a yard sale sign. It prompted me of an old memory. I guess it had to be around 1974 or 75. When I was teaching at MCAS El Toro, one of the other instructors, Sandy was teaching there too, another subject. He was known for going to the base dump every Saturday he could, he collected anything he thought he might could sell. Any time he felt he had gathered enough, he held a yard sale. He had actually gathered a reputation of having very good yard sales.

One Monday after he held one of these yard sales, he reported that he almost sold all he had. All he had left was a bowling ball. He took down his signs and decided to terminate the sale. He took the bowling ball inside in the hopes of selling it next time.

About 30 minutes later, he had a knock on the door. The late arrival asked if that was the place that had the yard sale. Sandy said it was but he sold everything. The man asked, “Everything?”

Sandy said, “Well, all I have left is a bowling ball.”

The man said, “I’ll take it.” He never asked to see it or what kind of price. And so it was that he sold everything he had pilfered from the dump. All it cost him was a little gas and the time it took. And, by the way, for those going green folks, he also helped to recycle.

Thinking back over it, do you suppose we should hire people to go through the dumps and collect stuff and sell it. It would decrease our rubble.

The Grizzly Question

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I noticed that the Memphis Grizzlies managed to get a 7′ 4″ player yesterday. My guess is that he will contribute to their winning. At his height he would not have to jump much to drop the ball through the hoop. I truly hope it will help. I also hope it will increase interest and attendance. As near as I can tell, Memphis needs all the help they can get.

However, it does beg the question, when will those with the power decide to put in a few parking lots? The idea with putting the stadium downtown was to draw folks down there to see the games. My best guess is, most who attend will go, attend and return home. It sort of defeats the purpose of putting the stadium down there. Will it actually draw any business outside of the game itself? For that matter, how much will the lack of parking hinder the actual attendance.

You won’t find me fighting the traffic to get there, fighting to find someplace to park, paying a bundle to park, walking a block or two to the stadium and then sort of repeating the whole process in reverse when the game is over. For what purpose would I go to a shop or restaurant before or after the game?

I’m not trying to tell Memphis how to run their city. However, I am the official Memphis observer and it is simply an observation that demands the question, who is it that is making these ridiculous decisions. Does anyone, anywhere realize that the importance of being able to accommodate the auto if they have any hope of doing business with their owners. You know, it the old days, the shops had parking spaces in front of the shops. It would seem we have gotten away from that idea.

As an aside, why in the world are any cities building any sports arenas for players taking home millions of dollars. Many of the individual players make enough to buy enough land to build a stadium on. Yet, Memphis gives the land to them. If the NBA can afford to pay their players that much, they can afford to pay for the arenas. If they did pay for their own arenas, businessmen would make the decisions as to where build and they would very likely be built where the fans would have easier access.

But then, that would just make too much common sense. Better the tax payers pay for the stadium most of whom will never attend.

Well, maybe they will at least increase the TV audience if they start winning games regular. Maybe those in Arkansas and Mississippi will start taking note if they should actually be in the running for a championship. I don’t know. The NBA lost this fan when they decided to play ball with China. As far as I am concerned they ought to just move the stadiums over there. For me, they serve no purpose here, or in downtown Memphis.

Rules & Refs

Posted in Biden, Cease fire between Israel and Gaza, Deceit by

It’s another football weekend. Teams will take to the field and play, mostly by the rules. When there are infractions the referees will usually step in and penalize the guilty team.

Nowadays, the officiaters have help. It just almost seems like there are cameras everywhere. When a play is in doubt, it can generally be reviewed from 2 or 3 different angles. I would call that a good thing. It keeps the game a little more fair, though occasionally someone does get by with something.

However, that just doesn’t happen much these days. There are many refs out there and the refs are getting better.

However, I think Old Joe’s been watching too many football games. He seems to think wars are like football. He seems to think the fighters will all compete by the rules. Whenever they don’t, he expects someone to toss a flag. Then, whenever there is a contested action, he figures it can be reviewed on the instant replay. This of course, while everyone just pauses and uses the time to catch their breath. And, oh yes, it will give the fan a chance to get a brew.

Then to, in war, there are no stopwatches. It isn’t over in a few hours. For some, it’s never over.

Better that the wars never start, like when Trump was in office. Better that the war is over fast. Less will be killed in a 2 week war than a two month war.

Old Joe just doesn’t get it. Because he permitted Iran and Russia to build up their fortunes, two wars broke out. People are dying because he insisted on driving the price of oil up. People are dying because Old Joe decided to give Iran a few billion.

I sure wish we could get a referee to throw one of those yellow things and pronounce penalties on Russian and Iran. However, I’m not getting my hopes up. I know the difference between football and war.