June 30th: Holding Out for a (Football) Hero

Hockey season is over. Basketball season is over. Too much of America is baseball illiterate. Which means it is officially time to start beating the football horse to death.

Training camp is right around the corner, and teams begin to get their first look at what the 2015 season will look like on the turf, as well as on paper. This is, of course, assuming the players show up.

Some don’t, you see. Some players are going through contract negotiations, and choose to sit out of training camps and workouts, in favor of holding out for a bigger contract. Some are worried about their health, and don’t want to hurt themselves during an active contract conversation. Others feel under-valued, and are going to remain off the field until they get what they believe they so rightly deserve.

Adrian Peterson tried the tactic, hoping to get traded by the Minnesota Vikings, a team he felt didn’t do enough for him while he was experiencing legal problems last season. Martellus Bryant, the Bears Tight End, stayed (loudly) away from optional mini camp, telling reporters that he was looking for a new deal. Dez Bryant, after being franchise tagged by the Cowboys, feels slighted that he isn’t able to provide for his family (yeah, he tweeted about how 13 million won’t cut it because, ya know, #Family1).

As a football player, you are being paid millions of dollars to play the sport you love. You sign a contract to play ball and come to practice, and are asked to do your job. For these men to refuse to play or participate because they are engaged in discussions for their NEXT contract is ridiculous. You have a job to do, and you should be executing on it.

If I were an executive for a day, I wouldn’t entertain the notion of a holdout. You want to take yourself off the field to get more money out of my team? Good luck with that. Teams should have no faith in a player who is willing to put his own paycheck ahead of the team that he is already under contract to play for.

You don’t see baseball players hold out. Baseball players talk contract during the off-season, then put it on hold from March to October. Hockey players and basketball players don’t hold out. They wait until the offseason to do their contract work. Sure, football is a more violent sport, with a much greater chance for injury, but that doesn’t change the fact that players know what they sign up for.

Even more importantly for the sports world: fans don’t hold out. You don’t get to stop going to work because you don’t think you get paid enough or don’t think you have enough job security. Go ahead and try it if you want; you’re going to get fired. Football players should be held to the same standard. You signed a contract to play football. So go play football. If not, don’t expect to play football later.

I understand the need to take care of one’s family, especially in a sport as violent as football. Football players have an average career length 3.3 seasons long (according to the NFL Players Association), so players have to do everything they can to line up their contract before injury catches up to them. That can’t come at the expense of the team dynamic, though, and should be all squared away by the time players are ready to take the field. If they aren’t, then it is time to play out the contract you have, and prepare for next off-season, when you can get the chance to look for a new one. Any player who holds his team hostage because he is unhappy with his current deal isn’t really aware of the way the business world works, and should not be expected to contribute to the team in a positive way.

Players are a vital part of the football experience, of course, and teams should be doing what they can to look out for the individuals that make the game what it is. That being said, the players need to remember that a contract is their agreement to be on the field when they are expected to be there, and should be honored, regardless of a desire to get a new, better one.

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