by Mark Murphy

Created on: January 11, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

The answer to this question depends on where you stand. As a spectator, I'd say they were paid too much. There are teachers, cops and firefighters who make just a fraction of what most NFL players make yet they perform vital functions in our society. Football players make millions of dollars playing a game to entertain us while the scientist researching a cure for cancer makes very little. It says a lot about our society when school teachers are living paycheck to paycheck while grown men become multi-millionaires from playing with a ball.

If I were a player, I'd say they get a reasonable paycheck. These guys take a physical pounding like no one else and they do it nearly all year. Very few players actually retire and get a pension from the NFL, so whatever they make now, is it. Most players only last a few years then they're out, usually from injuries. The ones that go past 10 years are physical wrecks, full of metal rods, plastic parts and scar tissue. Ruined shoulders, knees ground to dust, snapped tendons...you name it and they live with it, all for the love of the game.

From an economics point of view, I'd say that what NFL players earn is up to us. The fans decide if they want to pay the ticket price or buy the merchandise. It's our money that gets pumped into the NFL machine and eventually pays the players. If we didn't give them so much then the league would simply be unable to pay as much as it does. Think about this: the NFL makes hundreds of millions of dollars annually from its fans but there's only a couple of hundred players.

In the end, we decide how much football players are paid. Judging from soaring ticket sales and merchandising I'd say that they're paid fairly.

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