Loyalty or Dollars: Death of the Career player

Something that seems to pervade all aspects of every sport is the lack of staying power. In the NFL, with a salary cap, players are dealt among teams like hands of cards.

In the NBA, you can see some trades involving up to 10 players at a time.

And in Major League Baseball, a player will rarely stick around long enough with one team to reach a milestone, and instead will usually pass through two or three clubs.

What happened to the days of players like Mickey Mantle, Steve Yzerman, or Larry Bird?

Sometimes, it's a case of a team needing to cut money. A good example is the Marlins dismantling after winning a World Series. Or, in the days of the salary cap in the NFL, ditching a three- or four-year player to save $4 million seems to be a handy method of cuttting costs.

Sometimes, it's due to a conflict of interest. Two cases in point would be Marcus Allen and Jerry Rice. Allen, who was sentenced to sit on the bench and rot by Al Davis, found new life with KC, and seemed determined to rub it in whenever the Raiders came around.

On the other side of the Bay, Jerry Rice was getting up there, and someone in the 49ers organization felt he was too old.

Coming to Oakland, he still had enough left in the tank for one Super Bowl run with the Raiders.

It's also a habit to ditch older players to find out if youngsters are ready to make the spotlight. You could look at situations like when Julio Franco was released. Sure, Franco was a feel-good story, an ageless wonder—but finally, he was sent packing.

While it's more common in baseball, some players can hang around a long time, and staying active—look at Greg Maddux. Some, meanwhile, seem to hang around as well as milk, and become an embarrassment.

All in all, it's easy to miss the days of guys like George Brett, Tony Gwynn, or Fred Biletnikoff.

But, like in everything—times change.