NFL Old School Players Not Getting Respect: What a Crock of Horse Doo Doo

Professional sports is what every man in America enjoys being a part of from the comfort of their own homes multiple times a week. The day of the week most popular amongst sports fans happens to be Sunday, due to the NFL having most of their games on that particular day. Due to the popularity of Sunday football and the action-packed nature that goes along with the game, people keep themselves glued to the television more and more every weekend.

The NFL has become so popular in fact that merchandise sales are through the roof with jerseys and autographed memorabilia, and the sport has ratings so high that it makes you think people are really not going to church on Sundays, and if they're not, the sport of football forgives them, as well they should.

Here is what the problem with the popularity is. If the sport is so popular, then how come when a player signs a big contract, the guaranteed money is a lot less than the original figure for which the player signed the contract for? Or how come new top draft picks get their millions of dollars guaranteed before taking a snap on the field, and the old school players aren't even given health insurance and are forgotten as soon as they retire? How is that fair?

These are questions that have yet to be answered. The NFLPA (National Football League Players Association) has the weakest union of all of the other sports combined. They do not have guaranteed contracts, and they are not given health insurance. Tons of families of former NFL players have either filed for bankruptcy or are borrowing on houses from banks or relatives, while NFL players today are living in the lap of luxury with their condominiums and houses along the shoreline.

Yes, there is a lot more money to be made in sports nowadays, but does that make it right that players today are more well-known than the players of yesteryear? The players of yesteryear are the reason why the players today are where they are. The old school players had to batter and bruise themselves every day on the field to earn just enough money to get by and make ends meet, and all that hard work on the field led to today's multi-million dollar contracts and incentive-laden contracts.

Look at the sport of baseball, that players' union is so strong and so well thought out, that all the contracts are guaranteed. So if a pitcher signs a multi-year contract for a certain amount of money and only throws an inning all year long before getting severely injured, that player gets to keep all their money, and they can collect a paycheck while sitting at home with their families doing nothing.

Same as the NHL, if there is a threat of a contract not being guaranteed in hockey, there will be a lockout, and there have already been tons of those in the NHL already. The fact of the matter is, if a football player takes a huge hit and doesn't get up, they can kiss their millions goodbye, along with their fancy cars and their multiple homes. It's a sad state of affairs, but that's how the world works.

We are just barely scratching the surface of medical knowledge in the field of neurology, and with all the disagreements with stem cell research and whatnot, it will be a while until we ultimately come up with a cure for concussions and a cure to have a player play longer without the use of drugs.

It will be a long windy road, but one day, one has to be completely optimistic that the NFL Players' Union will come to an agreement to help out the old school players, give them medical coverage, pay for their housing and work it out so that rookies in the league have to earn their money first before getting it all at once without actually playing.

Hopefully, it comes to that optimistic point, but as of right now, we as fans have a right to complain, when our favorites go down and weeks later we hear they're bankrupt. And we wonder why the economy is the way it is. Get with the program NFL, take a page out of the MLB's play book and swallow your pride while doing it.