As an avid follower of all things sports since 1984 (and increasingly, the business/litigation aspect since 1997), Gene Upshaw was one of the most powerful men in the United States. Think about it. You're the boss of a union (later, the Players' Association, after the de-certification of the union in 1989) that paved the way for players to make over $4 billion in salaries in 2008, you made it possible for the players to earn a 60% stake in the revenues generated by the NFL and most importantly, you made it such that players can willingly change teams via free agency -- whereas they could not prior to 1993.
Free agency is commonplace now in all sports, but the NFL was one of the last major leagues to "catch on", as it were. Before the 1993 season, you were expected to report to the team that drafted you, and if you made the team, you stayed with that team until your career was over -- unless the team traded you.
Players' salaries were roughly what administrative assistants' salaries were in the 1970s. Naturally, they were not living the lifestyles that players live now with huge signing bonuses, so they can flash their "mooga" in the public eye and "make it rain" at the club before going back to their 30,000 sq. ft. mansions in their Lamborghini Gallardoes and Bentley coupes. No, those players from the 50s, 60s and 70s had to work side jobs in the offseason -- an offseason that was much longer than the current (as the AFL and NFL played 14 games until the late 1970s, when the schedule increased to 16 games and later added two more preseason games to have a total of 4 and sometimes 5). Many of those players are now in their 50s, 60s and entering their 70s. Some of them have debilitating injuries and illnesses (John Mackey, Jack Tatum, Conrad Dobler, Earl Campbell -- and the list is much longer). Given the fact that salaries were dramatically less during the time that these guys played, they are currently unable to pay their steeping medical fees. This was a major point of contention between the retired players and the Upshaw-led National Football League Players' Association until Upshaw's sudden passing.
Regardless of this fact, and whatever rift the veteran players who are in their 30s (and are at risk for losing their jobs to incoming rookies making $35-50 million in guaranteed money before playing a down in the NFL) Upshaw ushered the NFLPA into the 21st century with maverick negotiations with the NFL's owners and the NFL commissioner (first Pete Rozelle until shortly before his resignation in 1989, then Paul Tagliabue from 1990-2006 and currently Roger Goodell 2006-present). These negotiations enabled the NFL to become the biggest spectator sport and the most popular of the major league sports in North America. Additionally, the players' salaries skyrocketed to unforeseen levels in the 15 years since free agency began. Along with the aforementioned revenue sharing that the players command and it is easy to see why Gene Upshaw was literally and figuratively a "Big Man" in the NFL and the US as a whole.
RIP Gene -- (1945-2008)
P.S. Upshaw had been in talks to avoid bringing the salary cap back after the current NFL/NFLPA deal expired in 2010. Without the cap, players' salaries would be limitless and almost certainly, the teams that play in major markets and have the most revenue (Dallas, New York Giants, New England, Washington) will be able to invariably snatch up the biggest name players on the market and set the league back two decades -- as the smaller market teams will not be able to compete. This occurred in Major League Baseball and still does occur to this day. However, smaller market teams such as the Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins are either leading their respective divisions, near the top or leading their Wild Card standings in the leagues they represent. Let's hope that small market teams (i.e. Green Bay, which is one of the legendary teams in NFL history, playing in a city of 102,000 people) never get the short end of the stick in the NFL again. Let's HOPE the next NFLPA Executive Director continues Gene's work.
As politically incorrect as I wanna be.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Drop Right Now...
My options are plentiful, but my living arrangements AREN'T what's good. My swag took a serious hit in the past couple of weeks. Here's why:
I got the internship with CBS Sports (and have a couple of backup gigs on deck with Warners and CCI in New York if for some reason, CBS doesn't work out). However, I feel somewhat uneasy. First of all, it is one of those unpaid internships. If my cake was where it was before I came back to school, of course I'd have no problem doing this. Therein lies the problem. Being a full-time student, TRYING to remain legitimate and legal with your hustles on the side... it makes it tough to take such an offer when it doesn't pay. Add on the fact that living in New York gets more expensive by the minute and you can kind of see where my concern lies.
That's not all, though. It's not all bad news. Everything else would be copastetic if I didn't have to find an apartment like YESTERDAY. Given that I am trying to graduate on time (which for me was ACTUALLY last fall, before I changed my major -- and is now May 2009), I really need to knock out these last 10 or 11 classes so I can stack that mooga before the fall 2009 semester. I would rather begin law school in the fall of that year rather than having to wait until the fall of 2010.
Part of me -- as MUCH AS I ABHOR Greensboro -- would rather take the "easy" route and live in a comfy situation and finish up my degree studies there. I use "easy" loosely, because the same companies that repeatedly tried to lure me away from Aetna throughout the entire 2002-2004 period won't even give me shouts back on an application. Now what makes me LESS appealing (with MORE education now) than I was before -- when I would've commanded much more in salary to leave a cushy job (time and a half overtime every week, stock options which we cashed out 5-6 times a year and bonuses every quarter -- I was making 40K with no bills other than my 350Z and the costs of working on it for fun) that I could do in my sleep. I always wondered why they would not let me work from home, then merely three months after I left, they began sending everyone home to work. Personal vendetta anyone? LOL
Anyway, my point has always been this: while my parents live here and I've had an easy life during the time I HAVE lived in Greensboro, my heart and life have always been in New York. I hated to leave in '98 and more and more I realize I have unfinished business to take care of like I was EPMD. I'm already behind schedule, given that my original class was '01! So you can get with me when you see that my sense of urgency is definitely on another level than that of someone who is a traditional college student. I don't have time to waste, because I want to have my own private practice up and going by the fourth quarter of 2013 (to my lawyer friends who want to form a conglomerate, get at me and let's talk business!)
However, in the short term, let's talk about the CUNY (City University of New York) system. I heard all the horror stories when I was in school in Brooklyn before. At the time, I figured I had made the right decision to stay out there and go to LIU (until I found out they were Don King and I was Mike Tyson and the thousands of dollars I THOUGHT I had, they had swindled me out of). I still contend that was a great school if you are about the social aspect. However, I will also admit that when I wasn't hanging with some of the cats from class, I was always in Harlem. Looking back, although LIU was a decent school, I have come full circle and finally enrolled at the school I SHOULD have applied to back in 1997 -- CCNY (or City, as we refer to it). I would have been able to develop a better relationship with some long lost family who were peppered all over Harlem World back then, whereas now, I find myself making up for lost time in that arena. This has not come without its snags. For now one of the reasons my plans are in limbo is the fact that I had fallen out of touch with or never really had a relationship with some of my family who lives Uptown. This would definitely help me smooth the transition of moving back to New York. City is really buggin' when it comes to getting paperwork to me (and countless other friends who I know have matriculated through the CUNY system over the years). I didn't get my acceptance letter until last week, and I find that I still need to submit more paperwork on a rush basis in order to even attempt to get in this semester. I tried to be as proactive as possible and get everything in to them in a timely manner... still didn't prevent the typical CUNY BS. That said, the schools themselves are GREAT, but dealing with the administration is like trying to watch SportsCenter or an NFL game without hearing about Brett Favre -- ANNOYING.
BUT GOD.
I still believe things are going to work out for the best. I did get accepted to Hunter College as a non-degree student, which basically allows for me to take classes during the fall, take the internship and if I WANTED TO, I could come back to UNCG and just finish up in the spring and walk in May 2009.
Another option is to continue forward with the original plan of going full-time at City, doing the internship and then to maintain, a whole assortment of stuff I ain't really got to talk about. At the end of the day, my wilderness is over and I'm glad. Shouts to those who prayed and encouraged me through that period. Shouts to those who hated, lied, whispered and slandered me, rejoicing in my downfall for that time... your day is coming and I hope you can remember to cling to God going through, because it's definitely what got me through and I'm much better for having gone through it. Satan thought he had me completely defeated, and much like Job, God only allowed for him to do everything SHORT of taking my life (yeah, there have been some serious moments where some wild spit could've popped off and I could've checked out of here EARLY). But I'm good.
In regard to my plans for the fall 2008 semester... stay tuned -- because I don't even know, B...
I got the internship with CBS Sports (and have a couple of backup gigs on deck with Warners and CCI in New York if for some reason, CBS doesn't work out). However, I feel somewhat uneasy. First of all, it is one of those unpaid internships. If my cake was where it was before I came back to school, of course I'd have no problem doing this. Therein lies the problem. Being a full-time student, TRYING to remain legitimate and legal with your hustles on the side... it makes it tough to take such an offer when it doesn't pay. Add on the fact that living in New York gets more expensive by the minute and you can kind of see where my concern lies.
That's not all, though. It's not all bad news. Everything else would be copastetic if I didn't have to find an apartment like YESTERDAY. Given that I am trying to graduate on time (which for me was ACTUALLY last fall, before I changed my major -- and is now May 2009), I really need to knock out these last 10 or 11 classes so I can stack that mooga before the fall 2009 semester. I would rather begin law school in the fall of that year rather than having to wait until the fall of 2010.
Part of me -- as MUCH AS I ABHOR Greensboro -- would rather take the "easy" route and live in a comfy situation and finish up my degree studies there. I use "easy" loosely, because the same companies that repeatedly tried to lure me away from Aetna throughout the entire 2002-2004 period won't even give me shouts back on an application. Now what makes me LESS appealing (with MORE education now) than I was before -- when I would've commanded much more in salary to leave a cushy job (time and a half overtime every week, stock options which we cashed out 5-6 times a year and bonuses every quarter -- I was making 40K with no bills other than my 350Z and the costs of working on it for fun) that I could do in my sleep. I always wondered why they would not let me work from home, then merely three months after I left, they began sending everyone home to work. Personal vendetta anyone? LOL
Anyway, my point has always been this: while my parents live here and I've had an easy life during the time I HAVE lived in Greensboro, my heart and life have always been in New York. I hated to leave in '98 and more and more I realize I have unfinished business to take care of like I was EPMD. I'm already behind schedule, given that my original class was '01! So you can get with me when you see that my sense of urgency is definitely on another level than that of someone who is a traditional college student. I don't have time to waste, because I want to have my own private practice up and going by the fourth quarter of 2013 (to my lawyer friends who want to form a conglomerate, get at me and let's talk business!)
However, in the short term, let's talk about the CUNY (City University of New York) system. I heard all the horror stories when I was in school in Brooklyn before. At the time, I figured I had made the right decision to stay out there and go to LIU (until I found out they were Don King and I was Mike Tyson and the thousands of dollars I THOUGHT I had, they had swindled me out of). I still contend that was a great school if you are about the social aspect. However, I will also admit that when I wasn't hanging with some of the cats from class, I was always in Harlem. Looking back, although LIU was a decent school, I have come full circle and finally enrolled at the school I SHOULD have applied to back in 1997 -- CCNY (or City, as we refer to it). I would have been able to develop a better relationship with some long lost family who were peppered all over Harlem World back then, whereas now, I find myself making up for lost time in that arena. This has not come without its snags. For now one of the reasons my plans are in limbo is the fact that I had fallen out of touch with or never really had a relationship with some of my family who lives Uptown. This would definitely help me smooth the transition of moving back to New York. City is really buggin' when it comes to getting paperwork to me (and countless other friends who I know have matriculated through the CUNY system over the years). I didn't get my acceptance letter until last week, and I find that I still need to submit more paperwork on a rush basis in order to even attempt to get in this semester. I tried to be as proactive as possible and get everything in to them in a timely manner... still didn't prevent the typical CUNY BS. That said, the schools themselves are GREAT, but dealing with the administration is like trying to watch SportsCenter or an NFL game without hearing about Brett Favre -- ANNOYING.
BUT GOD.
I still believe things are going to work out for the best. I did get accepted to Hunter College as a non-degree student, which basically allows for me to take classes during the fall, take the internship and if I WANTED TO, I could come back to UNCG and just finish up in the spring and walk in May 2009.
Another option is to continue forward with the original plan of going full-time at City, doing the internship and then to maintain, a whole assortment of stuff I ain't really got to talk about. At the end of the day, my wilderness is over and I'm glad. Shouts to those who prayed and encouraged me through that period. Shouts to those who hated, lied, whispered and slandered me, rejoicing in my downfall for that time... your day is coming and I hope you can remember to cling to God going through, because it's definitely what got me through and I'm much better for having gone through it. Satan thought he had me completely defeated, and much like Job, God only allowed for him to do everything SHORT of taking my life (yeah, there have been some serious moments where some wild spit could've popped off and I could've checked out of here EARLY). But I'm good.
In regard to my plans for the fall 2008 semester... stay tuned -- because I don't even know, B...
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