Thirty years ago...most NFL players made roughly what an average American income was.
Today? It’s a collection of millionaire players, a millionaire coach, a millionaire general manager, led by a millionaire owner. The system only works...as a pyramid scheme, if you, the common working man, are willing to pay $131 for an average Chicago Bears home-game....to watch a marginally competent team in 2016 achieve a 3-13 record.
Is it really worth it?
I swore off pro sports except only casually if it happens to be on where I just happen to be; about the same time they started make ridiculous amounts of money to PLAY A GAME.
Now, I get that football has a lot of injuries and so do some other pro sports, but getting paid millions is nuts. No one except the quarterback should make more than $100k these days IMHO.
That's better than watching the 2-14 losers who were led by Colin K. Either way, NFL is now in my past - this is no longer a recoverable error.
Dont forget the millions-billions they get from taxpayers.
In 1970, the average income was $6,100 for 12 months of work. The average NFL salary was $23,000 for 4 months of work. 1970 was 47 years ago. Someone making more than 3 times more than someone else in 1/3 the time is not roughly the same, and it didn't feel roughly the same either for the average person making $6,000 a year. Since then, the gap has spread to an enormous difference.
Ummmm, you left out the part where taxpayers have to subsidize their millions of dollars worth of stadiums...