NFLPA

The NFLPA or NFL Players Association is a union for professional football players in the NFL. The NFLPA makes sure that the NFL doesn't take advantage of the players. They also fight for benefits for players. Most recently the NFL lockout took place, in which the NFLPA was fighting to keep a 16 game regular season as opposed to the owners suggested 18 game season, but also they fought over whether or not the owners should be able to take a bigger percentage of the teams' income. The NFLPA plays a huge part in keeping players safe from being taken advantage of.










http://www.nflplayers.com  


Why are so many former athletes going broke?

NFL player benefits

The NFL does provide many programs for retired players with programs such as the Joint Replacement Program, Neurological care program, spine treatment program, and many others. But one plan caught my attention it is called the 88 Plan. The 88 Plan is named after Hall of Famer and NFL legend John Mackey. This plan provides former players with up to $100,000 a year for medical care resulting from dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, ALS, and/or Parkinson's disease. This plan was started in 2007 and since then it has distributed over $16 million to players and their families. This plan is a great way to make sure that players that are suffering from terrible brain injuries do get the proper care they need after they are done playing football.

      https://www.nflplayercare.com/Default.aspx
John Mackey

Length of schedule

Although the NFL is hands down the most popular between the big 4 (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL) it does have the least amount of games scheduled. This affects how much money the players take in. Based on per game statistics NFL players make a significantly larger amount. Physically football players cannot play 162 or 82 games in a season because each game requires so much preparation and rest. But this does not change the fact that NFL players are being put at high risk everytime they play. Also, the NFL has by far the most athletes in the sport with close to 1,700. The NBA consists of 450 players, the MLB has 750, and the NHL has 690. This greatly affects the amount of money each player is earning. If the money has to be split between more people then each person will end up getting less money.

Do NFL players recieve any benefits after they retire from football?

         http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ycn-10423863

NFL players living paycheck to paycheck

Many people think that living life as an NFL player is full of wealth, fame and glamour. But in reality there are plenty of players in the NFL that are living paycheck to paycheck. Roughly 380 of the NFL's 1700 players are living paycheck to paycheck. Before the lockout happened many rookies worried that they weren't going to have enough money to get by. NFL owners are being selfish by taking all the money they get and not paying some players enough money. 
Do NFL players receive any health benefits after they retire?

Synthesis & Plan

1. The first thing I researched was how much money the owners take in compared to the players pay. I found that the owners make a huge amount of money while some players are struggling to get by. Each NFL team is worth about $900 million and the average salary in the NFL is $1.9 million. The difference between player and owners earnings in the NFL is significantly larger than any other sports.
2. Second, I read an article on how many NFL players are living paycheck to paycheck. 380 of the 1700 players in the NFL are living paycheck to paycheck. NFL owners are taking in huge amounts of money while some players are struggling.

I also plan on researching players lives after football and if the NFL is doing anything to make sure retired players can pay for surgeries and be compensated for life-changing injuries.

I will also be doing more research on the lockout that happened a couple years ago.

Team worth vs. athletes average salary

Do you remember the NFL lockout a couple years ago. It made the players and owners look very greedy, but actually the owners were being the greedy ones. The owners wanted to cut pay of the players because they thought they deserved a higher percent of the league revenue.These are some statistics showing how much an average sports team takes in to the average player in each league:

• NFL owners collectively take $1 Billion off of what the NFL makes which is $9 Billion
• Each NFL team is worth about $898 million(Forbes)
• Player average:$1.9 million
• Each NBA team is worth about $393 million(Forbes)
• Player average:$5.15 million
• Each NHL team is worth about $240 million(Forbes)
• Player average:$2.4 million
• Each MLB team is worth about $605 million(Forbes)
• Player average:$3.31 million

As you can see the NFL team worth is the highest of the sports, yet the players have the lowest average salary between the four leagues. Why is it that the owners of NFL teams take in so much money and the players get paid so little compared to other sports?http://erinwootan.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/the-impending-2011-nfl-lockout.jpg

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/09/07/the-nfls-most-valuable-teams/ Forbes is a very well known and credible business magazine.

How come the NFL average salary is the smallest amount out of the NBA, MLB, NHL, and NFL?

1 . I am passionate about this topic because I play football and I love everything about the game. I wanted to figure out why players that are most prone to injury are payed the least on average.

2. I already know NFL players have the lowest average salary compared to NBA, NHL, MLB.