Dwight Clark passing

   / Dwight Clark passing #11  
.....no one is holding a gun to the players' heads, forcing them to play.
Steve

We don't force them, but we are responsible for creating the demand.
So, taking the argumentum ad absurdum, if the market offers poor (but athletically talented) people 10 million dollar contracts to fight to the death, you're good with that? "meh, no one's holding a gun to their heads."

Essentially you (I /we) do that when we watch the NFL, it's just delayed a few years.
We know people will take that chance when the reward is so great.
I guess it just come down to our individual (and collective) conscious and sense of morality.

If you look at how boxing has waned, and ultimate fighting has surged, getting back to gladiator games is the direction. (Not to mention our appetite for perpetual war)

I think a better argument (for you) is to say: Well, what about a coal worker who is paid to get black lung, (or some other laborer whose job shortens their life...."), and that would be a good point for which I have no counter, other than to say: "It just feels different" (again, back to our individual sense of morality).
 
   / Dwight Clark passing #12  
We don't force them, but we are responsible for creating the demand.
So, taking the argumentum ad absurdum, if the market offers poor (but athletically talented) people 10 million dollar contracts to fight to the death, you're good with that? "meh, no one's holding a gun to their heads."

Essentially you (I /we) do that when we watch the NFL, it's just delayed a few years.
We know people will take that chance when the reward is so great.
I guess it just come down to our individual (and collective) conscious and sense of morality.

If you look at how boxing has waned, and ultimate fighting has surged, getting back to gladiator games is the direction. (Not to mention our appetite for perpetual war)

I think a better argument (for you) is to say: Well, what about a coal worker who is paid to get black lung, (or some other laborer whose job shortens their life...."), and that would be a good point for which I have no counter, other than to say: "It just feels different" (again, back to our individual sense of morality).

Remain calm. Economists have studied the issue -- it's called the "compensating wage differential" issue.

Screenshot 2018-06-06 at 12.52.53 PM.png


Compensating differential - Wikipedia

Steve
 
   / Dwight Clark passing #13  
Sure they are well compensated, no argument there. Though in regards to "compensating differential", I don't think NFL players are highly compensated because it's an undesirable, unpleasant job, or because of the health risks. They're highly compensated because of their talents. There are a lot of amateur leagues and conferences were football players are paid nothing.

I guess what I'm getting at is what's my moral responsibility when I have people give (shorten) their lives for my entertainment, for sport?

I think that because it's "for sport", (and "entertainment"), that this is a significant difference than asking someone to give/shorten their life for country (military service), or employment in a job that (hopefully) contributes basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, warmth, health) to society (e.g. dangerous jobs: the coal miner who will get black lung, the lumberjack, the farmer, sanitation worker ).

(These are some of the most dangerous jobs, but not the most highly compensated.)
 
   / Dwight Clark passing #14  
We don't force them, but we are responsible for creating the demand.
So, taking the argumentum ad absurdum, if the market offers poor (but athletically talented) people 10 million dollar contracts to fight to the death, you're good with that? "meh, no one's holding a gun to their heads."

Essentially you (I /we) do that when we watch the NFL, it's just delayed a few years.
We know people will take that chance when the reward is so great.
I guess it just come down to our individual (and collective) conscious and sense of morality.

If you look at how boxing has waned, and ultimate fighting has surged, getting back to gladiator games is the direction. (Not to mention our appetite for perpetual war)

I think a better argument (for you) is to say: Well, what about a coal worker who is paid to get black lung, (or some other laborer whose job shortens their life...."), and that would be a good point for which I have no counter, other than to say: "It just feels different" (again, back to our individual sense of morality).

You touch on some very profound issues which most of us really won't or intellectually can't address. Having grown up in a poor family, I can testify that choices like that are every day realities for some of us, with much lower stakes. Those who were fortunate to have been born with a good mind and a good body will at least consider and explore other options; others are faced with taking physically hard and/or dangerous jobs just to survive. I had an uncle who died in his 40's from lung disease from working in the Lead and Zinc mines in Missouri.

I think today's economics and the welfare system do offer some relief, but for a physically gifted individual with a 75 I.Q., several million dollars a year is almost irresistible. For most of us, three or four years and it would be early retirement and off to the Caribbean. For my part, I would rather watch my Grandson play Jr. High football, or even old reruns of "I Love Lucy" than watch the NFL.
 
   / Dwight Clark passing #15  
You guys are in a philosophical argument which has probably been repeated many times over the centuries. How many of the people in our military are there because it seemed like a way to get out of the low income rut? Yet they make considerably less than what a pro ball player makes.
 
   / Dwight Clark passing #16  
Two things my wife won't let our boys play, football and wrestling.

The reality is we're all closer to death than any of us probably realize.

Being an Eagles fan since youth (watching their games with my uncles in Pennsylvania when my father was overseas and when he came back) and hating the Cowboys (needless to say, my uncles made an impression on my as a youth), I will always remember that play Mr. Clark made. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

By the same token, watched "A football life" on Emmit Smith some time ago, and even though he played for Dallas and I despised him on what he did to the Eagles when he played, he also seems like a genuinely nice man.
 
 
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