What if the NFL Played by Teachers’ rules? « PWC Education Reform Blog

What if the NFL Played by Teachers’ rules? « PWC Education Reform Blog:

What if the NFL Played by Teachers’ rules?

October 3, 2011 — pwceducationreform

Check out this op-ed by Fran Tarkenton, published in the Wall Street Journal today, October 3, 2011

Fran’s got a point. Here’s a teaser:

Imagine a league where players who make it through three seasons could never be cut from the roster.

Imagine the National Football League in an alternate reality. Each player’s salary is based on how long he’s been in the league. It’s about tenure, not talent. The same scale is used for every player, no matter whether he’s an All-Pro quarterback or the last man on the roster. For every year a player’s been in this NFL, he gets a bump in pay. The only difference between Tom Brady and the worst player in the league is a few years of step increases. And if a player makes it through his third season, he can never be cut from the roster until he chooses to retire, except in the most extreme cases of misconduct.

Let’s face the truth about this alternate reality: The on-field product would steadily decline. Why bother playing harder or better and risk getting hurt?

No matter how much money was poured into the league, it wouldn’t get better. In fact, in many ways the disincentive