More on Contracts

I've been thinking on what I wrote about previously on getting rid of multi-year contracts.  I know there would be no chance in hell that this idea would work.  I don't always live in the world of possibility, but I enjoy thinking about alternatives to what we have.  Nothing makes me cringe more than see these decade long contracts because everyone knows a player (more often than not) is not going to be staying around for the full length of the contract.

So why wouldn't it work?  Monetary security for one.  Players probably don't want to go season to season not knowing where they will be playing the next year or how much they will be making.  You always hear players playing at a higher level because of a 'contract year', so why wouldn't they play for their contracts?  Makes sense to me.  It could raise the level of play each and every year.  But these multi-year contracts guarantee they'll be getting paid what they think they are owed.  Who wants to go year to year and possibly make less money because of a bad year?  Not any player I can think of.  No one person I can think of either.  Who wants to make less money because you had a bad year at your job?

Who would want to pick up and move year to year?  One thing that makes me feel bad for professional athletes is the amount of time they spend traveling.  Especially the players that have families.  Every year, you see a handful of players miss one or two games because their wife/girlfriend gave birth.  The player gets there, sees the baby, and then is off again.  That would drive me nuts.  If I were in that situation, I would think having at least one week off to spend with your family would be a must.  Imagine being a kid and moving to different states once every two or three years?  But then again, it's no different than a military family is it?  But still, if given the option from moving every two years to maybe once every six or seven years?  I'm sure I would take the latter.

 From the aspect of a person who can't stand the amount of money athletes get paid, moving away from these multi-year contracts would make me really happy.  Why?  I'm not sure.  I think that it's the fact that they get so much money for what they love to do.  I love my job, why don't I get hundreds of millions of dollars?  Because I can't hit a nasty twelve to six curve?  Most likely.  It's jealousy.  I want athletes to know what it feels like living paycheck to paycheck.  From the aspect of a person who understands that athletes are actually people, I feel bad about the fact that they are away from their families for such a long period of time. 

Another solution?  Just pay everyone the same when they come into the league and raise their salary across the board once they reach career markers.  A raise at three years, five years, seven years, etc.  Imagine that.  Every player gets paid the same.  And the focus would be on trading and developing the farm system.  Interesting...

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