Colts raffling five Super Bowl rings
 

Colts raffling off five Super Bowl rings. It's to raise money for charity, but - unless these rings were donated by five people in the organization who now don't get rings - it doesn't seem right to me. I think it cheapens the other rings and maybe even rings from other years. They're not Beanie Babies. It used to be that you actually had to earn these rings by playing football well or by helping players play well.

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it could even be a boat!

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Sports teams are businesses.

Businesses like good PR.

Good PR brings in more $$$ through tickets and merchandise sales.

This is good PR.

It's sad, but true.

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Colts raffling off five Super Bowl rings. It's to raise money for charity, but - unless these rings were donated by five people in the organization who now don't get rings - it doesn't seem right to me. I think it cheapens the other rings and maybe even rings from other years. They're not Beanie Babies. It used to be that you actually had to earn these rings by playing football well or by helping players play well.

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this is great. wtf do you care about the value of the ring?

i doubt this makes the players/coaches/staff feel like their rings are worth less.

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To clarify, I'm not saying the Colts are doing a bad thing by donating money to charity - it's just the emphasis on the sacredness of "the ring" and athletes playing for "the love of the game" has faded over the last decade or so IMO.

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They give these things to so many no football people in the organization anyway that it doesn't really make a difference. The woman in charge of selling season tickets gets one, so whats the difference?

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It's not like they're raffling off the Lombardi trophy here. The organization gives out the rings, not the NFL

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I think it cheapens the other rings and maybe even rings from other years.

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Yeah!

And the Star Wars prequels cheapened the original trilogy!

And Jerry Yang's WSOP victory cheapened the victories of great players like Doyle Brunson and Stu Ungar!

And Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize cheapened the Prize of Martin Luther King Jr.!

And Berry Rice Krispies cheapened origanal Rice Krispies!



Or not.

Re: Colts raffling five Super Bowl rings
 

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...it's just the emphasis on the sacredness of "the ring" and athletes playing for "the love of the game" has faded over the last decade or so IMO.

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I think it's a safe bet that a decade or so ago, you were a kid.

I think you could find adults in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s who would say "Today's players just don't play for the right reason. It used be different before."

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They give these things to so many no football people in the organization anyway that it doesn't really make a difference. The woman in charge of selling season tickets gets one, so whats the difference?

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Whoever gets these are probably the most deserving. No way any player would put up the money these people are for one.

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...it's just the emphasis on the sacredness of "the ring" and athletes playing for "the love of the game" has faded over the last decade or so IMO.

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I think it's a safe bet that a decade or so ago, you were a kid.

I think you could find adults in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s who would say "Today's players just don't play for the right reason. It used be different before."

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Very good point.

However, I think there is some correlation between the inflated salaries (related to average or mean income) today than in the 60s and 70s.

Assuming the numbers used on this websites are correct, there is a disparity between the average MLB salary and the average salary of the US in general.

MLB

US Census

Note: I'm using the value of the dollar at each time period to stay constant with the comparison between MLB and avg. income.

Avg. MLB salary (in dollars of the time period):

1970: $ 29,303.00
1980: $ 146,500.00
1990: $ 589,483.00
2000: $1,987,543.03


US Median Family Income:

1970: 11,106
1980: 23,974
1990: 42,652
2000: 65,773

Percentage Differences between MLB salaries and Avg. US Household Income:

1970: 264%
1980: 611%
1990: 1,382%
2000: 3,021%

One might assume that if you extrapolated the salaries back into the early 20th century, the difference between MLB and avg. household income would approach each other.

My hypothesis is that with the massive increase in average salary size of professional athletes with regard to the average US household income, the motivation for playing becomes more monetary oriented and the notion of "love of the game" is displaced in favor of material gain.

Obviously, "love of the game" cannot be quantified, but I think there is a correlation between this motivation and playing for different sized salaries in relation to the general population. Basically, if an athlete makes the same or less than his neighbor who has an average paying job, he would be doing it for "the love of the game" - or to put it another way - the love of his profession regardless of monetary gain.

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who gives a [censored] why athletes play the game

mind your own business

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damn i want one. i bet they make way more than the million. probably more like ten million.

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And the Star Wars prequels cheapened the original trilogy!

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Bad example [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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"The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that's it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it."

- Ty Cobb, 1925

Re: Colts raffling five Super Bowl rings
 

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Whoever gets these are probably the most deserving. No way any player would put up the money these people are for one.

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Someone doesn't understand what raffle means.

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"The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that's it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it."

- Ty Cobb, 1925

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Wow this is an awesome quote and will be extremely useful to me in the future. Thanks.

Serious post, not being sarcastic.

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Whoever gets these are probably the most deserving. No way any player would put up the money these people are for one.

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Someone doesn't understand what raffle means.

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Yeah he means the $5 raffle ticket. No NFL guy is paying $5 for a SB ring.

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This is a great idea, imo.

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Can I buy a raffle ticket online?

Edit: Just checked the Colts website. Can't buy online but you can call ticketmaster and buy. The problem is you have to show up at some silly treasure hunt with a bunch of helpers and blah blah. It's definitely not a traditional raffle.

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"The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that's it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it."

- Ty Cobb, 1925

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Baseball was purest in 1890.

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Impartial observer, but if the Patriots did this people would be losing their freaking minds right about now.

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Bill Belicheck and the Pats would never cheapen the Super Bowl like the scumbag Colts are doing.

Just kidding.

I'm fine with this. One, it's for a great cause. Two, it helps strengthen the bond between fans and teams, which I am all for.

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Impartial observer, but if the Patriots did this people would be losing their freaking minds right about now.

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This is probably true, but the Pats wouldn't be sending the money to charity, they'd be using it to buy better spy equipment.

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Impartial observer, but if the Patriots did this people would be losing their freaking minds right about now.

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This is probably true, but the Pats wouldn't be sending the money to charity, they'd be using it to buy better spy equipment.

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http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/satellite-radio.jpg

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Bill Belicheck has been pre-emptively hiding his signals for years from the satellites...the hoodie.

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+1 for I think this is really cool

Illini,
When Mickey Mantle would show up hungover before games did that illustrate disrepect for the game?

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+1 for I think this is really cool

Illini,
When Mickey Mantle would show up hungover before games did that illustrate disrepect for the game?

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If Mantle held another job - say an electrician - would he have shown up for work hungover?

I like the Ty Cobb quote, that is pretty cool. As Dynasty said earlier, every generation thinks the next one has a lack of respect or does things for the wrong reasons (as illustrated by the quote). However, I still think there is a correlation between the salary differences and motivations to play baseball or any other sport. To add to this, I think this would be reflected more when even the "stars" of the game got paid close to the avg. salary as well. I don't have time to look it up, but I'm assuming Mantle was well paid for his day.

Basically, my theory is that today, since salaries in professional sports are so huge, even for minimum wages in the major leagues, there is more motivation to play for monetary gain than for "love of the game". This could also be applied to basically any profession too. There are plenty of doctors and lawyers who love what they do, but I think a lot of them become what they are because they chase dollar signs.

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I think its a great idea, and devalues the rings the players have zero percent.

If Mickey Mantle was an electrician I'm pretty sure he would show up hungover for that job to. He was an alcoholic.

Also, people questioning the value of winning to professional athletes are off base. If they didn't care why would a grown man cry when he received his ring. If I recall correctly Simmons wrote about this and Rodney Harrison doing this when the Pats held their ring ceremony after the 04 championship, which was months removed from the last game they had played.

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Cheapshot Harrison = all NFL players everywhere. LDO

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Cheapshot Harrison = all NFL players everywhere. LDO

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Obviously. Yea my bad, none of the players care whatsoever. This is a pointless argument to have anyway, some people are always just going to devalue how much athletes care just because they make millions of dollars. Jealousy is a bitch.

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However, I still think there is a correlation between the salary differences and motivations to play baseball or any other sport.

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What about the motivation players have now to work harder in the off season, train harder, watch more film because the better they are the more money they make.

In the golden era of sports where NFL players didn't make much money at all, most guys held other jobs in the off season to pay the bills, which in turn didn't allow them to spend all their time trying to be better football players.

/hijack

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It used to be that you actually had to earn these rings by playing football well or by helping players play well.


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Or by being lucky enough to be a 3rd stringer on a good team.

b