Hey Richard Sherman, Shut-up and play ball

“Poopfest”? Come on Richard, as a Stanford graduate I expect a little more. Richard Sherman has a problem with something so it’s time for all of us to hear about it.

Don’t get me wrong, Thursday Night Football has produced some of the worst games of the season. But, whether the players like it or not, it is part of the NFL.

Whether Richard Sherman realizes it or not, he is an employee of a business. Businesses exist for the purpose of making a profit. NFL players make an exorbitant amount of money to play a game. Albeit I realize that not just anyone can become an NFL player, but once you make the decision to play in the NFL, you accept the responsibility of abiding by the decisions and requests of your “boss.”

Americans love football. People around the world love football. When people love something, and giving them more of it will make you money, you’re going to make it happen. When the NFL saw an opportunity to provide fans with a game three days prior to when football normally started, they took it and ran with it; and rightfully so. As an avid football fan, nothing was worse than realizing on Tuesday morning that you would have to wait until Sunday for football.

The NFL solved this problem by creating Thursday night football. This would require each team to play a game on Thursday night ONCE per season. The league is asking players to go to work a few days earlier than normal ONE TIME per year, and these players who make millions of dollars per year, namely Richard Sherman, feel the need to complain. I can’t speak for all working -class people, but if my boss asks me to work late or on a Saturday because it is in the best interest of the firm, I do it.

Richard claims that players bodies aren’t ready for Thursday games and that the creation of the Thursday Night games flies in the face of the NFL’s emphasis on player safety. The NFL has taken numerous steps to improve player safety including: revising rules to protect players; educating teams, league personnel and referees about concussions and how to maximize player safety; developing and securing the most advanced equipment; and contributing funds to the study of concussions.

When attempting to illustrate the incredible hardship that players experience by playing on Thursdays, Richard states that, “I guess this is what happens when you have people in suits who have never played the game at this level dictating the schedule. I’d like to put Roger Goodell in pads for a late game on a Sunday, in December, in Green Bay, on the frozen tundra — then see what time he gets to the office on Monday morning, knowing that he would have to suit up again on Thursday.” Good try, but so much about this analogy is inaccurate. Roger Goodell is not a professional football player, so asking him to put on pads and to see how he feels on Monday morning after a game doesn’t make much sense. A more adept illustration would be to ask him to stay up all night on Sunday and then to renegotiate the CBA on Monday morning on little to no sleep. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending Roger, he is a scumbag, but the argument that people in suits shouldn’t be dictating the schedule because they haven’t played is ludicrous. When your boss asks you to work, you work.

Richard ends his diatribe by saying “I hope you don’t think I’m complaining.” Of course we don’t, you’re just taking the time to express dissatisfaction or annoyance about a state of affairs or events, which by the way is the definition of complaining.

I enjoy that the NFL has given us football on Thursdays. I don’t enjoy that the games, thus far, have been awful. Thursday Night Football could stay or go and it would have no real affect on my life, but that is not the point of this article. The point is that, Richard Sherman will be making $14.7 million THIS YEAR for playing professional football, a sport that he, on his on volition, decided to play, and he has the audacity to whine about working, not even an extra day, but a different day during the year. If he or anyone else doesn’t like what their boss tells them to do, then quit and find another job.