I recently read an article in ESPN the Magazine about "Home Town Discounts" in which GM's believe they are getting discounts on players who have become mainstays in their respective franchises because the player would rather stay than leave and uproot their family even if (god forbid) they are paid a couple million dollars less. (thank you Matt Birk). Here's my thought: If you are an NFL player making millions of dollars a year wouldn't you want to go to the most competitive team possible? Teams such as the Steelers are mentioned in the article stating that they should be able to get better players for less money because they won the Super Bowl and players have the chance to be apart of a dynasty.  This makes sense.  What does not make sense is someone like TJ Houshmandzadeh who has spent his career in Cincinnati (not a good team) and he is saying that he is not "stupid" and will go where the most money is.  I do not understand the logic of professional athletes.  Perhaps it is because I have never been pursued by multiple teams wanting to pay me millions of dollars for playing a game, but it seems as though if I had been losing my whole career while getting paid millions that I would want to go somewhere I could win and get paid millions of dollars.

Continue reading "Home Town Discount?"