It’s May, and another semester is over. It’s time to turn my attention to the important things of life, like sports. Unfortunately, my two favorite baseball teams, the Orioles and the Astros, are each firmly ensconced in last place, and likely will be for the duration of the season. The NBA just had its powerball lottery to find out who gets to draft John Wall, the Kentucky point guard who is leaving after one year and may have to race to beat his coach out the door. The winner of the lottery was the Washington Wizards, who used to be the Bullets, before that unfortunate moniker became symbolic of the plight of our nation’s capital. The NBA playoffs drone on to the inevitable Lakers-Celtics final.
But the real attention is being paid to two NFL players, Houston wide receiver Andre Johnson and Tennessee running back Chris Johnson, who want to have their contracts renegotiated. Both are arguably among the best players at their positions, and it is understandable that they are interested in being paid more. They are not actually holding out, since this is the season of voluntary workouts. But these types of posturings often end up with players being late reporting to training camp, and generally violating explicit parts of their contracts. Theoretically, fines result, but often negotiations will end up minimizing or eliminating those fines, perhaps in the context of a restructured contract.
So is it ethical for players to do this? It is legal, as long as they are willing to live with the terms of the contract, or retire, and they do not play for another team. It is certainly self-interested behavior, and it is rational for people to act in their self-interest. It is really the only leverage these athletes have. But is it ethical?
Well, technically, yes—this is what we call ethical egoism. In other words, what is ethical is what is best for me. But in the sense of what most people think of as ethical, the answer is no. Yet these players will have many apologists in the press who will excuse the behavior because NFL players have a short window of opportunity, and their careers can end at any time, and NFL owners will ruthlessly cut them if they are hurt. All of these claims are true. But it is still unethical for NFL players to hold out when they are under contract.
Andre Johnson is burdened by an eight-year, already renegotiated contract under which he received a guaranteed $15 million. I am not mocking the amount that he has received, and my opinion does not depend on the details of the numbers. Assuming it was an arm’s length transaction, whether or not he used an agent, he signed the deal weighing his risk and return. This risk included his potentially short career and the aforementioned heartlessness of management if he is hurt. If he was deliberately misinformed by the Texans, then my opinion would change.
Ethical egoism, of course, does not value the keeping of promises. Ethical egoists will ignore promises unless they believe the cost of violating the promise will exceed the benefits. For a football player, there are at least two costs to consider—the legal costs of violating the promise and the reputation costs of being a proven liar. Any rational person who is negotiating with a known liar will demand a bigger return, which means that future football teams’ negotiations with the player will not yield the player top dollar. But if a football player sees his career as limited to a few years, he calculates the reputation costs as being near zero. He may never get to negotiate another contract. So all he has to calculate is the legal costs, and that’s why he has an attorney. And if he feels no duty to keep promises, then what he does is hold out.
Team management does cost-benefit analyses as well, and their calculations may cause them to choose to renegotiate or, in the case of Denver’s Brandon Marshall, trade the player to get value. I may personally prefer not to negotiate with liars, but they are looking to maximize their self-interest as well. But once you renegotiate one player’s contract, watch out for his teammates to come calling, particularly those the team can least afford to lose. I think those costs are routinely underestimated by NFL teams when they deal with the Johnsons of the world.
Andre Johnson could have insured that he would get full market value by signing one-year contracts, or at least short-term contracts. But he would have had to live with the risk that the full market value for his services in a given year (and forever), likely because of injury, was zero. Professors complain for similar reasons, particularly when people are hired in at higher salaries. We want to receive market value, but the market is determined for those who are willing to leave their universities, not for those who want to stay where they are. You have to be willing to assume the risks that go with moving to a new place, with all its uncertainty, if you want to make top dollar. And, in some cases, you have to be willing to give up tenure. The return is linked to the risk.
What professors want is what Andre Johnson wants—return without risk. It’s great if you can get it, but it takes a fool being on the other side of the transaction. Andre Johnson is not holding out, and he has the right to posture all he wants during voluntary workouts. He is just being selfish. But if he holds out this summer, he is violating a promise, and he is being unethical.
Categories: Athletics
Interesting comment by Andre Johnson in a story on ESPN this morning:
“Me not showing up is out of my character and that’s why I’m here. I just hope things will work out,” Johnson told KRIV. It appears that he means it is not consistent with his character.
The story is at http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5204044
I was chatting about sports with some youth from my church, when I learned an interesting insight into what is considered most valuable. One of their hobbies is to collect sports memorabilia like baseball cards, and the most expensive card out there is 1909 Honus Wagner tobacco card. When I heard his name I thought “Honus who?” Then I found an article about why his card was highly valued (sold for $2.3 Million in 2007). This is a great example of how ability plus character and integrity produces lasting greatness.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/17355488/
Here’s an exceprt from that article:
Wagner’s was among the first of hundreds of cards of major league players produced by the American Tobacco Co. and included in packages of cigarettes. Unlike other players, however, Wagner quickly demanded that his card be withdrawn (which is why there’s only 50 of it ever produced and hence the high value). While there are many theories about why he did this, the most accepted one is that “Wagner objected to his likeness being used to entice kids to use tobacco products.” A nonsmoker, the Pittsburgh shortstop was arguably the second greatest baseball player of his era, behind Ty Cobb.
I personally am not a fan of NFL or most other pro sports for reasons exactly like this one. To me the NFL is all about money. I don’t want to watch a game where people weigh their decisions on the ridiculous amounts of money some of the players are being paid these days. I greatly prefer to watch college or even high school sports because it’s so much more about the actual passion for the game. In the NFL players know they are the best and don’t really have to overly worry about being replaced as long as they are healthy.
In high school or college there is some top talent, but the overly egotistical behavior is kept down to an extent by either the passion for the game, or the desire to move higher. If someone in college decided not to play because they didn’t like the coach, then they would just be done. They are almost forced to show their true abilities and not hold back. It just really bothers me how the NFL players will refuse to play because of a little more money. To me the money just ruins the game and brings out the worst in these players.
I believe that many NFL players are ethical egoists and are so consumed with the short term and what they receive in their guaranteed money. The players compare their salaries to other players throughout the league, and once he feels he has been undervalued by ownership loyalty is lost. Some of the players might become ethical egoists because they didn’t take advantage of a college education, and football might be all they have. The owners are ethical egoists as well when they try to maximize their self-interest with creative contract structuring. Many of these negotiations take a turn for the worst because there is a lack of trust on both sides. The players are just one injury from being a sunk cost to the owners. The precedent that some owners have taken with contracts leads the players to take more drastic measures. Acting unethically by not showing up to team functions is wrong but in the market of the NFL such stances are needed when one feels he is being taken advantage of by the owners. Both the players and the owners need to think about the long term relationship to benefit both parties. There needs to be more integrity, trust, and communication from both sides.