Price of ampitheater seating for NFL draft

[Voyageur]

Reserved seating is a mere $3,000 per seat. Anyone interested in getting me a couple of complementary tickets?

 

[Thirteen Below]

For that price, I'd expect to be allowed to walk the first pick up to the podium.

What a money-making colossus the NFL has become. I remember when I was a kid, Packer players had to work in construction jobs during the off-season just to pay their bills. I remember some of the offensive lineman working in lumberyards or as sheet metal worksers. And, now... ?

I may not like Goodell very much, but the league sure owes him a lot.

 

[Voyageur]

For that price, I'd expect to be allowed to walk the first pick up to the podium.

What a money-making colossus the NFL has become. I remember when I was a kid, Packer players had to work in construction jobs during the off-season just to pay their bills. I remember some of the offensive lineman working in lumberyards or as sheet metal worksers. And, now... ?

I may not like Goodell very much, but the league sure owes him a lot.

When I was young, I worked on punting to the point that even after I was married, my wife would get mad because I'd keep working on it instead of coming in the house to eat in the evenings. We had these huge pine trees and I worked on getting the ball up and over the trees trying to add distance. It was almost endless work. In fact, I had a half a dozen balls, and I'd kick from one side the trees go to the opposite side and round them up, and pick another distance back in relation to the trees and kick them the opposite direction. On a lot of nights, I'd kick 5 times from each end for a total of 60 punts.

Anyhow, I was good enough that I was actually invited to the Cincinnati Bengals camp, back in the old days when they were in the AFL. I thought about it strongly, until the coach I'd been talking to told me how much money I'd get for being in camp, and how much I'd be paid if I made the roster. I nearly choked. I was making more as a police officer than what I would have gotten to kick a football and thanked them for the opportunity but passed. At that time, the AFL teams paid players $50 for each exhibition game, and the length of training camp was about 9 weeks. That would have been $300 pay for two months of work. Then, the yearly salary they paid punters was the league minimum, which I believe was $9,000. I was making $18,000 as a cop and had job security. It was a no-brainer decision. As for making the team, there was going to be three of us in camp to start camp so there was a chance I'd be sent packing before I even got one of those $50 checks.

Two weeks later I gave away the footballs. I gave them to an area junior high school. Sometimes the dreams are nothing more than someone saying that you'd be "privileged" to make the team. That doesn't feed the wife and a little one less than 2 years old. If I'd gone for it, I would have had to quit the force and that would have been a mistake. Anyhow, I wasn't really an AFC fan. I considered them minor league.

 

[Thirteen Below]

When I was young, I worked on punting to the point that even after I was married, my wife would get mad because I'd keep working on it instead of coming in the house to eat in the evenings.

It really amazes me to see how often your history paralells my own; I did the exact same thing. We lived 8 miles from town, on the end of a mile long dirt road, not a single other house on that road. The nearest neighbors in all 4 directions were a mile or more away.

I was an only child, we only got 3 channels on the TV, and there was no internet of course. My parents both worked, and I had a lot of time to kill in the summertime!

My dad bought me 4 footballs, and a half dozen baseballs. I spent a lot of time reading, of course, and exploring the 4 square miles of woods with my dog, but it was pretty rare for me to spend less than 2 or 3 hours punting footballs and hitting baseballs in the pasture.

I got awfully good at both, and I was a big kid - 6'4", strong.... I could boom the football and hit the baseball from here to forever. I sometimes wish that I'd taken punting seriously to at least position myself for a shot at the NFL in around 1980, when salaries were starting to climb more rapidly. If I'd made a team, it would have been a fun thing to do for my 20s.

A baseball career was never an option; just hitting and throwing by yourself in a pasture doesn't really develop any of the tools, even hitting and hitting for power, because it's all different against live pitching. And I was weak as a fielder; always had trouble judging fly balls. Grounders, or even line drives straight at me, I'd have no trouble with, I couldn'ty track a baseball in the air.

But the football? I could kick the hell out of that. I wore the noses out of a lot of footballs, because that's the part that hits the ground if your kicks are spiral.

Then, the yearly salary they paid punters was the league minimum, which I believe was $9,000. I was making $18,000 as a cop and had job security. It was a no-brainer decision.

So this would have been the late 60s, I guess. You were 15 years too early, unfortunately.

I'm curious; how did you get the invite? What was the connection; how did they find you?

 

[Voyageur]

It really amazes me to see how often your history paralells my own; I did the exact same thing. We lived 8 miles from town, on the end of a mile long dirt road, not a single other house on that road. The nearest neighbors in all 4 directions were a mile or more away.

I was an only child, we only got 3 channels on the TV, and there was no internet of course. My parents both worked, and I had a lot of time to kill in the summertime!

My dad bought me 4 footballs, and a half dozen baseballs. I spent a lot of time reading, of course, and exploring the 4 square miles of woods with my dog, but it was pretty rare for me to spend less than 2 or 3 hours punting footballs and hitting baseballs in the pasture.

I got awfully good at both, and I was a big kid - 6'4", strong.... I could boom the football and hit the baseball from here to forever. I sometimes wish that I'd taken punting seriously to at least position myself for a shot at the NFL in around 1980, when salaries were starting to climb more rapidly. If I'd made a team, it would have been a fun thing to do for my 20s.

A baseball career was never an option; just hitting and throwing by yourself in a pasture doesn't really develop any of the tools, even hitting and hitting for power, because it's all different against live pitching. And I was weak as a fielder; always had trouble judging fly balls. Grounders, or even line drives straight at me, I'd have no trouble with, I couldn'ty track a baseball in the air.

But the football? I could kick the hell out of that. I wore the noses out of a lot of footballs, because that's the part that hits the ground if your kicks are spiral.



So this would have been the late 60s, I guess. You were 15 years too early, unfortunately.

I'm curious; how did you get the invite? What was the connection; how did they find you?

A HS coach who knew someone in the Bengals organization had watched me kick and I'd been helping his punter develop his whip. He contacted them and told them I might be someone they'd be interested in. To be honest, I don't know if I would have made it or not but after watching Livingston punt, I figure I had at least a 50/50 chance. To be honest, I made the right choice. Not even he lasted long.