In Spencer Lee's argument, he repeatedly draws an analogy between professional athletes and “employees in more traditional occupations.” He argues that “athletes are like any other employee at a more traditional job in the sense that they have services to provide to their employer, and they get paid to do it,” and that the important distinction is simply the amount of “exposure in the spotlight” they get for the “mistakes” they make. However, this glides over other prominent differences between professional athletes and the average employee. According to Forbes, the average annual salary of NBA players is $6.2 million, MLB players is $4.4 million, and NFL players is $2.1 million (Forbes, "Average Player Salaries"). Compare that to the $55,775 median household income of the United States in 2015, and you can see that athletes are making 37 to 111 times the amount of the average American employee (U.S. Census Bureau). Professional athletes are clearly privileged with very high paying jobs, in addition to receiving “exposure” from their fame.
While this argument questionably conflates Kobe Bryant’s civil suit with Adrian Peterson’s child abuse felony case and Tiger Woods’ non-criminal cheating scandal under the broad umbrella of “mistakes,” I would like primarily to address how formal charges brought under the criminal justice system can affect employment for their general public counterparts. Most high-paying jobs tend to treat criminal records, even those that are old or inconsequential to the job in question, as barriers to employment (Center for American Progress 9). A recent study found that an estimated 87 percent of employers conduct criminal background checks on their applicants, and thus formerly incarcerated men take home “40 percent less pay annually” than individuals with identical qualifications but no record (10). Under guidelines issued by the EEOC in 2012, prospective employers can consider criminal records under Title VII if “the nature and gravity of the offense” and “the time that has passed since the conviction” are assessed in addition to “the nature of the job held or sought.” Whether or not this policy is just is a matter for a broader argument. Therefore, if Lee's assertion is that athletes should receive the same treatment as the median American, then their ability to remain in their sports league should depend not only on how it “affect[s] [their] ability to play,” but also on these other considerations.
However, let us assume that we abide by the rules that Lee recommends, and punish athletes only when their infraction (regardless of criminal conviction) affects their ability to “do [their] job.” Lee defines this as their ability to perform adequately in their respective position on the team according to the rules of the game, as in the example given with the football linebacker, and add that they “shouldn’t be looked up to as role models.” This assumes that the players’ job is solely to play their sport, and that no other activities factor into their value to the team and sports league. In actuality, the profit-based nature of spectator sports places immense value on players’ public personas in order to maintain revenue streams from television broadcast and corporate sponsorship. For example, although Adrian Peterson “had proven up to that point that he wasn’t slowing down with age and could still perform his job more than adequately,” his reinstatement in 2014 led the Radisson hotel chain to suspend its sponsorship of the Minnesota Vikings in light of the firm’s stated “long-standing commitment to the protection of children” (Star Tribune). Public scrutiny over the NFL’s handling of Peterson’s child abuse case may not have affected his physical prowess, but his relations with corporate sponsors which sought to protect their company’s image restricted his money-making capacity for the team. This is not to say that professional players should be held up as role models, but rather to suggest that “working hard at their job” inevitably encompasses more than just playing the game. A professional athlete's status as a commercial commodity and figurehead cannot and should not be discounted when assessing the legitimacy of any punishment from the sports establishment or the public.
Works Cited
Kaszuba, Mike, and Rochelle Olson. "Peterson Back on Team, Says He's Not an Abuser." Star Tribune. Star Tribune, 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.
United States Census Bureau. "Map: Median Household Income in the United States: 2015." census.gov. 15 Sept. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.
Vallas, Rebecca, and Sharon Dietrich. One Strike and You’re Out: How We Can Eliminate Barriers to Economic Security and Mobility for People with Criminal Records. Rep. Washington, D.C.: Center for American Progress, 2014. Print.
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