Professional athletes have it made. Where else can someone leave college early, or not even go to college at all, and get a starting salary of $20 million for five years with a $10 million signing bonus - before they even show up for the first day of work.

Professional athletes' salaries are already out of control, and as long as unproven draft picks are allowed to hold out of training camp in order to hold teams hostage while demanding obscene amounts of money, things aren't going to get any better.

And why do they act surprised when the fans are not supporting their hold-outs as they bicker over the differences in a five-year $15 million contract versus a five-year $20 million contract.

I bet the Kansas City Chiefs are kicking themselves daily for giving in to Larry Johnson's demands only to see him rush for 10-20 yards per game. Worth every penny. Ha!

Does Blue Collar Joe really want to hear about the troubles athletes will have supporting their families when they are only making $3 million per season and want to make $4 million per season? No, it actually makes him a little upset that he is going to have to pay more of his hard-earned money to be able to see his favorite team after it pays the unproven rookie more money.

The situation is getting so bad, National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell is demanding changes be made to the salary structure offered to draft picks and rookies.

There is the obvious argument of the insanity of spending millions of dollars to someone who has not played in one game in the NFL. But it goes much deeper than that.

Giving these huge contracts to young men in their early 20s, some who aren't even old enough to legally purchase alcohol, puts franchises in a financial quandary and can generate dissention within the locker room.

In order to accommodate these increasingly larger contracts, teams are forced to ask experienced veterans to take pay cuts or be released. Again, how much sense does it make to cut a veteran who has years of experience and an established rapport with teammates in order to give an inexperienced rookie more money than that veteran has ever seen? None.

And how much sympathy do these veterans, who may be released in order to pay these rookies, have when these players hold out of training camp while they demand more money? None.

Then when they finally show up and join the team, will there be a rift between the rookie and his teammates who are making the league minimum while they fight and scrap for their careers? Most likely, although they would never say anything publicly.

How do you expect to build a relationship with your teammates when their first impression of you is of a selfish money-seeker who doesn't care about the team? You can't. You are already starting off on the wrong foot before you've even had a chance to make a mistake on the field.

The league is looking at revamping the system to prevent or at least reduce rookie hold-outs. Here is the Pressbox Confessions proposal:

 

Create a standard scale for draft pick salaries. The first draft pick gets the highest contract value, which is pre-set. The second pick gets less than the first, the third gets less than the second, and so on. Picks in the later rounds (three through six) would all rate the league minimum. The scale would be increased each year by a small inflationary percentage. That way there is no haggling over contract amounts.

 

Make the initial contracts only two years long. This allows the players who perform well in their first two years to have the opportunity to sign new deals while they are still in their prime. It also allows the teams to be able to cut loose the players who are busts and don't live up to expectations. It works out well for both sides.

 

Institute a restricted free-agent system with incentives similar to the National Basketball Association's (with all the mistakes the NBA has made, they actually got this one right). It promotes players re-signing with a team and gives franchises salary cap breaks and incentives for retaining players. This would trickle down and also benefit the veterans who have been giving their blood and sweat to the NFL for years with better contracts than just the league minimum.

 

Institute arbitration. Just like with Major League Baseball, if a contract renegotiation comes to an impasse, both sides would enter into arbitration and make their case to the arbitrator, who would make the final undisputable decision based on the facts and each side's case.

Professional football is already the greatest sport in America. With some tweaks to corral the out-of-control salaries to unproven players and even benefit the proven veterans, as well as the franchises, it could near perfection.

But then again, the selfish players at the root of this problem would never vote for a change like this, and the NFL Players Association would try to block any such change.

Shhhh. Did you hear that? That was the sound of ticket prices going up again.

(From Sept 24, 2007) My eyesight has just now returned to normal after watching the Philadelphia Eagles' game this weekend (Sept 23).

I want to know whose bright idea it was to have the Eagles don those baby-blue and bright yellow eye-sores. They should be working on developing non-lethal weapons, like the incapacitating flashlight which emits a light-array designed to cause the target to vomit. I know I felt the urge a few times while trying to watch the Eagles light up the Detroit Lions Sunday.

As disorienting and nauseating as those uniforms were, it could not chase the latest Dale Earnhardt Jr. news from my mind.

I predicted Junior's addition to Hendrick Motorsports back in May (May 17, "Don't mess with the karma") but I never expected it to turn out like this.

It's like the Hatfields and McCoys. It's like Peyton and Eli Manning. What do you do?

Since Junior signed with Hendrick last month; Budweiser changed sponsorships to Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin will drive the No. 8 car for Junior's former team (Dale Earnhardt Inc.), and Kyle Busch switched from Hendrick to Joe Gibbs Racing where he will be driving the M&Ms-sponsored No. 18 car.

The biggest surprises were the unwillingness of DEI to allow Junior to take his famed No. 8 to Hendrick and Hendrick's unwillingness to shuffle sponsorships to allow Budweiser to move with Junior. The other changes were pretty predictable.

Even Junior's switch to No. 88 was rather obvious. You can't expect Junior fans to have to remember another whole number when cheering for the Dale Jr. So to keep it simple, instead of one "8", he just went with two. Don't confuse Junior fans. They have enough to remember as it is; you should see them at a road course when the drivers actually have to turn right sometimes. They look like a deer in a headlight factory.

But the news that came as the biggest surprise was the choice of Junior's sponsor. It was clear it would a Pepsi-sponsored car, but I never expected to see Mountain Dew on Junior's No. 88 car when they unveiled it last week.

Junior as Jeff Gordon's teammate is funny because it is ironic; this is just wrong.

If you haven't guessed by now - after years of reading "Pressbox" - I'm a Mountain Dew addict. If there was an MDA, Mountain Dew Anonymous - no not that group Jerry Lewis holds that telethon for every Labor Day weekend, I'm sure my wife would have forced me into it long ago. I mean, I don't just drink Mountain Dew, I'll go for a Mountain Dew Amp, Code Red, Live Wire, or even an MDX.

If I could find a way to make Mountain Dew an official sponsor of "Pressbox," I would.

But this move by Hendrick and Junior puts me between a rock and another rock. I've been looking for a Mountain Dew race car to place on my desk for years. Kahne has occasionally driven a Mountain Dew-themed car but I have not been able to find a die cast replica to place on my desk.

Now they will be everywhere. It's the bittersweet side of associating with Junior. I'll be able to find Dale Jr. Mountain Dew stuff at the local grocery stores. I won't have to scour the internet looking for merchandise.

But do I buy the car or jacket because I have been looking for one for so long?

But doing so will willingly put money into the enemy's hands. Or do I resist the urge, betraying my addiction to the fruity goodness that is Mountain Dew - the sweet nectar of life?

And how am I supposed to fuel the rivalry between Junior fans and Gordon-nation when they are wearing and waving the symbol of my cherished Mountain Dew?

That's like Peyton Manning standing on the sidelines during the Indianapolis Colts versus New York Giants game hoping his brother does well, but still wanting his team to win. It's a tough line to walk.

To do the dew or not to do the dew, that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of Dale Jr. fans, or to make sport of their faults, and by opposing end them?

A common theme over the past few years in college football has been the decline of the Big 10 Conference (which actually has 11 teams) among its sister conferences in the NCAA Football Bowl Series (formerly Division I-A - don't get me started on that change).

 

Really? Based on what? No commentator can convincingly articulate why he claims the Big 10(11) is weaker now than in years past, but yet the comment is heard routinely on college football shows every weekend.

 

I will concede that right now in college football, the Southeast Conference (SEC) is the premiere conference. But no one can provide enough evidence to give me reason to not place the Big 10(11) as the SEC's first runner-up. And any serious college fan would admit that there are only five major powerhouse conferences in college football; SEC, ACC, Big 10(11), Big 12 and Pac 10 .

 

The main "assumption" behind the decline of the Big 10(11) is the fact that on any given weekend in the conference, almost every school has a chance to win and the conference records are close to the .500 mark. That does not mean the conference is weak; just the opposite. It means the conference is tough and each week the teams beat each other up in pursuit of the Big 10(11) title.

 

Sports pundits all like to talk about the decline of the Big 10(11), but when the time comes to vote for the rankings, the Big 10(11) gets its credit.

 

Last year, three Big 10(11) schools finished in the top 10 of the Bowl Championship Series standings, to include National Title contender Ohio State.

 

Four conference schools were ranked in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 poll (Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State) with three of them still remaining in the Top 25 poll - Michigan has obviously dropped off.

 

The Big 10(11) leads all other conferences with 15 BCS appearances; the SEC is second with 13. They also have two of the most frequent BCS visitors; Ohio State and Michigan combine for nine appearances, while the Atlantic Coast Conference's Florida State and University of Miami combine for 10 appearances. Seven of the conference's 11 teams have appeared in the BCS, which is tied with the Pac 10 for most in the nation.

 

Year in and year out, the Big 10(11) has a pretty predictable three-tier hierarchy, just like most conferences. Michigan and Ohio State are the clear front-runners heading into each new season. The second tier; consisting of Iowa, Purdue, Penn State and Wisconsin, all generally finish near the top of the conference and routinely contend for the conference championship and appear in major, if not BCS, bowl games. While the third tier (Minnesota, Northwestern, Michigan State, Indiana and Illinois) will occasionally have a break-out year but generally finish in the bottom half of the conference. I would almost tend to put Indiana and Illinois in a fourth tier because the rarity of them competing for the conference title rivals Baylor's chances of having a .500 season or becoming bowl eligible (with six wins).

However, other conferences are much more predictable.

 

Then there's the National Football League draft. The same top five conferences in the nation in dominance and popularity are also the top draft-choice producers.

 

The SEC, of course, led the 2007 draft with 41 draft picks from conference schools, featuring 11 of them in the first round.

 

The Big 10(11) was tied for second with the ACC with 31 draft selections from their conferences and six first-round selections each.

 

The Big 12 followed in fourth with 28 draft selections and four first-round picks, followed by the Pac 10 with 28 selections and only one in the first round.

 

The Big 10(11) also gets major bonus points for being the first college athletic conference to launch its own nationwide network. The channel, available for free on major satellite subscription services and many independent cable providers in Big 10(11) areas, is not available or is a premium channel service from most major cable providers.

 

It produces 24 hours of sports programming covering all collegiate sports in the Big 10(11). Right now you can catch women's volleyball, soccer as well as football on the Big Ten Network.

 

BTN also provides its own weekly highlight and preview shows, airs all of the conference's coaches' shows, and replays the week's games throughout the week (in case you wanted to watch the Appalachian State versus Michigan game everyday).

 

But the best part of the BTN is that it airs every Big 10(11) home and conference game that is not covered by a major network - even those get re-aired during the week on BTN because the network still owns the rights to all Big 10(11) home and conference games - in high definition.

 

It even has up to four secondary channels set aside to carry as many five conference games simultaneously. So you can flip between all five channels and watch all five games at the same time, for no extra charge.

 

BTN is such a hit and such a marketing innovation to push the conferences' product out to its alumni and fans spread out throughout the country, other conferences (i.e. Big 12, SEC and ACC) are making plans to create their own conference networks.

 

The Big 12 has already aligned with ESPN, BTN is aligned with Fox Sports, laying the ground work for the creation of its network as soon as next summer. The ACC is offering all of its collegiate sports online via live video streaming, also in a move to lay the groundwork for establishing a conference network.

 

There are so many good college football teams, even in the lower divisions, and conferences, which is why college football still dominates professional football in the hearts of sports fans.

 

But when it comes to talking about conference powerhouses, the SEC is king, but the Big 10(11) is a close second. No conference is more talented from top to bottom and the reason the records don't look stellar is because the teams are so tough they beat each other up each week.

 

Why do you think other conferences like the Big 12, Pac 10 and ACC almost never schedule a Big 10(11) team on their regular season schedule?

 

I wouldn't want my program embarrassed by Minnesota, Purdue or Wisconsin, either.

And why do you think teams from other major conferences (i.e. Oklahoma, Texas, Rutgers, Syracuse and independent Notre Dame) have all been considered or looked at becoming the Big 10(11)'s twelfth school? This would allow the Big 10(12) to create two divisions and hold a conference championship - establishing even more credibility in the national rankings. Now there's a scary thought.