Peterson's Slavery

The NFL labor situation is just filled with so much crap. It has caused some to lose their minds. In cased you missed it, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson compared the NFL to modern day slavery. I didn't really think too much of it. I could understand his frustration with the labor negotiations and his job. I have often felt like a slave at work. I have even expressed this on occasion. It is frustrating to feel no appreciation when you bust your ass at work. Your relative compensation matters little when you feel like you and your work is being taken for granted, even if you're a millionaire football player. Well, it seems many of my fellow Vikings fans feel differently. Some want Peterson gone, traded, cut, whatever. Comparing work as an NFL running back to slavery, how could he? No matter how many times I see it, I can never get used to the overreaction on message boards. Provide a little anonymity and people go ballistic. Peterson admits that people with regular jobs laugh because they go through it everyday, but everyone latched onto the NFL as modern day slavery comparison. What is modern day slavery anyway? It likely has a different definition to different people. Some obviously saddled Peterson with a definition not his own.

Even if we set aside the question of occupational slavery, one can find examples of slavery in any competitive sport, football in particular. My experiences in football are frustratingly fleeting. Yet, I experienced being kept from water when I desperately needed it. I was pushed further than my body said I should. I shredded my knee and finished the wind sprints. It is frowned upon now, but anyone that has strapped on a helmet in earlier times, even my time, remembers being yanked around by the facemask. You go where you are yanked. You know why it is illegal in a game. This sounds a bit like a slave serving a taskmaster. Taking part in any competitive sport requires a servitude that can fit nicely into one's definition of modern day slavery.

I realize that few probably thought of these aspects of "football slavery" when Peterson spoke. I am pretty sure that they only saw a rich football player complaining about his lot in life, clearly shedding no tear. They conveniently ignore that the NFL was built on the foundation that the player plays where he is told to play, when he is told to play, how he is told to play, and if he can even play at all. Teams have 100% control of the players. Where they work, when they work, where they spend July, when they can quench their thirst. I can see aspects of slavery, modern or otherwise, even with the great compensation. Some of which the owners last offer was trying to take away.