Athletes and Money

Well the NFL training camps have begun and as usual there are holdouts. I don't understand how someone can holdout and not show up for work when they have signed and agreed to a contract. I am speaking of Brian Westbrook. How can he not honor something that he signed?? Doesn't make sense. If we, as employees, didn't show up for work for days and weeks on end, we would no doubt be fired. The only thing that happens to these guys is that they get docked pay, and yes, it is a lot of money that they are losing, but I at least think that they should be fired or have some other actions taken upon them. T.O. showed up even though he does not agree with his contract, but look at all the hype surrounding the fact of whether or not he would show. We don't have a choice, we must show up for work. Then there is Corey Simon, who in my opinion is done being an Eagle. He missed camp last year and came in all out of shape and now he is nowhere near to showing up this year.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that athletes should look at contracts just the way we look at job offers.....DO NOT sign on the dotted line if you don't agree with the terms. If you sign and then become unhappy, you should have the option to quit, just like we do. We don't however, have the luxury of sitting at home waiting for our lawyers/agents to negtiate with our employer.