That's Aaron Curry with Ken Griffey Jr. (pic stolen from his AC's facebook page)... Superstar #1 draft picks certainly get amazing perks, and if AC reaches his All-Pro potential, he'll OWN the town. However, even the guys at the bottom of the food chain get a pretty sweet deal.7th round pick Courtney Greene just got a $43,000 signing bonus. That's more money than I make in a year. I'm not about to go on a cliched "athletes are overpaid" rant... Particularly if we are talking about NFL players, they take the risk of suffering debilitating injuries and sudden, violent death every time they step on the field. Given that the average NFL career is only 3.5 years, and NFL vets have a life expectancy of only 55, I don't begrudge them the big dollars.
Maybe that's why I find the twitter feeds of these athletes so fascinating. Despite being a member of the mega-rich elite, Walter Jones still goes out to a theater to watch The Hangover.... Darryl Tapp plays UNO... Matt Hasselbeck evacuates the house during baby showers... and so on. I wonder how much these guys will still reveal once training camp hits, then the regular season. I'm sure someone like Chad Ochocinco will say something stupid in a tweet, and organizations will try to clamp down on their players' use of twitter, facebook, etc. That'd be a shame, because these social networking outlets humanize these millionaire gladiators in a way few things can.
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