Are Professional Athletes Modern-Day Slaves?

Photo Credit: xoque

Adrian Peterson, star running back for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, ignited a firestorm of debate this week with his description of pro athletes as being involved in "modern-day slavery."  In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Peterson had this to say:

"It's modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money … the owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money. I understand that; these are business-minded people. Of course this is what they are going to want to do. I understand that; it's how they got to where they are now. But as players, we have to stand our ground and say, 'Hey — without us, there's no football.' There are so many different perspectives from different players, and obviously we're not all on the same page — I don't know. I don't really see this going to where we'll be without football for a long time; there's too much money lost for the owners. Eventually, I feel that we'll get something done."

To give Peterson the benefit of the doubt, I assume that what he was trying to say was that the players are being treated unfairly. And that would be a reasonable comment. But to say that pro athletes of 2011 are like those in slavery shows a remarkable degree of naivete. NFL football players get paid a lot of money to do what they want to do; slaves get paid nothing to do what they don't want to do.

My friend, Tobin, has written an intelligent post on this topic and shares some telling realities about a little discussed topic, actual modern-day slavery. You can read his post here.