TJ Walker argues Marshawn Lynch misunderstands his job: NFL players' compensation depends on media image and endorsements, not just their contract. Walker declined to train Giants rookies because the team wanted a steep discount, and says the NFL exploits outside providers while relying on them to build player value.
Questions this video answers
February 2, 2015.
$5 million a year.
$500,000 a year ("take a zero off his paycheck").
90% pay cut.
Chapters
So NFL star running back Marshawn lynch apparently hates the news media. Marshawn lynch has famously hated the news media for a long time. Last week, during press conferences, when asked questions, every single answer was, I'm only here to keep from getting fined. Complete non answer, complete waste of time, waste of space. NFL commissioner, the NFL commissioner said that there's going to be fines for this. Now, whatever your thoughts are about Roger Goodell and the NFL commissioner's office, he's completely right. In this arena, there's absolutely no excuse for a player to not follow team rules, which is be responsive to the mean. Now, here's why it's significant. And here's the real problem I have with Lynch. He erroneously thinks that he is in the sports business and he is being paid to run a ball up a field. That's not where the money comes for his $5 million salary. The money for his salary comes from selling eyeballs to advertisers through the media. He's in the media business and he's in the advertising business whether he wants to admit it or not. Now, if he really wants to just be a player and just be compensated to be a player, I think there's a way of doing that. By my back of the envelope calculations. What he needs to do if he wants to be compensated just for what he does on the playing field is he needs to take a zero off his paycheck. Now, he gets $5 million a year, and if he wants to just get paid for playing, take a zero off. Take, get paid 500,000 a year. Now, something tells me for four and a half million dollars a year, he could learn to love dealing with the media. Especially considering reporters, no matter how tough or nasty, aren't going to tackle you. They're not going to break any of your bones like the folks out on the playing field. Now, to me, this all comes from just basic lack of training. Hey, we all have biases. I'm a media trainer, but. But I do know a little something about how the NFL works. Their idea of media training is you get 50 guys in a room and you have a trainer, spend a couple hours with them and maybe you get them on camera once. That, for the most part, is a complete, utter waste of time. Here's the thing about lynch, and I don't know much about him, but I do know this. 99.999% of the world will never have the raw talent it takes to get where he is on the playing field. You and I can practice 20 hours a day. Even if I could get in a time machine and go back to when I was 20 years old, we can practice 20 hours a day. We're never going to be good enough to play on an NFL, in an NFL game against top competitive NFL athletes. We just don't have the raw talent. But here's the other thing. I know 99.999% of the world does have the talent to answer questions effectively to the news media if they just are given eight hours of training on how to talk to the media. It really isn't that hard, folks. And here's the other sad part for lynch is the real money for athletes is what they do after their careers if they have a good media image and a good reputation. I mean, look at what Tiger woods does, even though he's still playing. Look where his money comes from. His money doesn't come from the tournament winnings. It comes from corporate deals where his face and his name are associated with it. So lynch is throwing away tens, possibly $100 million or more just because he doesn't play the media game. And it is a media game. And he has suggested in other interviews that he doesn't like it because it's the same old thing. Well, you know, you can make the case a football game is the same old thing thing. A bunch of guys stand around on a committee, they get up and there are short bursts of violence, as George Will once famously described football. So he needs to understand this isn't an extra. It really is a part of his job talking to the media. Now, part of the problem is, again, the NFL doesn't understand media training. They don't respect media training. I know this firsthand. I'm often asked if I train people with the NFL, and I do train NFL stars, and I have trained super bowl winners, but I only train them after their careers are over and they're off working on TV shows or major banks or insurance companies. Here's why I don't train people when they're active members of the NFL. Perfect example. A number of years ago, I was called by the New York Giants to train all of their rookies. Now, we had lots of calls back and forth, back and forth, negotiations. When all was said and done, they basically were trying to extort me legally, not asserting any illegality, but they wanted me to do it practically for free so I could say that I trained an NFL team well, that doesn't pay the rent, folks. That doesn't pay the mortgage. This is essentially what the NFL does with everyone. They deal with Whether it's halftime performers, whether it's their team doctors, and whether it's the towns that they're in. I mean, they get towns to give them billion dollar stadiums for free by essentially extort them. Well, you do this or we're going to go to this other town here. And it's simply something I want no part of. Yeah, I watched the NFL. I watched the super bowl last night. I even had a Super bowl party. But there's just something really out of whack when people who are already rich make tons of money, want everyone else to work for them almost for free. Now, I exaggerate only slightly. The NFL, the Giants wanted me to take a 90% pay cut on my services so I could have the privilege of saying that I worked for them. I told them, no, thank you. If I were going to make a massive volunteer donation of my time, it would not be to an organization that is for profit, where people make $5 million a year and where the owners are already billionaires. That's not where I choose to donate my time. Now, I've not heard from the NFL since, and that's fine by me. I'm T.J. walker.
