Sometimes random bits of information monumentally piss me off.

Today, it was stumbling across a database of the annual player payrolls of the major professional sports franchises. After spending a while plugging all the numbers into a spreadsheet guess what I found?

This year alone, the people of the United States are going to pay the players of the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB a collective 9.3 BILLION dollars in salary for running, throwing and catching a ball, or swinging a stick at things for our entertainment. (Actually... $9,341,670,534.00 if the figures I saw were accurate)

To be clear, that is not factoring in costs of stadiums, or administrative staff, or endorsement deals, or anything else. JUST the damn player salaries.

You just have to love where our priorities are as a society, don't you? To be clear, I'm not saying sports entertainment doesn't have value... but THAT number is completely indefensible.

This has been a random public service rant. we now return you to your regularly scheduled Mass. Senate election finger pointing and name calling.

some entertainment.

Compare to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan whose bonus pools this year are said to be TEN times that figure! And all those two companies do is screw us for money!

that the owners rip off the public for - especially tax-abatement and stadium building.

Spend your money supporting high-school or college sports, not the pros. Go to junior-high and middle-school games, most of which are free. Volunteer to help school teams or local youth sports clubs (church, YMCA, Little League, whatever). There's always something you can do. The kids, whether your own or your neighbors', will appreciate it (or at least they're more likely to do so than the athlete who gets a portion of the proceeds from your $300 sideline seat ticket).

the hockey arena got built. Then the football stadium got built. THEN the library got built.

Priorities. UR doing it wrong.