Kelly's World | Is it worth the trouble?

I love the NFL, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are my favourite team.

One of our star players, Le'Veon Bell, has been in a contract dispute with the team for a while now.

He didn't attend training camp before the start of last season because he felt he wasn't getting a contract offer that matched his worth.

At the start of this season, he did the same thing again, but this time, the boycott extended to the regular season.

If he didn't report by a certain point during the season, he could not play this year. That deadline passed last Tuesday.

Because he wasn't showing up for work, like any 'regular' labourer he was not paid. And because he can't report to the team now even if he wanted to, it means he will not be paid for the entire season.

Now, if you and I are deducted a day's pay, it hurts. If we get to payday and realise we haven't been paid for the month, we'd probably go stark raving mad and trash the office worse than a WWE star on steroids.

But I'm pretty certain that our salary is nowhere near the US$14.5 million that Bell forfeited this year.

Now, I know the greenback isn't as profitable as it used to be, but nearly $15 million is still nearly $15 million.

Heck, I've heard of people who retired having acquired less dough than that. And don't even get me started on the conversion rate in Jamaican dollars.

Now, I know that there's the saying that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. And Nike had its whole campaign this year about the same topic.

 

I COULDN'T DO IT

 

But maybe it's because I'm chicken or maybe it's because I only have confrontations in my mind, but I don't think I could have sat out the season.

I suppose Bell will say it's all about knowing your worth, and he wasn't prepared to play for less than he thought he deserved.

Well, good for him. Like I said, I'm not sure I would have gone that route, but I wonder how many of us are willing to stand up for what we perceive as our true worth.

Admittedly, some people who think they're platinum aren't much better than bronze at best.

But Marcus Garvey said, "If you haven't confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life."

So arguably it's better to overvalue yourself than undervalue, and don't accept even a dollar less of your valuation.

By the way, the cynical side of me did some digging, and according to www.express.co.uk, Bell's base salary coming into the season was north of $12 million.

So I'm assuming he ain't broke. Maybe if him did a dead fi hungry him woulda play. Who knows?

Plus, Bell will be a free agent in 2019, meaning he can attract top dollar from any team with big pockets.

So even though he's missing out on all that dough this season, he should, as Jamaicans say, bade inna money in 2019.

Do your thing, baller, ain't mad at ya. Later.

Link me at daviot.kelly@gleanerjm.com