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posted by Fnord666 on Friday September 29 2017, @03:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the have-a-seat dept.

DirecTV is allowing at least some customers to cancel subscriptions to its Sunday Ticket package of NFL games and obtain refunds, if they cite players' national anthem protests as the reason for discontinuing service, customer service representatives said Tuesday.

Under Sunday Ticket's regular policy, refunds are not to be given once the season is underway. But the representatives said they are making exceptions this season -- which began in September -- because of the controversy over the protests, in which players kneel or link arms during the national anthem.

Spokesmen for DirecTV-parent AT&T Inc. (T) and the National Football League declined to comment.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/26/directv-allows-some-nfl-refunds-after-anthem-controversy.html


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @05:14PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @05:14PM (#574931)

    You have to consider imagery when you're protesting, and whom is watching your protest.

    Football players are blessed to have been born in a country where their athleticism and strength can be directly translated into millions of dollars just for playing a game many of us love. Their protest is now seen as protesting and disrespecting the country itself. And they're performing this display in front of the people largely responsible for making them millionaires - a demographic that also is vastly more patriotic than average. It's just a really bad idea. If they genuinely wanted to spread some message they could have done it in vastly more effective ways. For instance attach a little hashtag note to sports paraphernalia they sign, bring it up when speaking at live events and ask for a moment of silence, etc. But engage in an action seen as disrespecting the country itself that's given them so much? That's just phenomenally bad idea.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday September 29 2017, @06:14PM (5 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday September 29 2017, @06:14PM (#574969)

    Football players are blessed to have been born in a country where their athleticism and strength can be directly translated into millions of dollars just for playing a game many of us love.

    Alternately, their situation is so desperate that they decide, starting in high school, that it would be a great idea to get repeatedly hit in the head for the approximately 1 in 100000 chance of somebody eventually paying them to play that game. For many, the option of "go to college and get a decent middle-class job" isn't actually an avenue open to them, so instead they opt for risking their life for a tiny chance of becoming a professional athlete.

    Also, most don't make millions, they make closer to $300K a year, still a good salary but not retirement money unless they manage it carefully.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @07:44PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @07:44PM (#575015)

      Not retirement money? How poorly do you have to manage your money for that to not be retirement money? If you spend and invest your money wisely, you can retire in 10 years if you make $70,000 per year. But I suppose they have to have their expensive cars and such.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @09:54PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @09:54PM (#575087)

        Retire in 10 years? haha, maybe if you are living in the middle of nowhere where you can buy a 3 bdrm house for $50k. Where these players live they would have to live in shitty apartments or buy a tiny tiny house. They will not be getting $300k indefinitely, only for 3-6 years. After taxes and living expenses that doesn't amount to a whole hell of a lot of money, and retirement would be living on a shoestring budget to have it stretch the next 30-50 years. Are you one of the ones who complains about "welfare mamas"? "But I suppose they have to have their expensive cars and such" is a pretty lame argument.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 30 2017, @01:54AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 30 2017, @01:54AM (#575154)

          Retire in 10 years? haha, maybe if you are living in the middle of nowhere where you can buy a 3 bdrm house for $50k.

          Save as much money as possible and pay off the house (and any other debts) as quickly as you possibly can, for starters. Live as if you make far less money than you actually do (perhaps about $20,000). Aim to spend no more than $1 per meal on average; that doesn't preclude eating healthful meals. Stop wasting money at restaurants, buy in bulk, etc. Make wise (low-risk) investment decisions and keep your money there, taking out no more than you need at any given time. True, it's inadvisable to live in certain areas with insanely high costs of living, but avoiding those areas is just another way of saving money; you don't have to live in the middle of nowhere.

          Not all of this is applicable everywhere, but it is obviously a good idea. Only the individual can figure out how much money they can (or want to) save.

          They will not be getting $300k indefinitely, only for 3-6 years. After taxes and living expenses that doesn't amount to a whole hell of a lot of money

          Living expenses are clearly variable. If possible, don't put yourself into a situation where they are unreasonably high (my notion of 'unreasonably high' is probably quite different from other people's since many do not plan ahead). It just really depends on where your job is and whether or not you want to live like a 'superstar'.

          and retirement would be living on a shoestring budget to have it stretch the next 30-50 years.

          What's the issue with that? Most people think they need more than they actually do. You can live on a shoestring budget and still occasionally spend your money on unnecessary things; you just have to plan rigorously and keep that spending to a minimum.

          Are you one of the ones who complains about "welfare mamas"?

          No. I'm one of those people who advocates against wasting money and making yourself more poor than necessary. I really don't think anyone should be pretending most people make efficient use of their money.

          "But I suppose they have to have their expensive cars and such" is a pretty lame argument.

          Yet it is completely true. These are not the types of people who typically spend their money wisely.

        • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday October 01 2017, @01:28AM

          by Thexalon (636) on Sunday October 01 2017, @01:28AM (#575440)

          Another thing to factor in is that their money goes to way more than just living expenses:
          1. For starters, government grabs more of their income than most other professions [usatoday.com]. And their earnings are taxed as wages, not as investments like hedge fund managers and the like, so all the FICA taxes and highest tax brackets apply. So out of that $300K, about $90K is gone before they ever see it.
          2. Next up, they probably have an agent and quite possibly a business manager to pay. Those people don't work for free, so subtract off another $40K minimum.
          3. They also need special medical treatment. Their team will handle some of that, since they want their athletes healthy, but not all of it.

          So now that $300K is down to $170K. That's still a good salary, but not great, and as was pointed out it's not unlikely they'll be done playing in about 3 years, and after that all they'll have to fall back on is whatever they learned back when they were in college, if they actually learned anything in college.

          --
          The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @08:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 29 2017, @08:15PM (#575035)

      That's hardly anything unique to sports. Go to college and get a decent middle-class jobs translates to mostly scraping by for the rest of your life, just hoping you can have enough saved up that you die before you run out of money. But you can feel good when bring a kid into this lovely world, only to find as you grow older he begins the same cycle himself. What a life.

      Anybody who wants to achieve something starting from nothing will almost inevitably, at some point, have to overcome tremendous risk and tremendous odds. And it will often also come with great personal sacrifice. Starting to understand this (as I worked for years to start my own business) makes me understand why successful people can sometimes seem so apathetic to the struggles of others. It's not sociopathy or anything of the sort. It's because if you're self made you're, more often than not, going to have gone through hell to get there - and nobody has any clue about it. Nor do they care. I never really realized how insightful this [youtube.com] little episode of a show I watched as a child actually was. Elon Musk described starting a business as "eating glass and staring into the abyss." A quote I never really even considered until I did it myself. And the reason is because I didn't care - much like you probably don't care. And so too now when I see others struggling to make it - my only emotion: try even harder. It's an unfair and brutal world we live in. Take your chance and probably fail, or play it safe and definitely fail. We're all in the same boat, most just don't realize it until it's much too late.