Jim Ivler
Appearances
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
We're also accustomed to the draft, and that's how talent is dispersed throughout the league. But when you think about it in more of a macro level, it's a pretty incredible process. I mean, you're told... as a recent person coming out of college where you're going to work.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
I know when I graduated law school, if someone had called me up and said, you've just been drafted by a law firm in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and that's where you're going to go, I would have said, you want to bet? But obviously, these guys go, most of them very happily, to whatever team drafts them. The process, though, really is we're trying to achieve generational wealth for our clients.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
And I know it's a buzzword and a cliche, but it's really true. The goal needs to be that when the player is done playing in the NFL, whether they play four years or 14 years, that they can retire with enough money in the bank so they can do whatever it is they want to do with the rest of their life because it's a passion, not because they need the paycheck.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
And so unless you're a, I'm going to call it a top 20 or 25 pick, you're really not getting that generational wealth from your first contract. So we're really all in this game to help our clients achieve a second contract. And if they're really blessed, maybe a third and a fourth contract.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
If you can get that bite at the apple where you've performed well enough, where there's multiple teams interested in you, that's where the leverage maybe flips and it's on the player's side. It doesn't happen to a lot of guys. And I'm sure you've heard the average career span of an NFL player is 3.3 years.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
Certainly, compensation, anybody that says that's not number one is probably lying. Even if the player has made that sort of money over the course of his career to achieve that generational wealth, the compensation is still going to be the primary factor.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
And then the team itself, the talent that the player is surrounded with, teammate-wise, the coaching staff, whether or not the team is anticipated to be a playoff Super Bowl team, these are all things that I would say are a little bit more important to players than the workplace conditions.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
It's something that players are talking about, but I wouldn't put it in the top few factors of making free agent decisions. Another thing you need to realize about unrestricted free agency, this happens really fast.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
Sometimes a player has to make a life-altering decision in five minutes because if the player is not ready to commit, that team is going to go on to the next guy on their list at that position. And when you have to make those quick decisions, the size of the locker room is really not coming up.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
One of the factors that a player, an agent will absolutely consider is whether or not there's a state tax that's levied against the player with the team that he is signing with. And eight of the 32 NFL teams play in states where there is no state tax.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
And that could be a pretty big difference monetarily if you're talking about 0% taken out as opposed to 8%, 9%, 10%, 11% in some of the higher states. List for me the no tax places. I guess it's all the teams in Texas and Florida. The two teams in Texas. It's the three teams in Florida. It's Vegas. It's Seattle. And it's Tennessee.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
I think it was a great idea for him to commission this survey and get responses from players. He should be holding teams' feet to the fire because I can guarantee you there are some owners that are upset. From what I've read, Arthur Blank down in Atlanta was disappointed that his team ranked And these guys are competitive.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
Regardless of whether or not it's really having an impact in free agent decisions, it doesn't mean that the survey is not going to affect change in a lot of these facilities with these team owners because if they perceive that it could be a problem in free agency, that's really the most important thing.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
But it is important. And certainly, I think as a player ages throughout his career, it becomes more important because presumably they have a wife, they have children. And how the family is treated on game day, for instance, is a big deal. I remember about 15 years ago speaking to the front office of the Jets and they were asking, well, what could we do better?
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
And we brought up the concept of a family room on game day and they didn't even understand what we were saying. And we said, hey, listen, you have players whose wives are coming with little kids and they're sitting in the stands and the beer is flowing and there's things that are said. The concept of having a daycare in an NFL stadium not too long ago was unheard of.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
Now I think it's close to half maybe have them. Same thing with a family room where the players' families can go and shelter from bad weather, shelter from crazed fans.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
Yes, I'm surprised. These are multi-billion dollar organizations. Their most important asset, of course, is the talent that they're putting out on the field. So to read some of the things in the survey, uneven floors in the weight room where players feel afraid walking around, slippery floors in the pool area where players are falling.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
When you invest so much in your assets to have a workplace injury potentially happen, it would not be a good look and it is very surprising. But On the other hand, some of these teams are run by old school owners. You know, you look at some of the teams that are low on the list. I don't think it's an accident that the owners made their money from the team.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
They didn't come from a different industry. They came from where their grandfathers paid $500 and a bottle of whiskey for the team back in 1911. 42, and they are kind of mired in old school ways and are maybe a little bit slow to come around.
Freakonomics Radio
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)
And no matter how much the front office wants to be progressive and implore them to change certain things, it still starts at the top and the owner has final say.