This may come as a surprise to you but many people would place job satisfaction, recognition, enjoyment, working as part of a team and pride in what they are doing as being more important than money. Money is there just to pay the bills. And those are just factors of 'everyday' jobs and not that of a professional sportsman who (should) have a host of other reasons... maybe competitiveness and desire to succeed?

Put it this way, if all the Warrington players are here solely just to pick up a wage we will never win anything. That just isn't motivation enough.

That's a simple misnomer though, the job of a Rugby player isn't just to play on a game day, that's the pinnacle of their weeks work.



That's a fans perspective of wanting to be a sportsman and idolising what they do, who they are or who they play for. In reality most sportsmen are good at their chosen sport and they are rewarded for their level of competence. They no doubt work hard to get where they are and to get better, but so do lots of other people in all walks of life and jobs. The fact that people pay to see what they do doesn't make them any different to anyone else, we just want them to be something more.



I think it's more insulting to suggest that someone who delivers mail or drives a bus is any less deserving of praise, I personally think someone who is responsible for a number of lives, such as a bus driver, should hold equal if not more respect than someone who plays a game for a living. But that's now how society works though is it?

We want heroes, we want people capable of doing something we can't, we want to live vicariously through them and belong to a tribe. We create their status and are equally apalled when those that we build up fall down. Who do professional Rugby League players idolise? How many would love to be footballers with all the glamour and money?

It doesn't suprise me at all, you're almost getting the point now!



If you have the job you desire and the money is good enough to "just pay the bills" then that may be the case, there are all too many people in this country and the rest of the world where money is the be all and end all simply becuase they don't have enough, either through poverty or greed.

Competitiveness and desire to succeed exists in all areas of employment, if it didn't then most companies wouldn't exist.



You see the problem is, very simply, perception. We hold our players in esteem for what they do and who they play for.

Nowadays a sportsman doesn't know any other way, that's invariably all they have ever done. They haven't been to job interviews or sent out CV's or spent years in education. Most have an appreciation of what a "normal" job entails, but essentialy they are here solely for our need, they live in their own world which has it's own unique challenges. Some have great difficulty in adapting after their time in sport, but very simply put, they are the same as everyone else who works and have the same wants and desires and suffer from the same problems.

That is a good point and this is where the supporter has probably become alienated from the professional sportsman (even more more with typical premier league players). This is a world away from the time when RL players held down a regular job and would then see playing the game as a privelige and a release from the working week.