Kasper 1

Analyzing Value of Service

Tony Romo is worth the 17 to 18 million dollar per year contract he got from CBS. First

of all, CBS would not have given it to him if they didn’t believe he would provide more than that

in value. People love tuning in to Tony Romo. Many believe he is the very best broadcaster in all

of the NFL, and maybe in all of sports. A good broadcaster can make or break the viewing of a

sports event on television, and the majority of people love watching games called by Romo.

Another factor in the Romo deal was the fact that CBS had competition with ESPN over Romo.

There were plenty of rumors that ESPN was prepared to offer a historic contract to join their

Monday Night Football broadcast team. CBS realized how valuable Romo was to them, and

decided to lock him up long term, and pay him what he deserved. Competition is what capitalism

is all about. It drives people to be there best, and the best get rewarded.

As for comparing what top broadcasters get paid to what NFL players are paid, that is not

really a fair comparison. Broadcasters are not being paid by the NFL. Broadcasters are paid by

their network. There is no reason for Micheal Thomas to be crying about what Tony Romo got

paid. First off, it is kind of childish, but more importantly, it accomplishes nothing. If he wants

players to be paid more, he should be working with the NFLPA. What Romo is paid is irrelevant.

It is difficult to say that millionaires who play a game for a living are underpaid, but they

actually might be. The amount of money the players bring in is way more than what they are

paid. However, to look at it from a different perspective, without the teams, owners, and NFL

itself, they wouldn’t be bringing in any money at all. This complicates things because the players

need the league and the owners in order to showcase their talents and make money off them, but

without the players the owners and league can’t make money. This makes valuing the players
 Kasper 2

difficult. In conclusion, there is a case to be made that NFL players are underpaid, however,

trying to compare what players make to top broadcasters is entirely useless.