The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

I really admired Dave Kool, when he opted out of taking a B-ball gig overseas, took an assistants job, moved to Jenison to coach and teach, and then on to Holland to get an AD/Coaching gig. Just wise career decisions.

Guys like Hiller, Kool, Terrell, and Jimmy Kristov who knew it was time to get on with their lives, and at a young age are very successful. Players like Brian Brunner at CMU who is working his way towards an administrators job at CMU, understood that hanging on to an athletic career that is long past simply puts you behind those who joined the rat race earlier.

Lafevour is the classic example of a guy who waited too long to move on. To join the workforce at 32, is a tough sell come interview time. We have a few of our own, but we have many like Brian Snider and Andrew Hershberger who hung up their gym shoes and moved into a solid careers.

An athletic career is awful hard on your body. Unless your compensation is sufficient to put you in retirement mode when your body gives out, you need to hang it up after college. Grinding your knees and ankles down for a couple hundred bucks a pop in the Arena game, hoping a hot night or two will get you a smell from the NFL scouts, isn't the smartest option by a long shot.

Remember, you'll be walking on those same knees and ankles the rest of your life-or maybe not.

(02-12-2018 09:58 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  An athletic career is awful hard on your body. Unless your compensation is sufficient to put you in retirement mode when your body gives out, you need to hang it up after college. Grinding your knees and ankles down for a couple hundred bucks a pop in the Arena game, hoping a hot night or two will get you a smell from the NFL scouts, isn't the smartest option by a long shot.

Remember, you'll be walking on those same knees and ankles the rest of your life-or maybe not.

Avg salary in the CFL is 52k, 40k US with a low of 40k Canadian. DL was a career 3rd stringer and practice squad player. Can’t see why a low paid athlete would waste ten years doing that rather jump start their future career. Carder still plays arena football but has a regular job.

(02-12-2018 10:34 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(02-12-2018 09:58 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  An athletic career is awful hard on your body. Unless your compensation is sufficient to put you in retirement mode when your body gives out, you need to hang it up after college. Grinding your knees and ankles down for a couple hundred bucks a pop in the Arena game, hoping a hot night or two will get you a smell from the NFL scouts, isn't the smartest option by a long shot.

Remember, you'll be walking on those same knees and ankles the rest of your life-or maybe not.

Avg salary in the CFL is 52k, 40k US with a low of 40k Canadian. DL was a career 3rd stringer and practice squad player. Can’t see why a low paid athlete would waste ten years doing that rather jump start their future career. Carder still plays arena football but has a regular job.

A CMU degree isn't very marketable...

(02-13-2018 06:34 AM)GullLake Wrote:  

(02-12-2018 10:34 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(02-12-2018 09:58 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  An athletic career is awful hard on your body. Unless your compensation is sufficient to put you in retirement mode when your body gives out, you need to hang it up after college. Grinding your knees and ankles down for a couple hundred bucks a pop in the Arena game, hoping a hot night or two will get you a smell from the NFL scouts, isn't the smartest option by a long shot.

Remember, you'll be walking on those same knees and ankles the rest of your life-or maybe not.

Avg salary in the CFL is 52k, 40k US with a low of 40k Canadian. DL was a career 3rd stringer and practice squad player. Can’t see why a low paid athlete would waste ten years doing that rather jump start their future career. Carder still plays arena football but has a regular job.

A CMU degree isn't very marketable...

I beg to differ. CMU seems to have an incredible placement rate of those alumni who have graduated from the pizza delivery program. Seems like every delivery we get is made by a CMU grad. Always timely and with a smile too. I know we are from a rivalry school, but we still need to acknowledge excellence when we see it. CMU really has dominated in this particular field. So while WMU takes pride in our engineering and medical programs, CMU is certainly entitled to gloat a little about it's school of Pizza delivery.

(02-13-2018 08:38 AM)brovol Wrote:  

(02-13-2018 06:34 AM)GullLake Wrote:  

(02-12-2018 10:34 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(02-12-2018 09:58 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  An athletic career is awful hard on your body. Unless your compensation is sufficient to put you in retirement mode when your body gives out, you need to hang it up after college. Grinding your knees and ankles down for a couple hundred bucks a pop in the Arena game, hoping a hot night or two will get you a smell from the NFL scouts, isn't the smartest option by a long shot.

Remember, you'll be walking on those same knees and ankles the rest of your life-or maybe not.

Avg salary in the CFL is 52k, 40k US with a low of 40k Canadian. DL was a career 3rd stringer and practice squad player. Can’t see why a low paid athlete would waste ten years doing that rather jump start their future career. Carder still plays arena football but has a regular job.

A CMU degree isn't very marketable...

I beg to differ. CMU seems to have an incredible placement rate of those alumni who have graduated from the pizza delivery program. Seems like every delivery we get is made by a CMU grad. Always timely and with a smile too. I know we are from a rivalry school, but we still need to acknowledge excellence when we see it. CMU really has dominated in this particular field. So while WMU takes pride in our engineering and medical programs, CMU is certainly entitled to gloat a little about it's school of Pizza delivery.

You raise good points.

The average tip a CMU pizza delivery person makes is slightly higher than what their Saginaw Valley counterparts receive.

CFL starts at $53,000. Top QB's are over $400,000. They aren't min wage by any means. You can make a good living up there. Basketball players can go to Europe/Asia and make six to seven figures easy. Hockey also pays good and both sports often comes with an apartment depending on club. I heard recently Shane Whittington was offered $500k by the Spurs for a two way G league deal, his agent found him seven figures in St Petersburg, Russia.

(02-13-2018 01:12 PM)BuickBronco Wrote:  CFL starts at $53,000. Top QB's are over $400,000. They aren't min wage by any means. You can make a good living up there. Basketball players can go to Europe/Asia and make six to seven figures easy. Hockey also pays good and both sports often comes with an apartment depending on club. I heard recently Shane Whittington was offered $500k by the Spurs for a two way G league deal, his agent found him seven figures in St Petersburg, Russia.

Holy crap. How do those teams in poorer countries with much fewer fans and media opportunities generate that much revenue? Or is the overhead so small the players collect a bigger share of the pie?

(02-13-2018 01:12 PM)BuickBronco Wrote:  CFL starts at $53,000. Top QB's are over $400,000. They aren't min wage by any means. You can make a good living up there. Basketball players can go to Europe/Asia and make six to seven figures easy. Hockey also pays good and both sports often comes with an apartment depending on club. I heard recently Shane Whittington was offered $500k by the Spurs for a two way G league deal, his agent found him seven figures in St Petersburg, Russia.

53k Canadian, about 40k here. In this guy’s case he was a 3rd string backup, and practice squad player. Not great money, and not setting you on a career path, just delaying it. I know 3 people who played b-ball overseas. None got rich by any means. One did it for nearly 8 years, didn’t finish his degree, and is working a job he could have had with a HS diploma.

Few make bank and can live off it, in fact a whole lot end up in bankruptcy because they fail to budget 16 weeks of paychecks over 52 weeks.

I get doing this for a few years cause it’s something you love, but unless you have a legit chance of getting to the show they’re better off starting a career with a future.

Whittington has been to the show. He’s got a resume for sure, and has made some serious coin. Derrick Mitchell got a nice signing bonus out of HS, and had a shot, until he didn’t, and made the right decision to get out and pursue a career.

(02-13-2018 01:40 PM)RunningGame Wrote:  

(02-13-2018 01:12 PM)BuickBronco Wrote:  CFL starts at $53,000. Top QB's are over $400,000. They aren't min wage by any means. You can make a good living up there. Basketball players can go to Europe/Asia and make six to seven figures easy. Hockey also pays good and both sports often comes with an apartment depending on club. I heard recently Shane Whittington was offered $500k by the Spurs for a two way G league deal, his agent found him seven figures in St Petersburg, Russia.

Holy crap. How do those teams in poorer countries with much fewer fans and media opportunities generate that much revenue? Or is the overhead so small the players collect a bigger share of the pie?

CFL has five year $200M TV contract divided about $4m per team per year. They also make good money on team apparel and trademark rights. I've read about $4-5M profit per team after ticket sales, etc. It works because of salary cap.

Most D1 college athletes have been playing sports competitively their whole lives, and were dominating through high school. Many of their parents were passionate about the kids sports prowess, and too often the kid and his clan are "all-in" on the sports thing, which leads to less emphasis on things like a non-athletic career after graduation. WMU has a lot of great athletes who were even better students, and went on to tremendous success in non-athletic professional careers. But of course there are a ton of stories at every D1 school of athletes having nothing to go to after the playing career ends. Some of them land in secondary professional sports leagues, and more end up tending bar or working at Walmart. Frankly the story is even more common in high school, where the kid and his parents think for sure he is a D1 level player, when in fact he may be lucky to make a JC team. My son played baseball and basketball with several kids who were no better than he was, or at best perhaps marginally better, but the family just KNEW he would be playing at Michigan or MSU in a few years. Kids were not bad students, but never motivated enough to work too hard academically, as they were "ath-O-letes", and would end up with "scholies" regardless. Well, not so much. I am glad my kid never got too full of himself (his mothers humility) and knew there were more scholarships in academics than athletics. Point being, kids who identify as athletes their whole lives dont really think about much else, and thus hang on too long.