Participation in community a fine balance

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/02/2010 (6087 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you paid any attention to any part of the 2009 football season you would realize there are a lot of highly charged and emotional components in the daily operations of a professional football club. Believe it or not, in the off-season, when it comes time to decide which charities and businesses get access to these same personalities, it can often get just as heated and competitive.

When it comes to determining what events you should participate in, which appearances you should be compensated for and which requests should be part of your regular charitable dossier, you are sure to leave someone on the outside looking in — and none too happy about it either.

If you choose to hold over in the city in which you played the previous season, depending upon your familiarity with and accessibility to the fans, you will no doubt have a number of opportunities to participate in what we deem to be “player appearances.”

The club sets up many of the appearances, corresponding with whatever programs and charities they are already involved with, some come to us as personal requests through our marketing manager Kevin Guille, and others arrive on our doorstep via emails, Facebook, or written letters care of Maroons Road.

In all the years I have played pro football, I have gotten some pretty unusual requests and been part of some even stranger appearances. People I have never met before have asked me to help them move (just the heavy items for which I am well suited), others to counsel and discipline their children or relatives, some to sign their body parts so they can get a tattoo over the signature, never-ending requests for wedding social prizes and participation, invitations to high school graduations, and to attend bar mitzvahs or birthday parties. But the most common and uncomfortable contemplation that ends the review of almost every event that crosses our desk is the question of whether “you would expect financial compensation for your attendance at our event.” Awkward.

First it should be said, if you are a public figure paid primarily by the public’s interest and goodwill toward your job, it is your responsibility and moral obligation to pay back the community that provides you with this profession and so many opportunities. At the same time there are limits to this reciprocation, and as a player in a limited-time vocation with varying amounts of appeal and marketability, you also have a right to be compensated for certain segments of your work that go above and beyond the call of duty.

CFL players are not like most other professional athletes in two senses. One, we do not make enough from our professions to retire when we are forced out — and in fact work all year round to support ourselves, and two — in my experience, we do more charity work than players in other professional organizations, especially in my experience in the NFL. The question has always been deciding which events to attend, which to do for free and which to request compensation for.

The first group I refer to are the freebies. These are the no-brainer causes that as a player you come to align yourself with over time and whose messages strike a chord with you — things for me like the Variety Kids Club and the Winnipeg Humane Society. These are the charities/not-for-profits you never expect nor ask to be paid for and contribute to financially yourself. This category also includes anything to do with sick children and hospital visits of all kinds to the oncology ward and palliative care.

The next group is the most difficult to deliberate because of the magnitude of impact your trip can have, the volume of requests, the presentations they ask you to do and the limited funding to which they have access. These are the trips to the schools. I have found in these scenarios it’s best to ask for your travel expenses to be paid — sometimes a small honorarium — and you call it even. But there are always exceptions to this rule. Fortunately for us, one segment of the school visits we do, the I Love to Read appearances in February, are backed by our ball club and they provide us with small stipends for gas without burdening the school system.

The last category we see are the corporate appearances and personal favours.

You may be asked to speak at a corporate windup, MC a social, play paintball with some kids, conduct an interactive leadership workshop or relate elements of your profession to other industries. These appearances are best matched to the sliding scale of “you get what you pay for,” and if the recipients want you to take the time and effort to make a meaningful and memorable appearance tailored to their clientele, they compensate you accordingly.

It also makes sense to give your team’s corporate sponsors a discount if they ask about the availability of your services, as they are your direct benefactors in more than one way.

The gears may switch in the offseason, but our inability to please everyone always stays true to form.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.