It’s not always about the money

Try to imagine this: Ben Roethlisberger putting on his shoulder pads, securing his chinstrap and… Try to imagine this: Ben Roethlisberger putting on his shoulder pads, securing his chinstrap and running onto the field to play football for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Easy. It’s also easy for Big Ben, I’m sure, who is currently playing with a $102 million contract. But what if he trotted out every Sunday and suited up for free? He’d be in a lower tax bracket than Joe Schmo in the nosebleeds, but that wouldn’t matter, because he’d be playing out of sheer dedication and adoration for his team and supporters. It would never happen, right? No modern professional athlete would ever leave millions on the table, putting allegiance and loyalty to his team before his own bank account. Think again, because Joseba Etxeberria is going to do it: He’s going to play for free. You may not know who he is. Well, Etxeberria has spent the last 14 years of his life playing soccer for Athletic Bilbao, a historically successful club team in Spain’s La Liga, one of the world’s best leagues. Etxeberria feels a strong connection to the community he plays for. That’s why he announced this past week that next season, which will be his 15th and final, he has committed to playing for nothing. The move is the ultimate gesture of respect and devotion to a club that has employed him since he was 17. ‘From the club’s standpoint there are not words enough to thank such a gesture,’ club president Fernando Garcia Macua told the BBC. It’s an antiquated concept, really, to imagine competitive drive and reverence trumping economic gain, but it’s one that Etxeberria clearly values as a competitor and representative of Bilbao.’ And it’s not like he came from money. The 31-year-old forward comes from the Basque region of Spain, a part of Spain that Francisco Franco’s harsh dictatorship oppressed in the mid-1900s. As a way of expressing Basque nationalism in the face of Franco’s mandates to suppress the culture, people would use their sports teams as a vehicle to announce their traditions and dislike of Franco’s regime. Etxeberria comes from this Basque bloodline. He has the perspective to realize the power of sport as expression not only on the individual scale, but also as a culturally transcendent form of representation and spirituality. Perhaps this contributes to Etxeberria’s recognition and admiration for Bilbao. Regardless, he is tapping into the purest aspects of competitive nature. He has blind devotion to his team. In today’s world of free agency, contract extensions and signing bonuses, there is little room for compassion and fidelity. Most of the time players only play for their next contract. Winning? Helping the team? Nah, only once that payday is secure, and sometimes never at all. The term ‘contract year’ suggests that a player will only put forth his best efforts the year that he’s playing for his next deal. And let’s be clear: Etxeberria is not a chump or bench warmer. He’s scored more than 100 goals in his career and played on two Euro Cup Spanish national teams and in the 1998 World Cup. And during his final, pro bono campaign next year, he is sure to eclipse the milestone of 500 games played.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ So when you consider the economic gluttony that infests today’s sports world, you generally realize something. You realize that the notion of your hometown star strapping on the pads for you or your town, just to say thank you, doesn’t exist. That’s why what Etxeberria is doing is so romantic. Sure, players who stick around one organization for long enough feel a connection with the team and its supporters. But the bottom line is that it’s all about business. And it’s cutthroat. The minute that team can no longer pay them that extra million, it’s ‘adios.’ It’s a suffocating ethos. Fans shouldn’t have to worry about their team’s payrolls. Priority number one should always be within the lines. Etxeberria gives perspective. He sets a precedent. So in a sports world so saturated with greed, there’s no need to suffocate anymore. Sports just got a breath of the freshest air.