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business newsUnderpaid Athletes: Cory Lane
By
Scott Reeves Dec 01, 2009 8:10 am
When he's not catching passes, he's taking phone calls -- for Verizon.
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“When I play football, all life’s stresses go away,” he says. “I’m so happy when I’m on the field -- heaven must be like this.”
His coach says Lane, a running back, has the ability to compete in the NFL, and that even his small size doesn't limit his future. But his age -- 29 -- works against him.
“If he were 24 or 25, he’d have a great shot at the NFL. He has the speed and the heart to play, but the NFL looks for players who will stay in the league for a while,” says Norman Mann, coach of the semi-pro New Jersey Buccaneers, a Regional American Football League team based in Newark.
Players who make the NFL start with a salary few others can match. This year, NFL rookies will earn a minimum of $310,000. Top NFL players earn millions in endorsements on top of multi-million dollar salaries. Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback who led the team to victory in the 2006 Super Bowl, is expected to earn $21.2 million in 2009 and has deals with Sprint (S), MasterCard (MA), Reebok, and Gatorade.
Lane’s football world is different: He plays in nearly empty stadiums, receives scant press coverage, buys his own equipment, and pays $330 a year to play for the Buccaneers.
He also works full-time as a customer service representative for Verizon (VZ), handling questions about billings and setting up new accounts for customers in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania from his office in Teaneck, NJ. He makes close to $55,000 per year. Time permitting, he does leg raises and crunches at his desk. His co-workers don't mind. Lane says his colleagues understand his dream and support his efforts to fulfill it.
“I’m beyond determined to make the NFL,” Lane says. “I’m not talking practice squad. It’s not just the money, although the money is good. I want to make the NFL and make myself an asset and help my team win games. If my team needs that extra yard, I want them to feel they can go to me. I won’t be stopped in semi-pro ball and I won’t be stopped in my dream to make the NFL. If I can be stopped in either, I have no business being in the pros.”
Teams like the NEPA (Scranton) Miners, Oneonta Stallions, and the Hudson County Bounty Hunters may not strike fear into any college team, but Lane devotes his complete attention to each game. He knows time is short and the odds of reaching his goal are long.
No positions in stocks mentioned.
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