League prez defends pay of af2 players

Jerry Kurz said the league pays players as much as it can afford.

YOUNGSTOWN — The departure of DeMarcus Mathes is somewhat of an aberration in the af2, but it reflects the nature of the indoor league.

The Mahoning Valley Thunder receiver left the team before last week’s Albany game to pursue a fulltime job.

He told Coach Mike Hold that his personal decision was with regret.

It’s not that the af2 is a poor-paying employer, but its seasonal nature has drawbacks.

“I’m always amazed when it comes up as an issue because there isn’t a player who signs a contract with us that doesn’t know what the pay is,” said Jerry Kurz, af2 president.

“Players receive $200 a game, a $50 win bonus, plus they’re housed and fed,” Kurz said. “They’re also allowed to have employment during the season and almost every team that has players who want to get a job will assist them in getting a job.”

With those parameters on the table, Kurz sees no immediate change in the Arena Football League’s baby brother.

Basically, it’s not that af2 is a unique entity, as much as it is a seasonal position, with the potential for upward movement.

“We’re not designed such that this is somebody’s year-round job,” Kurz said. “Being housed and fed, in addition to the $200 game pay, plus $50 win bonus is sufficient for most of the people.”

He said that most af2 players supplement their sports income.

“We encourage that,” Kurz said. “We don’t ever hold out to players that this is a job that is going to pay them enough money to live year-round or to live any different than we tell them when they come to us.

“We do understand that it would be difficult for players with families, but it’s not really designed to be a job for players with a family and players should realize that,” Kurz said. “We’re an entry level league for players to develop their skills.”

Players and rosters are shuffled regularly in pro football’s minor leagues due to injuries and performance, but the fewer unpredictable disruptions the better for a franchise’s continuity — and a coach’s health.

Part of the problem with Mathes, a receiver who had a team-best 21 catches for 256 yards, may have been that he was from Texas and his responsibilities were elsewhere.

The af2 tries to accommodate local players, Kurz said.

“There are a number of players from a given community who prefer to stay rather than move up because that’s where they’re teaching, coaching or have another job and are able to get a leave of absence or practice and play around their full-time job in their community.

“But we do not have a proliferation of players leaving teams because they can’t afford to live.”

But there is economic reality.

“Is it enough money? Perhaps not, but under the circumstances and how we structure our league, yeah,” Kurz said. “If we weren’t providing that housing and not providing those meals, then I believe it would be a different situation.”

Going one step beyond, would a players’ union be a solution?

“If we talked to a union, we’d look at them and we’d open our books,” Kurz said. “Unions are great things. I grew up in a steel mill neighborhood, but unions are business organizations as well and unions cannot and do not get more from employers than they’re able to afford.”

“We’ve got a great union that operates and governs our AFL players and they understand the situation. When it’s appropriate, I don’t doubt that our AFLPA will continually look at the af2, but I think there will be an acknowledgment that it’s not the time.”

“Everybody’s being challenged [squeezed financially]. I don’t think it’s any different in our business.”

Kurz recalls when NFL players had jobs in the offseason.

“If you talk to the ’85 Bears — and one’s my neighbor — they all had jobs in the offseason,” Kurz said. “Obviously, they evolved and nobody in the NFL has an off-season job now. It’s evolving in the AFL and, eventually, it’ll evolve to us. But it has to get to that point as opposed to saying, ‘We just have to get our players more money and we’re going to do it.’

“We want to do that; it’s something that will happen in the future, but it can’t happen until it’s economically correct to do. We’ve got a great sport. We’ve got great fans and great ownership. However, we’ve got to run our teams like businesses or we won’t be around.”

Kurz will be at Monday’s Thunder game against Wilkes-Barre.

“I try to hit every market at least once a year,” Kurz said. “It works out well this week because it gives me a chance to get three games in next week. I go to at least two or three games every weekend.”

Don’t tell Kurz that Mondays are dead.

“I don’t count Monday as an off-beat night. Monday is, typically, in American parlance, a football night,” Kurz said. “Our big brother [AFL] has a game of the week every Monday on national TV. It’s pretty much accepted now as football night. It’s not off-beat to me.”