That's how they feel when it's money time, I don't know how they feel during the season. I am sure there are quite a few that never lost the boy's love of the sport. But it is a business, first and foremost, more than ever.
The part I do not like are the concessions the owners make about practice, that stinks. They all complain about the health part of the game and these players today are like china dolls compared to the players back in the day. These guys have year round training and it's ridiculous to look at the injury reports.
Today's game, the players are bigger, faster and stronger but not any better. They're not as good as the players in the 60's and 70's that used camp to get in playing shape. I used to look forward to Landry's List. Those were the guys that reported overweight and it was lengthy and they would have fines set up if they didn't hit the target weight and starters wanted to play preseason games to sweat out 10-15 lbs.
I got to go in the Chicago Bears locker room back in the 70's, off season, and if I had been a player on that team, I couldn't have waited to hit the field, what a dreary dump. Now they need game systems and the right tunes. The old Cowboys locker room at TS was a 5 star hotel compared to the Bears. I can only imagine what it's like now.
Give them buckets of more money, a joke of a workload compared to back in the day in the 70's , year round training and what do you get? A game not as good or as well played as back in the 70's because those faster and stronger players of today are not as good and sure as hell not as tough.