It’s football day for me here at National Review. Over on the home page, I’ve got a piece up about leftist efforts to get God out of football. But this post is about football and the perils of greed — specifically Ragnar the Viking’s greed. It turns out that the Minnesota Viking’s longtime mascot wants a raise. For years he’s been paid a paltry $1,500 per game for, among other things, leading the team out of the tunnel on a motorcycle while wearing his “horned helmet and furs.” So, what does he want now?
Ragnar reportedly asked for $20,000 per game for the next 10 years. That would mean $2 million over the course of the contract if preseason games are included.
Great work . . . if you can get it. His request for a more than 1,300 percent raise reminds me of one of my favorite sayings — oft-used in settlement negotiations with clients who are unwilling to take “yes” for an answer: “Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered.” Ask for a raise, yes. But if you shoot for the moon, you just might anger the person at the other end of the table — the one with the money. Ragnar, being the Viking he is, tried to plunder his franchise, but he’s been sent scurrying back on his longship to Facebook, where he now mascots from afar.