Football Season; Michigan High School Basketball Player Dies
FOREMAN: Well, the big buzz in sports this weekend is still swirling around. Imagine this, in late winter, the NFL, the question being, are we going to have a season or will the owners lock out the players? Ray D'Alessio of HLN SPORTS, joins us with the latest. I said, Ray, when you walked in, I'm worried about this.</s>RAY D'ALESSIO, HLN SPORT: You're worried. I'm not.</s>FOREMAN: Why?</s>D'ALESSIO: You know, I'm not worried, Tom, because they're talking. There's dialogue there, you know, the deadline for the collective bargaining agreement was supposed to expire admit night Thursday night, they extended it 24 hours. Obviously things went well enough yesterday that they thought they could extend it another seven days, now the expiration, now it expires 11:59 next Friday night. So, obviously they're talking, there's dialogue there. There's still a lot to be ironed out. I mean, there's still all the stuff, you know, how do we split up $9 billion in revenue, obviously the owners, the want a little bit more of that money, $1 billion more.</s>FOREMAN: What do you think the key things are that they have to keep grappling with, here? You can't just sit in the room and say, we need to solve it.</s>D'ALESSIO: No, again, they have to find common ground. You know, and the bottom line is how do, you know, how is it fair for both sides? Obviously, you know, the owners are saying that they need, you know, they need a bigger piece of the pot to keep competive to pay the mortgages on these stadiums. You know, ticket sales aren't what they used to be, people aren't buying the merchandise like they used to be, so they're losing a bit of money. They're not poor by any means but they are losing a bit of money and the players on the other hand are saying, OK, you also want us to extended season by two games, but if we get less money is that fair? So they have to find common ground here. And it's a long way off until the season begins. I really honestly, I don't see them canceling an entire season. It's too big of a business, it's too popular right now, and fans are not forgiving. Fans -- it will -- if an entire season is canceled, it will take a while for the fans to come back, it really will.</s>FOREMAN: Do you think the salary cap thing is the No. 1 issue?</s>D'ALESSIO: No. You know, the players agree there has to be some type of rookie salary cap. The salaries are just getting exorbitant. No sure, when you've got guys like Sam Bradford coming out of college, you know, getting a $50 million signing bonus, that helps the veteran players, but there has to be some type of salary cap. The other thing the players are say, we're willing to put a cap on this, but is that money that you're saving going in your pockets or are we going to get some of that as well? Retirement benefits for players, you know, are we going to get a piece of that, as well.</s>FOREMAN: Well yeah, as you point out, a lot of these guys are, they're seasoned, their lifetime career average is three years.</s>D'ALESSIO: The average career, three, four years. The average NFL salary, yeah, there's people like Tom Brady making $18 million a year, but you got to remember, the average NFL salary, only about $700,000 a year.</s>FOREMAN: You know, people don't think about this. If your average income is $700,000 a year and you only work three years, in many cases you're not going to make much more than a lot of regular workers will make in a lifetime.</s>D'ALESSIO: No, and obviously the players do not want a lockout because once that collective bargaining agreement expires, their benefits are gone. There's no, you know, no benefits whatsoever. Obviously if there's a lockout, if there's no season, they only get paid for 17 games. They don't get paid in the off season. They get paid for 17 games. If there's no season, they don't get paid.</s>FOREMAN: Let's talk about something else, which has captivated everybody this weekend, in really a terrible way. What about this Michigan high school player? Shoots the winning goal, then passes away on the court. Talk about this.</s>D'ALESSIO: It's heart breaking, Tom. It really is -- 16-year-old Wes Leonard. You got to remember, Fennville, Michigan, there's only about 1,500 people in Fennville, Michigan. They rally around their basketball. Thursday night, half the town was at this game.</s>FOREMAN: That's him right there.</s>D'ALESSIO: Right. Wes Leonard. He hits the game-winning shot, what turned out to be the game-winning shot in overtime to complete a perfect 20-0 season. He's a hero. He's not only a star basketball player, he's the quarterback for the high school team. Moments later when they're celebrating, he collapses on the court. They try to revive him, rush him to the hospital, he later dies at the hospital. So the town is in shock. The medical examiner came out and said the young man died from cardiac arrest caused by dilated cardiomyopathy, which, I guess, is somewhat of an enlargement of the heart, I believe.</s>FOREMAN: Yeah. Yeah.</s>D'ALESSIO: Nobody knew he had this condition. Nobody knew he had this condition.</s>FOREMAN: Yeah, I'd like to know more about that. Because, I also believe, if I'm not mistaken a lot of lifetime athletes have some of that in part because of what they've done.</s>D'ALESSIO: Right. They say a lot of...</s>FOREMAN: But, very unusual, a young person like that, for him to be that way.</s>D'ALESSIO: And now it brings into question, are we screening these high school kids well enough to see if they have these medical conditions before they take the field...</s>FOREMAN: That's a tough question, a difficult one. Ray, always good to have you in here, and let's keep our fingers crossed about the NFL talks.</s>D'ALESSIO: Positive. Cautiously optimistic. You got to be cautiously optimistic.</s>FOREMAN: Hey, what kind of shoes are you wearing? Good shoes? You like your shoes?</s>D'ALESSIO: These are old, man. I need to get some new ones.</s>FOREMAN: Well, you need to call Zappos. That's what you can do. It's an online retail company, they're doing booming business by focusing on people like Ray who need new shoes. I visited Zappos as part of our "Building up America" series. We're going out on the road again this week, but I want you to take a look at this, because they discovered a secret to success.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for calling Zappos.com.</s>FOREMAN: Not bad for a company started a dozen years ago with a radical concept. Success is about service.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, no problem.</s>FOREMAN: Not selling. CEO Tony Hsieh.</s>TONY HSIEH, ZAPPOS.COM: And for us, culture isn't just important, it's actually the No. 1 priority of the company.</s>FOREMAN: The culture is raucous, infection and everywhere. Employees decorate as they choose, enjoying and unbelievable array of company services, including free lunch, ice cream, massages. We asked our guide, Ray Andre, about the business environment.</s>RAY ANDRE, ZAPPOS.COM: This is a business meeting.</s>FOREMAN (on camera): This is a business meeting? There's a lot of giggling going on in there.</s>ANDRE: There is. (voice-over): Getting in is not easy. Zappos takes months to screen applicants and even in training, new hires are offered $4,000 to quit, just to weed out those who might not really want to be here.</s>ANDRE: So we figure we could train most people to do their jobs, but we can't train somebody to fit into our culture.</s>FOREMAN (on camera): What is your key philosophy about running this business?</s>HSIEH: Internally, we have a saying that we're a service company that just happens to sell shoes.</s>FOREMAN: You realize nobody in America who sees this is going to want to go to work tomorrow. (voice-over): So they can laugh at comments like that, because everyone here seems eager to come to work every day, building up this runaway success.</s>MICKEY ROONEY, ACTOR: When that happens, you feel scared, disappointed, yes, and angry.</s>FOREMAN: A legendary actor admits he is a victim of elder abuse. It made headlines this week and our legal guys tackle the options he and others have. Stay with us.