Williams still owes the Dolphins nearly $9 million for abruptly retiring before training camp in 2004. He said he was tired of the schedule and didn't need football. But by the next season, reality had set in and he was back on the field. That apparently still didn't stop him from indulging in his favorite pastime — hanging out with Mary Jane.

But you don't need a drug habit to understand there simply isn't better pay per hour than professional sports. Basketball players, for instance, work eight months a year, two or three hours a day. Throw in conditioning work and practice, they still don't come close to a 40-hour week. Yet someone as mediocre as Greg Ostertag can earn nearly $50 million in an 11-year career. The NBA minimum is $412,000, the average salary about $5 million. In the NFL, the numbers are lower but impressive nonetheless.

For five or six months' work, they average about $1.25 million.

Only about 3 percent of Americans even earn $100,000 annually.

While NFL player contracts aren't guaranteed, most American workers have no contract whatsoever.

So the next time team owners complain about the high salaries they must pay, they should do something about it: propose a maximum salary of a few hundred thousand dollars. The players' union will then huff and go on strike. The owners will take a loss for a year or two. Then the players will come back. All of them.

Maybe then the fans won't have to give up such a big part of their own salaries to afford tickets.

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E-mail: rock@desnews.com