...What if the real world were like the sports world?

Today's story that Raiders No. 1 pick JaMarcus Russell is expected to hold out for a long time got me thinking: What if I held out on my first job?

So The Indianapolis Star drafts me with the No. 1 pick (And why wouldn't they? I have a news background, multimedia knowledge and Web experience...Any takers? Anyone???). Even though there are only, let's say, 95 sports writers with my beat in the country, and even though being a sports writer is my dream, and even though there are thousands of people working their tails off who would love to have my job...I decide to hold out. You're only offering me $30,000 a year for four years?! Yeah right. Call me when you get serious.

What would the Star do?

They'd kick my tail into Meridian Street so fast it'd make my head spin like one of Russell's spirals. The editors wouldn't wait a day before yelling, "Next!" for the next young gun to come in and snatch the position.

And that would be that.

But things are different in pro sports - specifically the NFL. Somehow, the young guy has all of the power - or thinks he does. "Dude...you guys were 2-14 last year," Russell must be telling Al Davis and Co., "and your current starter is a washed-up 30-year-old on his third team and ready for his third knee surgery. You need me. Pay me like it."

While Russell (and Brady Quinn in Cleveland) have a point, here's what I don't get: Just about all of the NBA draft picks are signed, including Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. The NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement is set up to minimize holdouts: it's pretty much set in stone how much players get based on when they were drafted. Not the NFL, where you have a No. 22 pick who wants to get paid like a No. 2 pick.

This whole thing makes even less sense when you consider how hard it is to learn an NFL offense - especially as a QB. You can jump from college basketball to the NBA and be fine (See: Carmelo Anthony or Allen Iverson). The game is more or less the same, though faster and with better athletes.

But the NFL is a different beast. The schemes are harder to learn, the game is much, much faster and the players are bigger, stronger and much better. To memorize a playbook, learn how to decipher defenses and adjust to the speed takes months. Why waste weeks holding out for a few extra million?

The NFL needs to adopt the approach of the rest of the world. Give the power to the teams and the league to figure out contracts, so the players can do what they do what they (eventually) get paid to do: play.