When you’re at Olive Garden, you are family.

Except when you play arena football for Pittsburgh.

Sometime between the salad and breadsticks, Power owner Matt Shaner released his entire 24-man roster.

Pittsburgh players were having a pre-game meal, getting ready to play Orlando when Shaner dropped the hammer on them.

Apparently pink slips were the dessert.

Shaner was a bit miffed that his players, as part of the AFL Player’s Union (who knew the AFL had a union?), had the audacity to go on strike a few days before the opener, asking for quite a bit more than the $400 per game they were paid last season.

Shaner’s response was to cut his entire team and use replacement players.

Sound familiar?

It worked. The strike lasted a mere six hours. Players gave in, figuring $400 a game was better than zilch.

Orlando’s owner also jettisoned his entire roster, presumably not at an Olive Garden — at a Red Lobster, perhaps.

This is just plain sad.

The Arena League should be celebrating its 25th season. It is a good product, an entertaining product, but just like everything else in professional sports these days, it is being perverted by greed.

I know the Arena League isn’t a cash cow for its owners, but 13,000 fans filled the arena in Orlando to watch the game that Pittsburgh won 40-26.

That’s not exactly a bad draw, especially when the owners are only dolling out $400 a game to 24 players.

That’s a $9,600 payroll. That’s what Ben Roethlisber makes every time he sheds a pass rusher. That’s what James Harrison earns per surly look.

Of course the fans in Orlando had no idea what was going on.

Neither did the NFL Network, which broadcast the game live.

The rosters in front of the network announcers didn’t match the players on the field, making for awkward moments.

The sad part of this story is this is the norm now.

An argument could be made that the players in the AFL are in more danger of serious injury than the players in the NFL.

AFL players play both ways. They have big dudes to avoid as well as walls to get crushed into and over.

To me, it seems $400 a game is not nearly enough.

It’s not like the Arena League is devoid of talent. Remember, Kurt Warner came from that league. Tommy Maddox resurrected his career there before turning in a couple of good seasons with the Steelers. Jay Gruden coached a team in the league and is now the offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Jon Bon Jovi and John Elway once were owners.

I couldn’t see Bon Jovi standing in an Olive Garden dining room, releasing his players.

Arena Football League: Half the field, twice the idiocy, it seems.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.