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NFL: Greed vs Greed

By leontk, Section NFL
Posted on Sat Mar 04 2006 at 12:26 AM EST
More on: (all tags)

So here we stand, 2006 and the CBA is running out in a year on the NFL.  Normally, the NFL has been good at signing and extending their agreements just because of the fear of what will now happen.  They have been able to avoid a mess.  Much like the NHL, MLB, even the NBA, the NFL seems to be going down that same path but worse.  Why?  The sport that makes the most money, the sport that wins in popularity, the sport that fills the stadiums easily, the sport that has the biggest event of the year.  Why ruin all this?  

Why the issue?  Well, that is simple.  It comes down to revenue sharing.  The players union wants 60% of that to go to them, so whatever the team makes from anything dealing with revenue, they want that part of it.  The owners, they want to give 56.2%.  That is the point where nobody wants to budge.  I call that Greed!  Yes, it's a lot of money when you deal with millions, so that 3.8% is huge to them, but in the whole aspect of it, they are rich.  These sides, both of them, make plenty of money but they both want just a bit MORE.  

So without that agreement, there can't be a new deal which would put a salary cap in place.  A cap is needed, it is a must for a sport to be what the NFL is today.  To have teams all capable of competing each Sunday on the field.  Without that, there will be an NFL with a few teams, the RICH teams, or I should say the teams with MORE money than the other rich teams, and these teams will own the NFL each year.  Teams that make money, in big cities, that sell more apparel, that have owners with a bit more cash than other owners.  Teams such as Washington and Dallas that have owners willing to spend.  So is that good, of course not.  Why would we want that, as fans it would destroy the game.

I just do not see where there is a winner in this.  Without an agreement, without a salary cap, we all lose.  Fans, the biggest losers, do not get to see the game they love.  To have that football time each week, cheer as hard as we can for our team, have something to take a break with from the daily grind.  Because without a cap, there will be a lockout, which leads to the other losers.  The players, they will also lose.  Sure there will be the really talented guys making more money since there is no cap, they will be signed by teams that can put that money in front of them.  But that runs out, these few teams can't sign all these guys.  Therefore, the rest of the players, either play for much less with teams that can't compete with the checks written by the big boys or not play in the NFL.  I think for most of these guys, that is a no-brainer.  So some players, very few will win...the rest, they lose.  There will be no minimum that must be paid, so the lower tier guys, will make even less than they would in today's NFL.  Finally, the owners, yes even they lose.  The owners with that fat wallet, well they will have to pay guys way more than they would be paying them in today's NFL to play for their team, sure they have it and might give it, but they are still losing money.  Then you have the rest of the owners, they lose because they will never have a competitive team on the field, which means less money from less tickets because who wants to see a bunch of average players or even scrubs as some would say getting beat every week by the PRO BOWL filled rosters of the top dogs.  So if everybody hasn't lost yet, after a year maybe a few years with no cap, the owners will have enough, some will be tired of the insanely huge contracts, some will be losing money because they can't keep up with the teams writing the big checks, therefore, that will cause a lockout.  Either by the owners that just are losing too much money because they can't put a product on the field worth anything and from owners tired of the checks becoming bigger each season....or it may come from the players, who will really be making less since the owners just can't pay as much as some others can, therefore they will not be happy campers making so much less than they would under today's cap.

So the way I look at it, there is no winner.  I sure do not see one.  So why not sit down, work hard at getting a deal, and not mess up something that is working so great and has so much of a following, and something that has made these guys RICH!!  Why?  Maybe that is a question nobody really knows an answer for, only the fans will be paying for it.