Amidst all of the confusion and seemingly esoteric rhetoric between the NFL’s owners and players, it is clear that America’s beloved sport has grown up from its humble beginnings of leatherheads and actual pigskins. Unfortunately, it has followed the path of so many other professional leagues nowadays, as the game no longer revolves around the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy, but rather how the league should divvy up its massive revenue.
It is important to note that the NFL, in recent years, has maintained a relatively peaceful labor-management relationship compared to organizations like the NBA, MLB and NHL.
While the NFL has been free of labor disputes since 1987, baseball was slow to recover from its damaging 1994 strike and the NBA and NHL have each suffered three labor disputes since 1990.
So why, after more than two decades of successful collective bargaining between the NFL and the NFL Player’s Association (NFLPA), is there an official lockout for America’s favorite sport? It’s because both players and owners alike have forgotten the one aspect that they can all agree on, the game of football.
The football industry is growing exponentially even in the midst of a recession, as giants like Verizon and DirecTV scramble to secure sponsorship and broadcasting rights with the NFL. This past season the league’s total revenue was $9 billion. With all this money at stake, players and owners want to make sure that they get their “fair share” of the pie, and who can blame them? But this scrambling for higher paychecks is causing many to question the innocence of the game.
The current dilemma in a nutshell began with the 2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which provided a fair fiscal ceiling and floor for the percent of the total revenue that pays players’ salaries.
The agreement’s expiration in early March led to the NFL imposing a lockout (where players are not allowed to use team facilities). The lockout led to the NFLPA decertifying (killing the union and making each player a single employee). Now players are suing the NFL under anti-trust laws for the imposition of the lockout.
Both sides of the table say that what they want most is to ensure that the upcoming season will take place, but neither side will give in. Owners want an extra billion dollars in their share of the revenue to help expand the game by building new stadiums and the like. They are answering fans’ complaints about the poor quality of preseason games by requesting to shorten the preseason to two games and extend the regular season to 18 games.
On the other side, players want open books on each team’s revenue and want the additional billion dollars to be added instead to players’ salaries. They oppose an 18-game season, arguing that the NFL player’s career will decrease from the already low 3.5 year average.
Both sides make valid points, and it makes sense that they have argued for months without any progress. Yet owners and players have forgotten why they are involved in football. The one thing that both sides of the table should agree on is love for the game. The fact that they have allowed the 2006 CBA to expire, imposed the lockout and decertified the union keenly represents their true interest, money.
It is probable that at one point each player played simply because he loved football, that each owner truly hoped his club would win the Super Bowl. As of right now, such feelings are nowhere to be found, as the NFL gladly gives up a season of football to fight over who gets the extra buck.
The NFL needs a lockout this season like a kid needs a time-out for shoving his brother while they are playing. The NFL just needs some time to think about where it holds its values: in shoving its brother, or playing and having fun.
America’s favorite league needs a year off to kick back and watch some college football, and quite possibly to learn from college players how to love the game even when they aren’t receiving small fortunes.
