As Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports writes, there’s a very good chance that the NFL could see a work stoppage by 2011.
What’s the issue? Money. (Surprise, surprise).
Players now receive 59.5 percent of all money generated by the league. The salary cap for each team is now at $127 million, up from $85.5 million in 2006. Owners say they’re getting soaked. They want a rookie wage scale so they don’t have to hand $40 million in guaranteed money to unproven players. They want players to understand that stadium costs in the current economy are killing them.
The players want to see every detail to find out just how badly owners are getting hurt. Their rallying cry is “Open your books…” which they say more often than a seventh-grade English teacher.
And while Smith’s recent election will be used as an excuse for that, it’s clear the sides are currently more interested in digging in than rolling up their sleeves and finding resolution.
Meanwhile, checkpoints are being passed without pause. When the next league year begins in a little more than 10 months, there will be no salary cap in place. In 2006, prompted in part by a fear of a no-cap 2007, the two sides worked furiously to get the new deal done.
But the urgency isn’t there this time. It’s a staring contest. And while both sides will try to curry the favor of fans — Smith has already shown a penchant for talking about the stadium workers who’ll be impacted by a lockout — neither side is going to get much sympathy.
It never ceases to amaze me how greedy everyone is in professional sports. The owners are making millions of dollars off the players, yet they don’t want to give them a cent more than they have to. And the players are making millions of dollars, yet want more regardless of if they perform well or not. It’s a vicious cycle and one that doesn’t make sense outside of the sports realm.
Something that has always been ironic to me about the NFL is that players always seem to perform their best when money is on the line (i.e. during their contract years). Then once they get paid, their play often drops off immensely, so in essence, owners get the best out of players on the cheap and often a lackluster effort from them when they’re most expensive. (I should also note that not all players are like this.)
But getting back on topic, could you image the backlash the NFL will receive from fans if the players go on strike? How about the millions of dollars oddsmakers and sports books would lose without any NFL played for a year? I shudder to think about the absolute hell that would ensue.
