Good article on Goodell's role in this. Doesn't say anything groundbreaking, "Goodell is a mouthpiece" "Goodell will take the fall if the NFL loses," but it's worth reading.
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Janny not only is this a good piece but it echos the thought that if anyone thinks that Goodell is in any way shape or form at fault for this, they're completely idiotic!!!! Goodell is nothing more then a mouthpiece that filters out the day to day crap so the owners can enjoy jetsetting around from the Caymen Islands to the French Carribean.... bottom line is Goodell is a football guy, if he had the ultimate authority, there would be no lockout...this would be resolved....he was one of the major players in the last negotiations and worked directly with Tagliabue since 1989....thats a qualified replacement. Now on the other hand, the owners were grooming the understudy to take over in the manner in which they wanted - who got to choose the new commissioner? Oh yeah the owners....
Lets look at Demaurice Smith....what a dork....what can i say, his pedigree is working on complex civil matters (probably involved with the ruling for the guy who got burnt at McDonalds by his HOT coffee - 7 million dollars), internal investigations...that tells me he's also a hired hand to bring defiance to the union...an outside source with zero prior prejudices....this is simple my opinion, but, in some ways it seems as his positions are such that he is trying to make the big name for himself and the fact that he had never dealt with the NFL prior to his placement in 2009 means he's simply a hired gun by the Players Association much like goodell...if he wins great, if he loses, then he's fired!!!! But hes still a dork!!!
There is one root of all this evil and its not deadlocked on the players or the owners - its locked onto BOTH - GREED!!!! The owners and the players know the game...they both go in shooting high or shooting low whichever benefits them and then make considerations. If they went in at the point of considerations, then they would lose more....its a simple fact of negotiations....The owners are making 9 BILLION dollars a year....But that said, they carry all the risk, they've built their net worth over years of hard work, and why should they open the books and show the players how much they make or dont make. At the same time, the players have an average salary of 310,000 a year, MLB 400,000, NBA 457,588.....but consider this...those salaries are based on the season, those per game salaries are NFL $19,375.00, MLB $2469.00, NBA $5580.00 with the NFL having the highest per game salary of any sport out there. So the owners do a better job of marketing their product with significantly less gaems to do so....thats good business!!!!
Bottom line is, if that margin of profit was smaller, and some clubs were taking losses, would any player give two rats behind about the owners cash flow as long as they got paid....NOPE.....its only because they can see the results of all the players before them, the owners before these owners, and most importantly all the fans current and prior that have built this machine into the money maker that it is...these current players feel its their RIGHT to get more money....i wonder how Alan Page who's also sueing for different reason feels about that, what about Earl Campbell....there's rookies such as JaMarcus Russell how make more in three worthless years then all the players in the Hall of Fame received up to the 80's... The players have set their lofty goals, they would like about 1 - 1.5 billion more in revenue shared for spending by the teams...that would double the current spending.....The owners want a salary cap for the rookies (BOUT TIME) and therefore they would be able to spend more on veterans....thats how it should be anyhow....seriously Jamarcus Russell made more drinking kool aid and codeine then did Joe Montana did beating my cowboys and winning super bowls.....seriously????
For the owners, they should pay more into medical and retirement coverage...its not good seeing past players homeless because they're out of work by the time their 40 and have no idea of how to manage money and they go broke.....they need to better invest in their bread and butters long term care.
To me, both sides seem to be deceiving...sort of like politicians....lobbying for public support and when the truth comes out the public hates both sides views....bottom line is the very people these guys are playing in front of get sick of hearing that both sides want, want, want. Considering the very people that pay both salaries have to scrape together savings just to go to a game, let alone season tickets....
As with Baseball, if this goes into the fall and the season is suspended or lost, it will have negative ramifications on the game for years to come....hard working people hate to be victimized by those that are greedy.....both sides - here i've simplified the corp discrepancies!!!
Players Get:
Agree to accept 750 milllion more in revenue.
Rookie Salary cap.
Owners Get:
Stay at 16 games or increase revenue to 1 billion if you goto 18 games.
Shared match increases set forth by the Players union to Medical and Retirement funds for prior players. Players portion will come from new revenue and owners will be additional compensation.
Now quit your whinning and get to work.....
