The NFL, there is a good debate and a leg to stand on. Look at the Packers profits over the past few years. Hell, just look at the difference between this past year and the year before that. If we leave things up to the players and courts, they'll turn the NFL into Major League Baseball.
It was written into the CBA that the owners were allowed to discontinue it. The NFLPA decertificated and went to the courts instead of negotiating.
Keep the Fed Govt out of sports. They have much better things to do.
1. The players have stated their willingness to give the owners the extra billion dollars if they can PROVE that they need that money. The owners turned over some bullshit papers which a third-part reviewer told the players was absolutely worthless in terms of judging if the owners truly need that extra money. Bottom line, the owners are making everyone believe that they're full of shit by refusing to turn over detailed financial documents. They don't need the extra money, they just want it.
2. I'll agree that the players were receiving too much of a cut in the former CBA, which is why the owners unanimously decided to opt out. But you're statement is incorrect. The players went to the table to negotiate, the owners tossed out several unfavorable deals that the players laughed at, and then the owners locked them out. AFTER they had been locked out, the players took the next necessary step: decertifying as a union so that they could pursue individual lawsuits against the NFL. The owners made the first move, not the players. Here, read this:
This lockout is about inequitable leverage.
If there is not a football season in 2011, the owners’ costs will drastically decrease.
The owners have negotiated TV deals that guarantee them revenues even if games are not played in the 2011 season.
The guaranteed television revenues that approach $4.5 billion, coupled with the elimination of $4.4 billion in player salaries and benefits during a lockout, could make a 2011 season without games profitable for the owners.
They are willing to sacrifice the sport of football in this country in order to have less cost, less work, and more revenue for themselves.
This lockout is about owners wanting more from players without justified reasons or restitution.
The owners have not been willing to give proof that they have taken a financial loss, therefore needing more money back from players.
NFL owners are adamant in their desire to reduce the share of league revenue set aside for player salaries by roughly 18 percent ($1 billion) beginning next year.
NFL owners want to increase the amount of games, therefore increasing each player’s risk of injury, but decreasing salaries.
-----------------------
We're in the middle of a cat-and-mouse game that will likely be decided on the June 3rd ruling from the appeals court. If they uphold the judge's decision that the lockout must end immediately, then the owners must resume operations. They will then go back to the bargaining table, where the players will have all of the bargaining chips in negotiating a new deal. If they reverse the judge's ruling, the owners will have all of the bargaining chips in negotiating a new deal, and will simply rest on their laurels until the players cave to every single one of their demands.
3. The government in sports is a necessary evil at this point to break a stalemate, and favor one side or the other so that negotiations can be productive. Without a lockout, the owners will ease their demands and agree to a new CBA. With a lockout, the players will be forced to give in to the NFL's demands and agree to a new CBA. Stop thinking about it as a sport, because it's also a business. The governments monitors these multi-billion dollar businesses to make sure that everything is conducted fairly. Microsoft's stranglehold was lessened by the government, and every merger between two companies is scrutinized. Funny that you don't hear people saying, "Doesn't the government have better things to do than look at the AT&T and T-Mobile merger? There are bigger priorities than my ability to make a phone call." The government is here to make sure big businesses keep it real. And that includes sports...because it IS a business. In fact, it's a business before it's a sport.
