The NFL’s modern-day gold rush now will be mined in a courtroom.
Goodbye, lush playing fields, Vegas sports books, fantasy football
websites and all-important television ratings. The NFL Players
Association gave a proverbial stiff-arm to the labor talks with
owners Friday and decertified. An ensuing lockout by owners only
muddies the water.
The NFL’s modern-day gold rush now will be mined in a courtroom. Goodbye, lush playing fields, Vegas sports books, fantasy football websites and all-important television ratings.
The NFL Players Association gave a proverbial stiff-arm to the labor talks with owners Friday and decertified. An ensuing lockout by owners only muddies the water.
Antitrust lawsuits are on the horizon. Smoky tailgates and season-ticket renewals are not.
The NFL world as we know it could stop rotating any second. Anyone who draws an NFL-related paycheck—excluding legal counsel — is stuck in limbo.
This all should have ended Friday. Instead, after nearly two years of negotiations, no deal.
It’s not just the uncertainty that is troubling in regards to the NFL’s future. It’s the unappealing aspect of what’s next.
“Unfortunately now we’re going to have to go through this process in court,” New York Giants owner John Mara told reporters in Washington, D.C., after Day 17 of mediation.
In the case of owners vs. players, the guaranteed losers are the fans.
The NFL doesn’t belong in a courtroom. Barry Bonds might. Not Peyton Manning.
Now is the time of year we should see the 49ers, Raiders and everyone else court cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha in free agency. But such player deals are on indefinite hold—and when that gate is opened, it could unleash fascinating moves with no collective bargaining agreement in place.
The fans’ next option for entertainment is to head to Minnesota and see Manning wave his arms in a courtroom as one of many high-profile plaintiffs in an antitrust lawsuit.
In the end, either the owners or the players will get richer. Fans won’t.
Six months from now, regular-season games surely will be under way. Or how sure can we be? No one thought a World Series could be canceled, right?
Yes, fans have options outside of the NFL realm. Are they enticing enough to kick their year-round addiction? The recent scouting combine in Indianapolis drew record TV ratings, parlaying the momentum generated by a Super Bowl that attracted the most viewers in American television history.
It’s not a matter of whether there is enough money to spread around, but rather that there is too much. The players wanted to see their bosses’ books for the past 10 years. The NFL allegedly offered a five-year glimpse. The players opted to bat their eyes at a federal judge.
The NFL’s chief negotiator, attorney Jeff Pash, fired off a list of concessions the owners are (were) willing to make. Salaries would climb, as would days off and health benefits.
It sounded like a sweet deal — until NFLPA counsel Jim Quinn took the mike and called Pash a liar.
This is the polluted air we now breath. No one is happy about it.
Several players channeled voices of support on Twitter.
Some made poignant declarations, such as New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees: “Past players sacrificed a great deal to give us what we have now in the NFL, and we will not lay down for a second to give that up.”
Some joked about where to wait out this strife, such as 49ers tight end Vernon Davis: “I’m thinkin columbia.”
Some took the union’s decertification as an oxymoronic call for “Solidarity! #ONE TEAM,” wrote Seattle guard Chester Pitts.
A court of law likely will decide the outcome of this NFL dysfunction, hopefully within the next six months.
The court of public opinion is likely to rule in swifter fashion. Fans just want everyone to get back to shaping rosters, playing football and fulfilling their TV obligations every Sunday for the other six months of the year.
— Column by Cam Inman, Contra Costa Times
