Our worst fears as fans came to fruition last night, as the NFLPA filed for decertification and the NFL officially put the league in lockout mode. With the two sides at an impasse, the finger pointing and name calling has already begun. The benefit of closed sessions was that both sides agreed not to speak publiclly, which saved us from the media spins. Now, we’ll be subjected to the he said, she said banter for quite some time. The owners say the NFLPA was never truly committed to getting a deal without going through litigation, and the players are calling the owners liars. Now that we’ve reached this point, we’re beyond constructive progress. Things will only get uglier from here. I find it interesting that many people are playing this off as “part of the process” and act as if a lockout and NFLPA decertification is no big deal. “Trust us”, say the players, a deal will get worked out. I’m not convinced that’s happening anytime soon. And make no mistake, a lockout is a HUGE deal.
So what side of the fence are you on? I’ll tell you what side I’m on:
NEITHER. I think both the owners and the players are lucky enough to benefit from the hard earned money we as fans spend to watch their league. Despite our minimal incomes in comparison to theirs, we fuel their extravagant lifestyles and we give them the opportunity to make millions if not billions. They’ve basically come to the realization that they can’t agree on how to divide that ridiculous amount of money up. To me, that makes both sides incredibly greedy. Sure, the owners never turned over their audited financial records, but it’s not like they didn’t make any concessions. They made an offer to the players and instead of studying the offer and making a counter offer, the players kept the threat of decertification, holding the owners ransom. Call me crazy, but when a offer gets made, you study it and counter. That’s how negotiations work. You don’t then give ultimatums in response. I agree with the owners that the players were never really committed to getting a deal done during the extended talks – and the plan all along was to try to get theirs through litigation. It could come back to bite them badly. The bottom line is both sides deserve equal blame that things got this far.
I know a lot of fans are turned off by this, and as it drags out the numbers will duplicate. The owners and players decided to gamble with the incredibly committed fan base, and we’ll see if that risk was worth it. Alienating the fan base may cost owners and players much more than the billion dollars or less they are arguing about. How I feel about it ultimately is this: if they don’t want my money, that’s fine. There’s other forms of entertainment out there, and I’ll just have to re-direct my season ticket and DirecTV NFL package expenses towards something else if there’s no football. I would miss football, no doubt, but I can’t control this situation. What I can control is where I spend my money, and you can too. We’ll see if it’s still out there for the taking once the league decides they want it.
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