Click HERE to catch up on the lockout lastest, courtesy of ESPN. My biggest worry reading that article is the following quote:
“Of chief concern on the owners’ side could be keeping a united front if some teams, particularly the lower-revenue or small-market franchises, are not satisfied with the numbers presented in Chicago.”
What makes the NFL so great in my opinion is the competitive balance between the small market teams and the larger market teams…
There is so much parody in the league, it’s not like baseball where no salary cap has made teams like the Kansas City Royals permanently bad while teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox make the playoffs every single season. In the NFL, the small market teams compete thanks to a strict salary cap and very generous revenue sharing. Any new deal that threatens the competitive balance and strengthens the ability to win of owners with deeper pockets would be a huge negative. As far as I’m concerned, rushing to a deal that’s going to hurt small market teams (ie the Saints) is not worth doing, speaking as a Saints fan of course. If I’m Tom Benson, I’m not keeping a unified front if a new deal (whether it be an exorbitant salary cap, no cap, or less revenue sharing) benefits guys like Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder. The current system forces owners and GM’s to spend wisely. Allowing Jones and Snyder to further buy their way out of atrocious personnel and staff decisions is not the way to make the NFL better.
We all want a deal done, and the sooner it happens the better. We all want football. If it because harder for bad teams to improve quickly, though, then the product we love so much is regressing. That’s not a solution, and I’d rather wait for a deal if rushing one will yield that result. While there’s no question there’s a number of things to resolve as the old CBA needs vast improvements, giving small market teams a steeper hill to climb would make things much worse.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
