NFLPA: Lockout Next Year Is A Sure Thing

Don't take the 2010-11 NFL season for granted.  Enjoy it like there won't be football played for a while after because at least one insider in the labor negotiations believes a lockout is guaranteed once the current contract expires in March 2011.

NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith says the chances of a lockout next year on a scale from one to ten is a "14".

Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn't agree with Smith.  He says the owners know it's bad for business to not come up with some sort of an agreement.

Goodell also states he doesn't feel a lockout would be best for the players or the fans.  Well, no **** Sherlock. 

Another thing that isn't good for the game is an uncapped year, which it looks more and more like that's going to be the case for the 2010 season.  And once there's one season that's uncapped it's nearly impossible to make the next season capped.  Try telling a quarterback that he isn't worth as much as a defensive lineman just because his contract was signed a year later.  Then get back to me and tell me how that works out.

Right now the labor agreement proposed is for the players to cut their revenue sharing percentage from 59% to 41%.  The only way I see any chance of this happening is if there is no salary cap so the players will still get their money. 

Players play for the love of the game, but they also know this is a business.  They aren't about to get screwed so the team's billionaire owner can pocket more money in hopes that he'll improve stadium facilities to appease Goodell's taste for what a football stadium should look like and include.

Goodell wants improved facilities.  Owners want to maximize their profits.  Players want to maximize their profits.  Fans want to enjoy football and be able to afford to watch a game live in person.

If Goodell gets his way, owners will lose profits and players will lose profits which will chain react into inflation on tickets and concession costs at games, causing less fans to be able to afford to watch a game live in person.

This will cause plummeting ticket and concession sales which will cause teams that are currently struggling to have to move cities.  That's never good for fans to lose the team they love.

Maybe the facilities will generate more money down the road, but that's only going to come from the people with more money that can afford to go to these games.  And in this era that's only the high class people.  The only people going to games will be wealthy people, which will demean home field advantage because these people are on average not as rabid sports fans.

It's a chain reaction that in the long run hurts everyone and everything having to deal with the game. 

Fidel Goodell, get over your egotistical ideas and leave the game as it is.  It's perfect, nothing needs to be changed.  Not one fan cares more about the facility their team plays in compared to the integrity of the game as a whole.