NFL Lockout: Detroit Lions Fan's Perspective of All This Craziness

I read that Adrian Peterson compared the NFL owners as modern day slave owners.

"It's modern-day slavery, you know?" said Peterson of the NFL.  "People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way too."

Having Adrian Peterson compare this labor dispute is pure lunacy...I don't care if he qualified it.

Slaves never had the opportunity to negotiate for millions of dollars per year...and even at the current league minimum, I'm pretty sure today's football player are living in far better living conditions than slaves had to.

Slaves also never had any say in their livelihood.  In fact, they never had say so about anything.

While on the surface the issues being bandied about are the proposed 18-game schedule and player safety, the dispute is over money, plain and simple.

Both sides want more....

Let's talk about this for a second:

The profit amount that teams have to split 32 ways is about $9 billion dollars annually. $9 Billion dollars...that amount is staggering.

Of that, the owners take $1 billion to cover miscellaneous operating expenses so now the split amount is $8 billion.

The players get 59.6 percent of the remaining $8 billion which comes to $4.76 billion dollars leaving the owners with $3.3 billion dollars with each team getting $100 million dollars each.

What the owners want is to increase the amount they take off the top from $1 billion to $2.4 billion which the result of would be an 18 percent decrease in pay for the players. What a concept...to have $2.4 billion for "miscellaneous" operating expenses.

The players feel that an 18 percent cut in pay is out of line...League minimum is $285,000...knock of 18 percent and it drops to $233,700. Still more money that the average worker in the United States makes...but I understand the hardship that comes with making over $200,000 per year.

In the case of Peterson, who makes $10 million per year, yes the loss would be more but he would still be at $8.2 million per year...Sorry, but I can't really sympathize with Peterson and his slavery remark.

Tossing these numbers around makes me sick…modern day slaves should have it so good.

I can't sympathize with either side...not when both sides are responsible for making the last two years in the NFL the most profitable and most watched shows every Sunday.

I had read a posting from another article where it's said the dispute all about respect, not money...and I'm guessing the poster is on the player’s side. With all of the demands to have a rookie cap, owners wanting more funds for " miscellaneous" expenses and players bemoaning the fact they feel insulted they wouldn't be able to get buy on an average salary of $902,000 instead of $1.1 million, of course it's about money.

I'm not for either side...in fact I'm against both sides.

Each side makes more money per year that is beyond the average fan's imagination and yet each side is trying to get public opinion to side with them as the victims in all this.

Let's make this simple:

NFL can increase what it wants for expenses but to $1.75 billion. That will increase the split to $4.3 billion dollars with each team getting just over $240 million each.

That drops the players 59.6 percent to $4.6 billion. A loss of $81 million...still a decrease in salary but down to a more palatable amount.

Forget the 18 game schedule. Not unless the teams agree to increase the NFL rosters from 53 to 63 players and any and all injuries sustained during games or practices are covered 100 percent by the team.

Owners have to quit giving lip service about player safety and actually do something about it.

Rules can only protect so far...there has to be significant research done in equipment...and any breach of rules by a player that would cause another player to become injured and lose game time...the offending player is fined an amount that will hurt his wallet (based on percentage of the players salary) and can't play until the player injured comes off the injured list.

There...I solved it...can we move on now?