“Ready, set, hike!” are three words that football fans know very well, yet they may not hear again for quite some time — at least not in the NFL. An NFL lockout may occur in the 2011 season. Why is this happening? One word comes to mind: greed.
According to Dictionary.com, a lockout is “the refusal by an employer to allow employees to come to work until they accept the employer’s terms.” In the NFL’s case, essentially, it is the owners who are preventing the players from playing. The owners were unhappy with the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and decided to opt out of it. According to www.Duhaime.org, a CBA is “a contract on hiring, working conditions and dispute resolution between an employer and a union.” The current CBA was negotiated between the owners and the NFL Players Association, and it is set to expire on March 3.
But, wouldn’t a lockout hurt the owners financially? No. In fact, the owners are scheduled to make $4.5 billion from television contracts, regardless of whether there is an NFL season or not.
The players must meet several demands from the owners before the owners agree to a new CBA. These demands include the addition of two regular season games to the schedule. Also, owners want players to gross 18 percent less of the league revenue. According to www.NFLLockout.com, for the past several years, the owners and players have split the revenue roughly 50-50. Not only would the players be working more, they would also be getting paid less.
Injuries are common among football players. During this year’s Super Bowl, players, Charles Woodson, Donald Driver, and Emmanuel Sanders each suffered injuries and did not return to the game. Because football is a violent sport, asking these players to sacrifice their bodies for two more games is ridiculous, especially for less money.
The only reasonable demand the owners have is the implementation of a rookie pay scale. I think we’ve all seen more than our fair share of unproven players receive a ludicrous amount of money before even playing at all in the NFL. JaMarcus Russell, David Carr, and Alex Smith are perfect examples of why the NFL needs a rookie pay scale.
Why the owners are willing to damage the reputation of the most profitable sports league in the country for a few extra bucks is beyond me. Is it really good business to shut down a thriving product? Not to mention, Super Bowl XLV was the most-watched program in television history. I’m guessing the owners’ private jets just aren’t quite big enough yet.
