NFL in danger of ‘11 lockout

Pro Football, America’s most popular sport is in serious danger – in danger of not having a season in 2011 because of an owners’ lockout.

Can you imagine fall without football? Having to come back to school with no games to nurse your hangover on Sundays? And no big game to jump-start your week on Monday nights? I can’t, and for some reason I can’t see fantasy UFL being quite as fun either.

However, if players and owners don’t agree on a new collective bargaining agreement by March 2010, this sick, twisted nightmare could easily become a reality.

If that happens, the 2010 season will go uncapped, which would make coming to an agreement even harder and almost guarantee a lockout in 2011.

Despite what some people think, an uncapped league would be horrible for the NFL because one of the biggest issues the owners have is that they use more than half of their revenue to pay players. In an uncapped league it is estimated that owners would have to pay players even more.

Also, the players’ association has vowed to never go back to a capped league if there was ever an uncapped season, thus making a big problem even bigger.

But, there is a chance to prevent this apocalyptic world of no football. To avert this crisis the players would have to agree in the next four months with two main issues proposed by the owners.

First and foremost, the owners want the players to share revenue losses in the economic downturn of the NFL. To do this, owners have introduced expense credits that would make players pay owners for things like stadium debt and marketing costs.

That is pretty ridiculous. The owners don’t need help paying these costs. Forbes reported that every team was worth more than $790 million, 19 teams were worth more than $1 billion and all teams had revenue of at least $200 million. Mike Brown can expect a good “child please” the day this one ever comes into effect.

Second is the introduction of a rookie pay scale, like the NBA has, where players are paid a certain amount based on their draft position.

I think this one is a no-brainer for both sides. Owners don’t want to pay outrageous amounts to unproven players and veteran players don’t want to see rookie scrubs making more than them. A perfect example: In his first year Matthew Stafford is being paid more than Tom Brady. Brady has won three Super Bowls, Stafford hasn’t even won three games. Ridiculous.

The new agreement the owners have proposed is only going to help them fatten their pocketbooks and, as much as I hate to see the owners win and the rich getting richer, I like to watch football games more.

I think the players’ association needs to reconsider its position; they are the ones with the most to lose.

Players are only paid 16 weeks out of the year, but the owners will get paid no matter what, thanks to a $1 billion dollar per-year contract with DirecTV, who has to pay whether the games are played or not. That’s a little more than $31 million for each team.

The owners are still going to get their paycheck and can afford to wait this out longer than the players. The players are by no means poor, but I don’t know how long they’re going to want to go without making money.

For those of who think this can’t happen, think again. It happened to the NBA in the 1998-99 season when it was arguably the most popular sport in the country, and it has happened to the MLB and the NHL.

It’s good that both sides now have a deal to go over, but even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell believes an agreement by March is doubtful. DeMaurice Smith, director of the NFL Players’ Association, has been traveling from locker room to locker room bracing players for a 2011 lockout.

As much as I would like to see both sides coming to an agreement, I can’t see it happening by March.