It's difficult for me to take one side or the other in this dispute, as I see points on both sides. For the owners, they made a bad deal on the last CBA, and are trying to rectify it. Al ot of how the NFL is structured is against anti-trust law, and the draft if flat out illegal. However, with a CBA they get away with it, as they should, and it has worked to the benefit of all for many years. The owners have negotiated in good faith, to a degree, and have made concessions to try to get a deal done. I know they are hiding something by refusing to open their books. That is their right but, only if they do not ask for additional money for expenses. The players are trying to keep the great deal Upshaw got for them, as well they should. They have the law on their side but, must understand that if they "Take It To The Limit," they will destroy the game as we now know it. I do not believe the players have negotiated in good faith to the same extent as owners. As far as I know, they have made no concessions on anything other than the rookie wage scale. They have stated that the 18 game schedule is off the table, and have offered no more than about $140M for owner's additional expenses. They know it's a lot more than that. I further believe that D. Smith was the wrong choice to represent the players. He has his own political agenda, and that does not help the players. JMO Lastly, after the draft day abortion of asking kids not to attend, I think Smith & the players would be now conceding a popular vote election from fans. WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING? Which side do you take or, like me, take none?
Lean towards the players, the owners appear to be intent to play "screw you, hurrah for us". Players are not totally innocent either, the 18 game schedule to me was their desire simply not to work.
Players. There's a lot more players that are more or less "stuck in the middle" of this than there are owners.
****** ***** ***** **** *** ****** **** the players! I'm for the owners. I don't care if they're right or wrong. Even though I think both parties are saying screw the fans, I cannot side with the players. Nope!
I'll side with the poor innocent cheerleaders who will have to resort to pole dancing to replace their lost income. They are the real victims here.
Meh, cheerleaders only make like $50 per game. They already do other things for work. And I'm not joking. They seriously make $50 per game.
It used to be 25 bucks a game. Now it's almost 100 but they're required to spend tons of time per week to earn that. Dated one of the Dolphins Cheeleaders a while ago and she told me they made 25 a game. Now I work with one who was on the squad until last year. They do get lots of perks though. Like when the team traveled to London to play the Giants. They got themselves a free ride since Miami was the home team.
The only reason they agreed to that is because it puts more money in the veterans' pockets. I'm not solidly for one side or the other. They both take on certain risks, but neither can exist without the other. To me, both sides should take a cut and give back to the fans. It would be nice to reduce costs of going to a game so that I could take my boys and help usher in the next generation of fans.
The Players. They are only trying to get a fair wage for their very special talent. Its talent that can't be replicated by other human beings, so they should get to set the price they can command. Isn't that called capitalism ????
I said at the beginning of this whole debacle, there is something about that dude Maurice smith I do not like, hes much to aware of the camera for my taste.... I side with the owners..Players get paid fairly relative to what we know at this point, if the books show somethin different, it may change..
i'm not on the side of either .... the owners hold the cards -- players are silly to think they really have a hard stand. folks will still watch football, even with scrubs ... and eventually, the players have to come back -- their only 'real' option is to start their own league. i would like to see a better pension plan for the players .... but other than that - players are more than fairly compensated for what they do for a living; regardless of how much $$$ Pro Football is worth on the market.
What are the players coming back from? They aren't on strike they are locked out because tue owners wont let them in.
Clearly the Players, I feel for them, must be very though having all that God giving talent and not be able to make more money then the Owners....
Owners. Players should have their salaries cut in half. Owners should net 80 to 120 million per year on their franchises. Players get too big a slice of the pie
Actually I'm sick of billionaires arguing with millionaires about how to split up a ridiculously large sum of money. Nope I don't like D Smith, but I don't like Jerrurah Jones all that much either. As far as I'm concerned the owners put up the capital to make it happen and take the finacial risk. Clearly the players take a ridiculous amount of physical risk and there should be a cadillac of a healthplan given to these guys in perpetuity upon retirement. It should be in the deal for all these guys going forward. It has always been the players union who supplied it in the past but they have clearly not done enough. In my opinion that does not make them much different from the other side of the aisle. Both sides trying to maximize profit. If I have to make a choice I'm siding with the owners, but by the slimmest of margins.
I think you are right in your synopsis here. One thing though, I just don't get the idea of the players insisting on the owners opening up the books...no company ever does that in negotiations and even if they did, and assuming the numbers would show a decline, probably due to the economy as much as anything else, the players would claim the numbers were doctored or that the ow2ners didn't know what they were doing and ignore any trends there might be....it's a no win situation for the owners in that regard....
They think they're partners. Of course without having to pony up a thing except for their own personal taxes.
Owners. Why should they open books to a worker? Can McDonald's employees make the owners open their books to decide how much money they have to share? Players in NFL get paid very well if they are worth it, many to much. Wanting to stick your nose in a owners books is absurd. Go back to college and get a office job for 75k a year.
Screw the Owners!!! You can't ask for an extra billion in profits right off the top and not want to give up the paperwork to show that is really what you need, or to show how much more of a profit that it would be for them. Like somebody said before if somebody told me they were going to take $1 an hour off my raise this year so that this Million dollar company can make even more money, I'd say screw you and try and find a new job.
Underlined misinformed. Bolded flat-out wrong. The owners never asked for a billion in profit. They called for another billion in revenues. Revenues that go toward mortgages on stadiums, maintenance, repairs, team gear, transport, food, coaches salaries, staff salaries, player healthcare etc. I bolded the off the top thing because profit is what is left AFTER expenses are paid. If I go exactly on what you said, who would quite over a RAISE being $1 less than they thought it was. But listen, what you said, QUITTING, is making a case against the players. Rather than Quit, the players are pretending like they're investors in the NFL. You just basically said you'd do the opposite of what the players are doing.
