Will NFL, players realize fans' power?

Topdawg13 · Mar 12, 2011

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The business of the game is shut down, but fans have lost nothing while gaining something very important: You've learned that those who own the teams, the commissioner who runs the league and, to a far lesser extent, the players who run the routes, sack the quarterbacks and score the touchdowns have so little perspective that they believe their inability to divide $9 billion is, in the real world, important. We all know better.

The faster the owners and players realize the world can function perfectly well without a National Football League, the faster the two sides will realize just how good life is for both. The faster each regains respect for the people who buy the tickets, buy the jerseys and create the coveted ratings, the faster this labor strife will be over -- and forgotten. After all, by being willing to spend money on football religiously, you the fans are the ones who give the generally unmarketable skill of throwing a football 60 yards on a line any value at all.

Fans may lose some NFL games, but what you've really gained is power.

The fan has the power to be a voice in this negotiation, but it is a voice that will only be heard if fans redirect their fervor and spending, because the only message sports leagues understand is the message that the public will pay to watch something else.

That would get everyone's attention. Football doesn't need the NFL to exist, nor do football fans. It just seems that way. There is college football. There is high school football. There is touch football. There are basketball and baseball. There is also, through strife, the opportunity for new ideas -- perhaps a new league, with new partnerships and new leadership with new history without any of the old baggage -- that could spur these two sides that seem to believe in their own inherent invincibility to settle differences.

The real shame would be if fans just wait for the storm to pass and continue with business as usual without reminding both sides that the business of caring is what makes any of this important. The fans who are more watchers than doers can break out the old DVD of Jackie Smith dropping a touchdown pass in Super Bowl XIII, or of John Taylor scoring one against the Bengals. The imagination is where the game really lives, especially because it is only March, and not September.

But should the leaves begin to change and labor is still an issue, the fans will have more power than ever: The power to turn the channel to something else.
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firedan · Mar 13, 2011

When money and greed enter the picture it is the fan who is "locked out",the fans have few options other than find something else to do during this time.When it's over we will all be back and most will forgive them.This aint their first rodeo.

MonstBlitz · Mar 14, 2011

firedan said:

When money and greed enter the picture it is the fan who is "locked out",the fans have few options other than find something else to do during this time.When it's over we will all be back and most will forgive them.This aint their first rodeo.
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Baseball still wishes it was that easy.

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