The CBA, I got Questions, No one has Answers

As if this will come as a surprise to anyone, I am not an NFL owner nor an NFL player. But I am an NFL fan. So with that said there are few questions that I’d love to have someone answer for me regarding the upcoming lockout, or should I say, the upcoming potential lockout.

First, regarding the proposed 18-game schedule. I support the idea of the 18-game schedule for a few reasons. First off, by their own admission (Thank you for making my point Nate Jackson), the marquee players currently play about 4 quarters of football during the preseason, yet the NFL fan must pay the full price for these tickets. The average ticket price in the NFL? $75. So in August the fans get to watch the players on their team play about 15 minutes, then get to watch a glorified practice and evaluation period of unknown players for the next 45. Not a great value for any NFL fan.

Right now, go ask any NFL player if they want to play 18 games in 2011. Because it is a talking point that has been hammered into their head, the answer will be a resounding “NO”. Follow that up with this one, “So what you’re telling me is, you don’t want to go to the playoffs?” Oh wait a minute, that wasn’t the question, but in fact it was. As it stands now, NFL players play their 16-game schedule, then if they’ve earned it, play games 17, 18, 19 and possibly 20 throughout the playoffs, into the Super Bowl and hold up the Lombardi trophy. Yet somehow I haven’t heard the Patriots, Steelers, or any number of other teams bemoaning the fact that they’ve had to endure the hardship of playing so many more games while teams like the Lions, Browns, and Bills get to rest and relax after only playing their 16.

But let’s go back to Nate Jackson for a moment. He said that “Every player knows that during the four combined preseason games, the starters barely play a total four quarters…” OK, last time I checked, 4 quarters was a full game, so what the league and the fans are asking the players to do, is play 1 more game. You would have thought people asked the players to donate a kidney or something they way they are belly-aching.

Speaking of donating a kidney, let’s talk about how this will impact the health of players. Does the IR list start getting pretty full come the end of the season? Yes. But these players are portraying themselves as tires, at their strongest at the beginning of the season and slowing breaking down throughout it. And while there is no doubt a wearing-down effect to the players, they of all people should know that ligaments, tendons or bones can be torn, stretched or broken at anytime. Go ask Tom Brady if it mattered if there was a 16-game season, an 18-game season or a 2-game season when he got his ACL ripped apart in the first quarter of the first game in 2008. This is just one example of guys getting hurt no matter the situation.

The average NFL salary is 2009 was $990,000. Or to put it in Average Joe terms, nearly 19 times more then the average American Household. So before anyone cries poverty, can we at least understand that even the 53rd man on an NFL team, making the league minimum of over $300,000 is far-and-away better off, if only for a year, then many people will be in several years.

And before I get hit over the head with the fact that I’m anti-player, let me tell you that I do believe the players should be getting a majority of the money that is brought into the league. They are the product. They should be taken care of with long ranging health insurance, and benefits well beyond their playing days. More money should be paid to proven veteran players to help keep the overall product of the NFL at the highest level.

And finally, with the NFL getting a check for $2 BILLION simply for Monday Night Football, one game a week, the NFL and the owners appear to have more then enough money to make it through the lean times. Not to mention the fact that the shrines that house these millionaire athletes and billionaire owners is built, thanks in many cases, by public funding.

I wish the CBA were more like Osh, I have questions, but no one seems to have the answers.