Mar
14
Written by:
LarryMac
3/14/2011 11:14 AM
Message from Commissioner Goodell (ClevelandBrowns.com)
Well, they did it.
Shortly before midnight Friday, the union was decertified by the players, who then went into court to sue the league for antitrust violations. Now, there probably won't be any change for about a month, until the court rules on whether or not the players can decertify and whether or not the owners can lock them out - which the owners have already done.
In trying to assign blame, my original thought was to break down each point of contention. The result was pretty one-sided. Check it out for yourself and see who tried harder to make it happen.
- Operating expenses: The owners take $1 billion a year off the top before splitting revenue with the players to cover such things as stadium costs. They wanted that increased to $2 billion but had come down to $1.325 when talks broke down. The players had come up to about $1.1375. So the owners lowered their proposal by 67.5% while they players improved theirs by less than 14%.
- Salary cap: increases in the salary cap, eventually accepting the union’s proposed 2014 cap of $161 million. There was no cap in 2010, but for comparison’s sake, the 2009 cap was $128 million. There would also be a salary “floor” requiring clubs to spend at least 90% of the cap.
- Rookie wage scale: would affect only the first round, with players selected in rounds 2-7 making the same or more money than they currently do. Savings from the first round would be reallocated to veterans and benefits (I couldn’t find information on how much of those savings would be reallocated). The owners offered to accept an entry level compensation system based on the union’s “rookie cap” proposal, rather than the wage scale proposed by the clubs.
- Player safety: The owners offered to reduce the off-season program by five weeks, reduce OTAs, limit on-field practice time and contact, limit full-contact practices during the season and preseason and increase the number of off days
- 18 game season: the season would remain at 16 games for 2011 and 2012 and any subsequent change would be subject to approval by the union (the NFL has always maintained that they had the right to change it without the union, so that second part is a large concession)
- Benefits for injured and retired players: a guarantee of up to $1 million of a player’s salary for the contract year after his injury, improvements in the disability plan, degree completion program and the Mackey Plan (which provides money for nursing home/adult care for former players), as well as owner funding of $82 million in 2011-12 to support additional benefits to former players; according to the NFL’s numbers, this would increase benefits for more than 2000 former players by nearly 60%
- Health insurance: current players would be offered the opportunity to remain in the player medical plan for life
The players insist that it’s all about “transparency” and that they want to see the books for all of the teams. Personally, I’ve never worked for a boss who let me look at the books when it was time to discuss a raise, but what do I know? For the owners, that’s a no-win proposition. They probably aren’t losing as much money as they would like us all to believe. But even if the books do show losses for teams like Jacksonville (which I would have no problem believing), the players will just point to the money made by teams like Pittsburgh and cry foul. The NFL did offer audited league and club profitability information which the league doesn’t even currently provide the teams. The union, though, still claims it needs to see the complete books for every club which makes it sound more like this isn’t a question over which teams are making or losing money, but how much is being invested by teams, how much the front office personnel are being paid, how much they pay out for infrastructure, etc. None of which IS any of the players’ business.
As for me, I'm a Browns fan more than a fan of any player on the team or even all of the players on the team. If they march replacement players out there like they did in ‘87, I'll curse the players for their greed and watch. If the NFL and NFLPA wind up scrapping this season, though, I think I may be just enough of a bitter old man to walk away and let them worry about how to split up $9 billion dollars without whatever it is I spend over the course of a year on tickets, merchandise and whatever fraction of a percent I'm worth to advertisers. Granted that's not much at all - certainly less than they're likely to care about, but if this whole thing has taught me (and hopefully all of us) anything, it's that they never really cared about me anyway.
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