September transforms Sundays from a depressing conclusion to the weekend to an all-day sport spectacle that, for some fans, can become as ritualistic as church.
The declining weather quality and start of a new academic year are feasible reasons why one would initially loath the annual obligations September brings, but the ninth month of the year garners an event we all can be excited about — the start of professional football.
The 2010 NFL season started this September as expected, however labor disagreements between the players association and team owners may lead to the complete absence of America’s most prosperous and popular sporting enterprise in 2011.
Two years ago, team owners voted to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement at the end of the 2010 season. Owners feel that the players are receiving too great a share of their adjusted gross revenues.
If the NFL Players Association and the owner’s can’t settle to the terms of a new agreement, there will be a work stoppage in the NFL for the first time since 1987.
Owners would like to include a rookie wage scale, increased drug testing and the addition of two games to the already grueling 16 game seasons.
It is matter of rich people bickering at really rich people. In the end, neither side benefits from a lockout if a deal can’t be reached.
It is common knowledge that NFL players have absurd base salaries. The number one overall pick in this year’s draft, Sam Bradford, signed a contract that guaranteed him almost $50 million, an NFL record. Owners want the new deal to cut salaries by 18 percent and guarantee more conservative sums to highly drafted rookies.
I’ve wondered for years how teams can get away with paying youngsters these surreal figures, especially when more than half of them end up labeled as “busts.”
Just three years ago the Oakland Raiders guaranteed $32 million to quarterback JaMarcus Russell. Russell started two horrific years in Oakland before he was released.
Even though Russell is currently unemployed the Raiders are still paying off the nonsensical original contract. These are the situations owners want to avoid.
Players don’t realize that the same fans that love and support them every week don’t really care about their intent on remaining ridiculously overpaid. We just want to see football.
It’s easy to assume that this situation will work itself out, but preparing for no football in 2011 is a high possibility.
The Executive Director of the NFL Players Association, DeMaurice Smith, told ESPN he believes there is more than a 99 percent chance a lockout is on its way. Whether it’s a candid evaluation or threat to get things moving, either way it is an alarming calculation.
While there is still plenty of time, it doesn’t look promising from either party’s standpoint. If the two sides can’t come to agreement before next season I hope they scratch the whole year and not subject fans to watching scabs.
We all remember The Replacements.
