I love professional soccer. I love planning my weekend watching the NFL and I’m not ashamed of it. I also have the same love for pro wrestling…for very different reasons of course (football is a competition and pro wrestling is a performance). WWE will never go on a work stoppage because professional wrestlers don’t have a union. By the way, don’t think that a Union was never discussed in professional wrestling by none other than Jesse Ventura; not as a former governor of Minnesota, but when he sported the feather boa, the leopard-print tights and he was known simply as “The Body.” Unfortunately, for better or worse, the NFL has a players’ union. The NFL work stoppage is going to happen. The only conclusion — the foregone conclusion is that the players’ union will give way long before the owners feel uncomfortable.
I want to go on record and say that I am absolutely in favor of the existence of the National Football League Players Association and I fully understand why the NFLPA is needed. History shows us, in all major sports, that before the players were organized, they were treated like cattle and the owners had absolute power in professional sports. Television brought awareness and then popularity, which in turn brought money. The cold, hard truth is that in America, money in professional team sports means agents and lawyers. Agents and lawyers signify unions, collective bargaining agreements, and work stoppages or the threat thereof.
The players began to protect their careers and at least put up some resistance to the owners and exposed their situation to the public. The public, if asked to choose a side, will always side with the players because the players are the underdogs and they are the face of the sport in most cases (Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban excluded, of course). The biggest arrow players have in a very scarce pen is perhaps the anger of the fans. The average Joe will side with the millionaires who can complete 30 passes a game over that 68-year-old billionaire at ascot with the “winning smile” in the luxury suite.
The average age of an NFL football player is 26, according to USA Today, the average salary was $770,000 in 2009, and the average length of a career is just over three years. A large portion of the league is in their twenties and signed their first contracts. Unless he’s a tall pick, he’s likely on the downside of that $770,000 a year. How many of those players do you think have the resources to endure a 2-year unpaid break from work? How many have planned a lockout and not gone out and made financial obligations that depended on getting the full amount of the contract they signed?
Players who are near the end of their career should be considered and their position should also be examined, especially if they are not a marquis player. An NFL player in his twenties or thirties is lucky that his body and skill have endured. He is in the twilight of his career and the sand in his hourglass is definitely running out. If he has two years left on his contract, how does he know for sure if he will get another contract? The turnover in NFL team rosters is sudden and dramatic; It doesn’t matter that if another contract is signed, it probably won’t be as lucrative or as long as the contract you are currently blocking. How long are you going to want to sit back and fight the good fight and move forward for the cause of the brotherhood of the NFLPA? Every day you get older and some 20-year-old kicking butt at the SEC is waiting to get out of history class and into your job.
The NFL owners are bigger, better and more coordinated than the NFLPA. Owners stay in the league considerably longer than players and if this were a financial mix, owners would run the 4.0 40-yard dash and have a 50-inch vertical jump. The players deserve to get at least closer to what they want because it is true that without players there is no league. Players sacrifice their bodies for the game and yes, it is a fact that they choose to do so of their own free will. The fact that the owners benefit from this will is the reason why the players deserve to be taken care of.
It should also be noted that retired players who are disabled from their playing days should be thrown a bigger, sturdier bone. The empire the NFL has become was built on their legacy, and the owners will no doubt support them with more money and better programs. If they don’t, it will become a PR black eye and one they don’t need. The fact is that without money there is no NFL for players to play. The issues of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, who’s right, who’s wrong, and the other facts of the NFL lockout haven’t been addressed here because it doesn’t matter. Owners don’t lose to player unions and this will certainly be no different. The question is how long it will be before players realize that, at the end of the day, they get paid to play football for a short period of time in their lives. From now on… time is running out.