Fans caught in crossfire of battle over CBA
For the first time since early September, there won't be an NFL game that matters this weekend, a reminder of the painful reality that fans might face next season if a new labor agreement isn't reached.
With the Pro Bowl on Sunday and the Super Bowl nine days away, the rhetoric between the league and the NFL Players Association has heated to the point that both sides appear ready for a long, painful fight.
Caught in the middle, as usual, are the fans. All they want is to see their beloved sport in business for the 2011 season.
As each side seeks to spin the issues to make fans sympathize with its point of view, the sense we're getting is that fans feel much the same as the Jets' Antonio Cromartie. If you sift through his obscenity-laced screed Monday, you'll find a player unhappy with both sides for their inability to forge a new deal.
Many players are pushing back at Cromartie for questioning NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith's handling of negotiations. Fractures within the membership will increase if owners declare a lockout March 4 and players see their salaries and medical benefits eliminated.
Cromartie even got into it on Twitter with Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who posted - then removed - this tweet: "Somebody ask Cromartie if he knows what CBA stands for."
Cromartie shot back on Twitter: "hey Matt if u have something to then say it be a man about it. Don't erase it. I will smash ur face in."
It will only get uglier unless there is an unexpected breakthrough in the coming weeks. Commissioner Roger Goodell and Smith even got into it. Goodell said he will slash his salary - estimated at about $10 million this year - to $1 if there is no football. Smith then said he'll reduce his salary to 68 cents if a deal is agreed upon before the Super Bowl - an acknowledgment that there won't be a CBA extension anytime soon.
This is a highly complex situation with no easy solution for either party. The NFL, despite its $8.5 billion - yes, billion - in gross revenues, contends that the current labor agreement is onerous in terms of its long-term financial success. The union says the NFL's unprecedented popularity, combined with record television revenues that continue to increase, should produce a hefty pay increase for players, not the 18-percent decrease it says the league is looking to impose.
Complicating matters further: The NFL wants to increase the regular season to 18 games, which would aid the union's quest for a bigger piece of the revenue pie but would put players at greater risk of injury and perhaps shorten careers.
I think an 18-game season would be a mistake. Although revenues would increase, the quality of play would suffer because it would put inordinate physical strain on players. Adding games might be a foregone conclusion, but I'm with Steelers owner Dan Rooney on this one; 18 games are too many.
The NFL also is intent on instituting a rookie wage scale, which the union has long resisted because of record contracts for high draft picks in recent years. I have no problem with this one; more money should go to established players and retirees. Young players should be required to prove themselves before being given huge contracts.
These are extremely difficult issues, with no simple solutions. Complicating matters is the lack of trust between both sides. Remember, the two men who set in motion the greatest era of labor peace in pro sports no longer are part of the equation. Paul Tagliabue has been replaced by Goodell and the late Gene Upshaw was succeeded by Smith.
The CBA agreed to by Tagliabue and Upshaw in 1993 has been a model for stability; now nearly two decades of labor peace are at risk. The NFL never has been more popular, which is why the stakes are even higher. After baseball canceled the 1994 World Series, you saw how long it took to get back in the fans' good graces. And the NHL really hasn't been the same since the lockout of 2004-05.
That's why all the bickering seems to be falling on deaf ears as far as the fans are concerned. Enough Twitter talk. The only talk now should be across a negotiating table.
Time to get a deal done and give the fans the only thing they ask for: a football season without interruption.
