Rock out with your Lockout

^^Agreed

CRedskins, I understand your point completely. But look at this statement you made:

The owners are no better. Tell other ceo's that their return rate in this economy is "only" 8% (or whatever). Or take their woe is me story to baseball which would love to have the same type player salaries and non-guaranteed contracts.

As much as the owners gripe about the players, the truth is the pie has grown larger and the game has gotten much more violent. For every Manning there are hundreds of Ethan Albrights. Those players who will continue to make relative chump change if we go in the direction the owners would like.

Yes there are billionaires and millionaires in the NFL. But the rising tide has not lifted all boats equally.


Thats becaus they are not equal. Thats how life works.

O.K. with this said what is better for them? The general workers that are never seen. Is it better for the owners to come on top or the players?Owners. The FO, maintenance and team people are paid out of the owners pockets, not the players %. If teams are really struggling they will cut team staff before they cut player salaries so they still try to field a competitive team.

My question to those supporting the players is; do the players give back some of their salaries if the team doesn't hit their revenue goals or loses $$$ (Buffalo, Jax, Detroit, Cincy, etc.)? Of course not. Who takes the ultimate financial risk, the owners.

Good read:
The Most Valuable NFL Teams - Forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/25/most-valuable-nfl-teams-business-sports-football-valuations-10-intro.html)

From the article:
At the other end of the scale, the NFL's low-revenue teams are struggling to keep pace with their big-market competition. The NFL's 10 least valuable teams all declined in value over the past year, led by the Jacksonville Jaguars, which fell 16% to $725 million. The Jags lost 17,000 season ticket holders following a disappointing 5-win, 11-loss season in 2008. The poor support forced the Jaguars to have all but one of its games blacked out locally on TV. The Jags boosted their season ticket base for the upcoming season, but did it with heavily discounted tickets.

The Detroit Lions (owned by auto scion William Clay Ford) are one of only two teams to lose money ($2.9 million) last season on an operating basis (the Miami Dolphins (http://topics.forbes.com/Miami%20Dolphins) lost $7.7 million). This marks the third time in four years the Lions have posted an operating loss (http://topics.forbes.com/operating%20loss).
The team is burdened with a hefty debt load of $350 million thanks to the Lions' contribution to the $440 million Ford Field, which opened in 2002. The Lions have struggled to sell tickets since becoming the first NFL team to ever finish winless in a 16-game season in 2008. The Lions had half of its eight home games blacked out last year as it failed to sell out 72 hours before kickoff. The team cut ticket prices on 19,000 seats for this season in hopes of boosting attendance.

Also, looking at the Packers' numbers, their profit was down 52% in 2010. League-wide, total team values fell 2%.

Like any negotiation there will be trade-offs on each side, it shouldn't be too difficult to resolve though:

- 18 games - No way.
- Owners fund better after playing career health coverage. - Absolutely
- Rookie wage scale - Absolutely
- Players take a slight % cut of approx. 5% instead of 18%

CBA done, how hard was that?

Firstdown, I never said they need to be equal, but they need to be proportionate for it to be fair. When owners' growth would be exponential and the players' is not, there is a problem.

NFL hit with collusion charge, but case could be hard to prove by players - Michael McCann - SI.com (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/michael_mccann/01/18/collusion/)

Firstdown, I never said they need to be equal, but they need to be proportionate for it to be fair. When owners' growth would be exponential and the players' is not, there is a problem.

That's totally going in my blog

Not sure I would even watch the NFL if they do what they did in 87 and have scab games.
Are you CRAZY?
NFL strike year........
Redskin SB year..........

Well since I have so many people jumping on my comments I won't even bother replying to one quote. Maybe I overstated my point to some degree. I agree with many of you that athletes at the NFL level are a rare commodity and in a world of supply and demand they obviously will be compensated higher than an occupation that can easily be filled at a larger rate.

That being said, I am a teacher and I do have a bone to pick with anyone who says anyone can be a teacher, firefighter, or police officer. It takes a special skill set to do all of those things. Especially with teaching in this time period, if you can not handle a lot of problems thrown at you from other faculty, administration, not to mention parents, you won't make it. On top of all of that is pressure from standardized tests to get student pass rates up each year with the addition of things like NCLB.

At the end of the day I know athletes' salaries and public servant type jobs will never be on an equal playing field. However, that does not mean that people getting paid for entertainment, actors and TV personalities included, not to mention business CEOs, should get virtually limitless amounts of money, while other people that work hard too, get average salaries.

Yes I know this is our capitalist system hard at work, but I think there should be some boundaries. If even a fraction of that money was capped from the NFL and given to charitable organizations it would be put to much better use than someone's $75,000 diamond ear ring that gets lost on a practice field. Moot point as this will never happen and you all can jump on me all you want, I just feel like I had to say something. I am happy at least they will have a rookie cap. Hopefully that will prevent Jamarcus Russell 2.0 in the future.

Well since I have so many people jumping on my comments I won't even bother replying to one quote. Maybe I overstated my point to some degree. I agree with many of you that athletes at the NFL level are a rare commodity and in a world of supply and demand they obviously will be compensated higher than an occupation that can easily be filled at a larger rate.

That being said, I am a teacher and I do have a bone to pick with anyone who says anyone can be a teacher, firefighter, or police officer. It takes a special skill set to do all of those things. Especially with teaching in this time period, if you can not handle a lot of problems thrown at you from other faculty, administration, not to mention parents, you won't make it. On top of all of that is pressure from standardized tests to get student pass rates up each year with the addition of things like NCLB.

At the end of the day I know athletes' salaries and public servant type jobs will never be on an equal playing field. However, that does not mean that people getting paid for entertainment, actors and TV personalities included, not to mention business CEOs, should get virtually limitless amounts of money, while other people that work hard too, get average salaries.

Yes I know this is our capitalist system hard at work, but I think there should be some boundaries. If even a fraction of that money was capped from the NFL and given to charitable organizations it would be put to much better use than someone's $75,000 diamond ear ring that gets lost on a practice field. Moot point as this will never happen and you all can jump on me all you want, I just feel like I had to say something. I am happy at least they will have a rookie cap. Hopefully that will prevent Jamarcus Russell 2.0 in the future.

i would like to add our men and women serving our country in the military to this list.

i would like to add our men and women serving our country in the military to this list.

A very big agreed. Of anyone, they should be making the most money. And don't anyone disagree with me on that.... or else.