NFL lockout would be a travesty

As vehemently as I will defend the sport of baseball to any critics, even I can't argue that football long ago surpassed it as America's game.  High school, college, or professional, it doesn't matter.  From Friday night through Monday night for four months out of the year the sport of football grabs ahold of our attention, and the other three days are spent analyzing those games.  

 

The National Football League is coming perilously close to blowing up that comforting pattern we enjoy beginning every September.  The players' union and the team owners are at odds.  Without a new legal agreement between the two sides in the near future, the players won't have anywhere to play next fall.  

 

Why has this happened?  The league has never been more popular and there appears to be no ceiling for that popularity.  It also makes lots of money.  The Green Bay Packers, who are essentially owned by their own fans, are the only team to release its financial records each year, which gives fans of other franchises a peek at what their team owners might be making.  Team profits have fell from $35 million to around $10 million over the past four years.  

 

This isn't a result of a lack of revenue—rather, it's increased player costs that have taken a bite out of team profits. It's fair to assume that this has occurred with teams throughout the league over the past few years.  As a result, the owners opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement with the players in order to negotiate a bigger share of the revenue, of which the players now get about sixty percent.  

 

At the most recent meeting between the two sides, they were in disagreement to the tune of roughly $1 billion dollars.  In other words, they're nowhere close.  There are other issues under debate, such as increasing the schedule to 18 games, but the revenue-sharing is the real bugaboo here.  

 

After watching a youthful Packer team make a run to a Super Bowl title, I couldn't be more excited for the next couple of seasons.  I can't imagine missing out on a season in which my team has a realistic chance to defend a championship, and I'm sure Bears fans can't wait for another chance to knock us off.  Here's hoping that the league pulls itself together so fans of every team can enjoy another great season this fall.