It is a great time of year to be an NFL fan. If you're a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, you're still reliving Santonio Holmes' amazing catch to win your second Super Bowl title in 4 years. All other fans are watching their teams work to improve to take the trophy from the Steelers in February, 2010. If free agency hasn't given you the answers you want, there's the draft in less than a month. Most importantly, there's hope for fans of all 32 teams.
On another level, this is a scary time to be a fan of the NFL.
In May of 2008, the owners voted to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement effective in 2011. This means the 2010 year will be played without a salary cap, and the 2011 season will likely result in a labor stoppage in the form of a lockout. When they opted out, the owners left 21 months to reach a new agreement with the players union before the uncapped year would come to pass. A monkey wrench was thrown into the mix when the head of the NFLPA died 3 months later, in August. The NFLPA voted on a successor, DeMaurice Smith, 8 days ago. That leaves just over 10 months to work out a deal before the uncapped year begins.
Many fans are worried that an uncapped year with turn football into baseball, concentrating all free agent talent onto a select few big market teams. This is not the elephant in the room, however, it's how unworried the owners (even the small-market ones) are about this uncapped year occuring. Why?
* Currently, players entering their 4th year in the league without a contract are free to sign with any team. In the uncapped year, players have to be entering their 6th year to have that freedom.
* With the salary cap is a salary floor, without a salary cap? You guessed it: no floor.
* The current rules allow each team the ability to keep 1 player from hitting free agency. The uncapped year would allow the team to stop 2 players.
* The NFL recently re-signed an exclusive deal with DirecTV for the NFL package, guaranteeing the league $1 billion a year through 2014. Whether a game is played in 2011 or not, the league will receive the $1 billion for that year.
Clearly the owners are setting themselves up to withstand the uncapped year. This way they can lockout the players in 2011 without a new deal. The players association has said that if the league gets to an uncapped year, they will never allow a salary cap again. Immovable object, meet irresistable force.
Part of the reason the NFL is so popular is that there hasn't been a work stoppage since the players' strike in 1987. Former commisioner Paul Tagliabue stepped down in 2006 only after he had brokered a deal to maintain labor peace for at least 4 extra years, giving him a reign free of labor stoppages. Now that streak is in serious jeopardy.
If you're a fan, hope for success in 2009, because it could be the last football played by the rules we have all gotten used to. Football won't go the way of that Canadian sport that they play on ice...what's it called again? But no one wants to hear millionaires and billionaires fighting over their piece of the pie in the midst of an economic downturn/recession. If the league and players association continue with their hardline stances, they may be in for a rude awakening. Of course, that awakening will be cushioned by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But how many careers will never be the same if a year passes with no football? How many household neames will pull a Vin Baker and eat and drink themselves out of the league? How many Peyton Mannings or Tom Bradys will simply walk away from their careers early to pursue a 24-hour commercial network or a career in wedding planning? How many careers will the fans be cheated out of seeing blossom? How many classic games will we miss out on?
The owners and players will be taken care of. The fans? Well, start brushing up on college football.
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