Not to say that these two sides aren’t interested in getting a deal done, but there has been an awful lot of posturing going on the last couple of months between the NFL and the NFLPA.  That has left precious little time for real negotiations and the formation of effective solutions.  But with the current collective bargaining agreement officially dying on March 3rd, it looks like these two immovable objects have decided to give it another go.  Sports Illustrated reports:

The NFL and its players’ union are holding their first formal bargaining session in more than two months.Saturday’s meeting at a Dallas hotel came one day before the Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium and was not expected to last more than a couple of hours. The full negotiating teams last sat down face-to-face on Nov. 22.

Two more sessions are scheduled for next week.

The major issues are how to divide about $9 billion in annual revenues; the owners’ push to expand the regular season to 18 games and reduce the preseason by two games; a rookie wage scale; and benefits for retired players.

So, it’s Thursday afternoon.  The term paper which was assigned 3 months ago is due tomorrow.  You’ve got about a page and a half worth of research done, and the papers is supposed to be 20 pages long.  Oh, and by the way, the internet is down.  Does this sound like a reasonable analogy?  You know I expect this kind of behavior out of my 15-year-old but not my well-organized, billion dollar sports league.

Both the League and the NFLPA have been spending way too much time making their talking points heard by every media outlet in the land, and too little making genuine concessions that will lead to a lasting agreement.

That said, I put a majority of this on the League.  They have the money, they know what’s right for the sport.  If you’re going to operate such a massive industry with such incredible profits, you’re going to have to take care of your money-makers.  That includes a little health insurance in their retirement after destroying their bodies 6 months out of every years.

However, that’s the “majority” of the problem, not all of it.  Players need to understand that certain aspects of the payroll are getting out of control.  The worst teams that pick first in the NFL Draft are ruining their salary cap numbers with these rookie contracts that guarantee upwards of $50 million.  At times, some players seem to forget how much they actually make for playing a game…a hard, tough, physical game, but a game nonetheless.

Get to it boys.  There’s absolutely nothing good that will come from a lockout.  The NFL doesn’t need a hit to its reputation like baseball and the NBA have endured in the past two decades.

[Source: ESPN]

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