The NFL Crisis

As the Nfl and the Player's Union continue the lockout, and as the upcoming season is more and more in peril, both groups continue to shoot themselves in the foot with generally bad PR. First, look at the Player's Union. These are the guys that everybody wants to win. They are the face of the league. Drew Brees. Peyton Manning. Brian Urlacher. All players who fans both love and adore. I agree with many of the concerns the players have. First of all is the concern over the expansion of the season from a 16-game season to an 18-game season. It's a bad idea. They players know it. The owners know it too, yet they will overlook it if it means chances to pad their Titanic-sized wallets. Many notable injuries occur to star players every year, such as Tom Brady (2008), Brian Urlacher (2009), and Troy Polamalu (2010). If the league expands the number of games played in the regular season, it will exponentially increase the chances that your star players, or most marketable players, could spend a majority or at least part of the season on the bench due to injuries. This will cause an adverse effect to team revenue. If your star player goes down and your NFL team implodes because the don't have the right personnel, your revenues will reflect that the fan base has become uninterested in that season's team (2010 Dallas Cowboys anyone?). Second, the NFL brought in $9 billion dollars last year in revenue. That's right, $9 BILLION. With all that increased revenue, wouldn't one think that the NFL would offer the best healthcare to its players, coupled with the fact that football is the most physically demanding on your body? It's the opposite, actually. The NFL players receive the least amount of healthcare among the four major sports leagues in North America, (MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL.) With all these facts, fans want to root for the players. Except for the fact they can't get their act together. Between the lack of unity in the Union (ironic), and players speaking out of place for an organization that doesn't back those players feelings, the Union is in a world of hurt. Recently, Minnesota Vikings star running-back, Adrian Peterson, compared the player's woes with “...modern-day slavery, ya know?” No, Adrian, no. You just wrecked the PR the Union was attempting to put together. Peterson, who made $7 million last year, is far from a slave. That statement made fans across the nation think twice before jumping on the players bandwagon...

So for the owners now, how do the fight this uphill battle against the Player's Union? Well it doesn't help that owners are handing out ultimatums. If you have ever had relationship problems (and who hasn't?), you know that ultimatums are a surefire to either end up on the couch or packing your things. The owners and the NFL did just that when the stated that mandatory HGH screenings were going to take place in the NFL format, with or without consent of the players. The players' response? “Screw you.” Well done NFL. Maybe I'll get into watching pro fishing.