Now that the NFL playing season has concluded, it is time for the meat market portion of the season to commence. But first, it is time for a lot of posturing about the labor situation.
On February 4, Executive Director of the NFLPA Demaurice Smith was asked about the likelihood of a work-stoppage, or lockout depending on who you are speaking with, he responded with all the dramatic verve one would expect from anyone involved the situation. "On a scale of 1-10," said Smith, "It's a 14."
The owners have whined that they are losing money while the players get too big a piece of the revenue pie, but who owns a football team to make money?!
No, seriously, these guys are the wealthy equivalent of the upper-middle class fellow who owns a vintage GTO or the like that he is restoring; it is his hobby.
Smith wants the owners to open their books to prove that they are somehow hemorrhaging money. Of course, that will not happen without them legally being forced to do so.
There have been two work strikes in the NFL; A 57 day stoppage in 1982 and a 24 day "break" in 1987. The NFL managed to get through those strikes and prosper since then. The dynamic has shifted greatly since then. Now the NFL has the good problem of being "America's game", so to have a work stoppage after next season would be disastrous.
In the children's story Jack and the Beanstalk, did Jack kick the goose that laid golden eggs after escaping the giant?
This situation is reminiscent of the scene in "A Christmas Story"... We "triple dog dare" them to strike in 2011.
On another note the Washington Redskins hired none other than Bill Romanowski to be their Strength and Conditioning Coach. The same Romanowski who's name was on the BALCO ledger of customers. Skip Senseless (Bayless) of ESPN's First Take said that this is a good move because Roid Rage Romo knew so much about staying in shape.
That is the kind of logic that makes Skip such a viable talking head for ESPN. Romanowski was/is, for lack of a better word, a scumbag. For whatever reason, he was not half as demonized as he should have been for his multitude of transgressions against the game of football in general, and other players in particular. Perhaps Senseless can rub ointment on Romanowski's injection sites while heaping more of his patented babble on us.
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