The NFL is getting ready to shut down.
There will be no last-minute labor agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association by the March 4 deadline. No epiphanies during negotiations. No sudden concessions.
The dirty secret is neither side wants a deal right now. They’ll give plenty of lip service, but each thinks it can beat down the other over time.
Owners hope that enough players who mismanage their money or have serious family health needs not covered by insurance during a lockout will pressure NFLPA heads to accept a deal. The players association knows that by the fall, fans will demand a deal.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is absolutely right when he says if a deal’s not done by the preset March 4 deadline it will be much harder to accomplish later. That’s because no deal gets done without the clock.
By March 2, you’ll hear both sides say progress is being made but they may need to extend the deadline, which is permissible if both agree. But it won’t happen. And then things will fade to black. Despite promises of meetings, weeks will melt into months without talks. Each side will blame the other in the media.
Teams will lay off employees, as if they couldn’t truly afford to maintain the payroll. They just don’t want to do it. It might shave a few dollars off the mega-millions they’ll still make. Goodell can work for $1 because he’s already rich, but middle-class staffers will struggle not to lose their homes when they miss several months of paychecks. The NFL talks of losing $1 billion in revenue, but it doesn’t say how many billions of dollars it still will make. In the end, it’s just a little less gold atop a mountainous pile.
Meanwhile, training camps won’t open. The Pro Football Hall of Fame game will be the next casualty, costing Canton, Ohio, businesses their summer boom.
Preseason games will be canceled. Ushers, concession staffers and parking attendants will miss the needed money. That will start public bickering over who’s at fault. That’s what the NFL and NFLPA want as long as blame goes to the other side.
By mid-August, talks will begin again. They’ll have two weeks for a deal before the league starts losing regular-season games. Nobody really cares about losing preseason contests, and there’s a week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl to be used if needed. Plus, the NFL already has secured hotels in Indianapolis for two more weeks after the scheduled Super Bowl in case of a delayed regular season.
At the last minute, a deal will get done because that’s how negotiations work. Teams will have two weeks to prepare for the regular season. Both the NFL and NFLPA will work another short-term deal and hope to find solutions before the next contract deadline. And it won’t happen again.
The coming storm is all too predictable, which makes it even sadder that it’s occurring in the first place.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com and on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or e-mail [email protected].
