King Football is nearing an end.
After dominating professional sports over two decades, the NFL labor peace that turned players into millionaires and team owners into billionaires is being threatened from within. The two sides will sacrifice their golden goose of parity to make even more money.
What idiots.
NFL owners yesterday voted 32-0 to end the collective bargaining agreement two years early in 2011. There will be no salary cap in 2010 when Redskins owner Dan Snyder increases ticket prices and buys the next round of Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith and Jeff George seeking a quick Super Bowl. Unfortunately, Dallas hosts the title game that season and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones with two years of new stadium money can outspend Snyder. And don’t forget the New York Giants with Gotham City money to burn.
The NFL is headed for haves and have nots just like baseball and who wants to root for the Milwaukee Brewers that never have a chance to reach the World Series? Conversely, their in-state brethren Green Bay is regularly given a Super Bowl chance because it’s not who has the most money in the NFL, but the smarter front office. Otherwise, Snyder would have three Super Bowl trophies instead of just three postseason appearances since becoming owner in 1999.
You can forget salary cap-induced parity if the two sides can’t agree by 2010 on a new deal because the cap, once gone, won’t return. Indeed. It will become a Yankees-Red Sox era in football where major teams thrive and small markets dwindle. Ultimately, football could lose its top place just like baseball and horse racing did over the last century. NBA execs must be celebrating over the NFL giving pro basketball a chance to be become No. 1 over the next decade.
The CBA is a bad deal. Everyone knew it when approved, but then NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue bullied it through and left the backlash for his successor to worry about.
Players get nearly 60 percent of revenues and want more, which owners say discourages growth. If you owned a business and taxes were 60 percent, why risk expansion when the government will profit more than you? Building a new stadium in the District would probably cost Snyder somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 billion. No way he does it under the current 40/60 split and rightfully so.
The NFL Players Association opposes givebacks like any other union. The difference between teamsters and NFL players is the former is just trying to keep health benefits while the latter is making silly money. While NFLPA officials claim players need to make as much as possible given short careers, my response is get a job like everyone else when football ends. Where does it say players should never work again after playing a few years? Ironically, many players end up working everyday jobs anyway so this sense of entitlement is misguided.
Nothing will be settled for two years, maybe three. The shame is the new deal will hurt the NFL and its fans by creating a two-tiered system. Too bad — they had a great thing going.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
