Going into next season there will be no salary cap, but it is 2011 that should scare all football fans. The head of the NFL Players Association painted a very cleak picture about a possible new CBA agreement before a lockout...
"On a scale of 1 to 10," Smith said Thursday, "it's a 14. I keep coming back to an economic model in America that is unparalleled," said Smith, who often repeated phrases for emphasis. "And that makes it incredibly difficult to then come to players and say, on average, each of you needs to take a $340,000 pay cut to save the National Football League. Tough sell. Tough sell."
This is not good news for any football plan. I have a hard time siding with either the owners or the players. On the owners side it is hard in these economic times to give anyone a raise, but on the other side the NFL is the most successful of the 4 major sports, and yet they are not paid like it. The other thing that needs to be resolved is what to do about rookie contracts. It has to change since rookies make more then most 5 year veterans.
I wish I could be optimistic, but both sides seem to have their feet in the ground and I very much doubt there is any chance of avoiding a lockout.
With Smith saying the NFL would receive $5 billion from its network television deals even if no games are played in 2011. He regarded that as proof owners are preparing for a lockout, which is hard to argue against, since they seem to be in good shape no matter what happens. So, why would they even bothering passing a new CBA is they don't get everything they want? I hope I am wrong, but it looks like we won't be seeing much football in 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment