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Star Quarterbacks call for both sides to reach an agreement by Stephen Lars
It’s all about the money. The NFL team owners and the NFL Players Association have been negotiating this new collective bargaining agreement since March, and despite all the negotiations, all the talks and the decisions made by the juries involved, it is still uncertain whether they’ll have it all figure out with enough time to hold on a normal regular season. So what’s the big deal, what are the players and the ownders fighting over? For starters the owners are claiming that the 2006 agreement conceded too much money to the players. Under the current agreement, players receive about 60 percent of the revenue of the NFL's $9 billion in revenue. Yes, we need to consider that $1 billion of that money is exempt, but yet the total still works out to about half of the NFL's profits going to the players.
The team owners are saying that the struggling economy has lead to decreases in ticket sales and merchandise and because of those losses they need to get a larger piece of the cake in order to keep them from finishing the year with red numbers. This economy is hurting their profits and making players' salaries an unreasonable expense on a waning income. Truth is that things are starting to get a little shacky for the owners. For the first time in more then a decade the average value of a pro team dropped in 2010, from $1.04 billion to $1.02 billion. That might be true but the Players Association have an Ace under their sleeve. The league has a $31 million, three year DIRECTV deal that is on top of broadcast deals with CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN.
Another key difference in opinions between the owners and the players is the league's proposal to extend the regular season from 16 to 18 games, an idea most players are strongly against especially if it comes without pay increases, or even with decreases, in salary. Players have stated that the NFL's interest in expanding the regular season to 18 games is in direct opposition to the increased focus on player safety. And that one is going to be a lot harder to argue with because it really seems as if the players have a definitely valid argument on this one.
Now the players are going for their big stars. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees have come out and to say it is time for NFL owners and players to wrap up negotiations on a deal to end the league's lockout. This lockout is the longest ever seen in the league and at one point, it even had plans of running an 8-game regular season followed by a complete post-season. That would had been a waste of money and games, but heck, it really seems as if there is some light at the end of the tunnel
The three star quarterbacks are among 10 players who are named plaintiffs in an antitrust suit against the NFL that is pending in federal court in Minnesota. Rumor has it inside league circles that the NFL and NFLPA will have an agreement in place that can be ratified during the July 21 league meetings in Atlanta.
Stephen Lars is a prominent sports blogger and currently covers NFL Professional Football, previews and handicaps for the BetIAS' Sports Betting Blog . You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.
Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/Star-Quarterbacks-call-for-both-sides-to-reach-an-agreement/1151942