Now that the Super Bowl is over, welcome to the NFL off season. Draft preparations? Free agent evaluations? Off season team activities? Mini camps? No no. Welcome to the 2011 off season. CBA. Rookie wage scale. Longer season. Yeah, real x’s and o’s stuff.
I know, I know. You don’t care about any of this stuff, you just want to talk about the (fill in the blank)’s back up left guard. Knock yourself out. But stop reading now.
I know it seems crazy that millionaires have a union to help them deal with billionaires. It is crazy, but it’s also reality. So on March 3rd the current CBA expires and it appears that the owners will lock out the players at that point. The first win came for the owners about a week ago when a judge ruled that as of March 3rd the players’ health insurance will indeed lapse and the owners have no responsibility to continue payments. Think that’s no big deal? Hmmm, think again. First of all, not all players are making millions of dollars. The sage words of Patrick Ewing come to mind regarding the wealthy players. Yes, we earn a lot, but we also spend a lot. Lots of these guys have spent most of their money. Obviously football players spend a lot of time visiting doctors and doing rehab. It will hurt many of them to have to pay out of their pocket. It will be interesting to see if players put some pressure on the union to get this settled to help them save on their medical expenses.
There are plenty of issues to be worked out. The owners seem intent on cutting two pre-season games and adding two regular season games. More is not always better. I think they should leave the schedule as it is. The more games at full speed the more injuries. To compensate. rosters will be expanded, which just means a bunch of players in the league that can’t make the league right now. More is not always better.
It also looks like a rookie wage scale will be implemented. This makes all the sense in the world. It’s crazy to pay rookies way more than veterans. How psyched are the Raiders about that first draft pick a few years ago? Yeah, Jamarcus Russell took his $31 million to the bank. And Taco Bell. And McDonalds. And Burger King. Everywhere but the practice field.
Another sign of the off season? Players pissed off about being tagged as franchise players. Instead of the long term contract they want, they get a one year deal. At the average of the top 5 players at their position. Yeah, real disrespectful. I can’t stand players complaining about this. Their union agreed to this in the CBA. Live with it. You don’t like, try and get it changed. But until then, suck it up and accept it along with the millions that came your way from that same CBA.
Sorry. I know that these are things that many of you would rather not discuss. I get that. But I also live in the real world. And this is part of it.
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