Why would you care? It is a good post. He can copy and paste it all over SB Nation for all I care.
Some of you guys coming in -quit your nit picking, grammer police and putting others down. I am quite sick of it.
Our policy had ben to be friends and accept others opinions like you would like to be heard. Not with some off the cuff dumb A comment.
As a matter of fact, I have copy and pasted quotes as a point counter point.
Lighten up!

That is his writing style and approach. It’s better written and more informative than a lot of work by professional sportswriters.

They lock out the good players. Then they make up these pretend football teams. Then they bring back the original players with the same contract they could have agreed to in the first place.

The fans do suffer. That is why I am proposing a proactive action by the fans direct to the owners to make them do something before the 2010 season starts.

But you know. When gas prices were high demand for gas did drop off a cliff. As fans united against a lockout we could influence both sides to the bargaining table.

Lets say as an owner you are sent 100,000 e-mails that say we will boycott Bud Light Beer and not buy a jersey this year. There are other beers for us to drink. Think Bud Light would be happy?

How do you think Doritos would react to a boycott. They didn’t do anything. But they might call the Commish and say. We are not happy.

These are not big things to change for fans. We really can go another year without a jersey.
I’m just trying to gauge if there is any interest. As Vikings we are a small part of Football America. But many small steps complete a long journey ( or something Chinese like that).

I think the fans will do it. But hey, I’ve been wrong more than once before.
Skol

I am not advocating entirely for the players. I am sure both sides have legitimate issues. Legitimate issues can be resolved.

As I said in my article. Legitimate issues can be resolved. The owners have been sharing revenue between themselves for 50 years. This group of new owners is fighting over that issue. It is not a player issue. The 60% revenue sharing with the players is the same as the NBA and baseball. Sports businesses as a whole seem to agree that this is the proper labor % they need to run as a league. It promotes parity and growth among the franchises. Everybody wins.

As much as I respect your opinion I just don’t get an unfounded statement like

But the players are to blame as well. They get ridiculously high salaries.

These salaries are not high in comparison to the non- cancellable contracts used in other sports leagues when the work life of the athlete is analyzed. If a player really wants more than he is worth no owner has to sign him. Albert Haynesworth didn’t force any team to pay him.

I’m not trying to defend the players. I’m not saying that Tom Hanks isn’t overpaid. I only know that when the value of the Vikings goes up from $650 million to $850 million since the time Ziggy has owned it that the owners are not doing to badly. This for one one of the poorest teams in the NFL. And that is during the time he increased his wage expense. The owners certainly have no reason to not try and work out legitimate issues. Calling for an 18% pay cut at the time revenues are up doesn’t seem genuine to me.

I only want the consumer to force the parties to an agreement. What the parties decide is not my business. I simply do not want the owners to feed me a year of UFL football and another decade of labor unrest simply so they can hog $100 million apiece out of a TV contract.

I do respect your opinion. Your numbers are valid. As in all labor battles both sides have good points and bad points. I just want them to get this decided before next season starts.

especially professional athletes. The average nfl player does not work into their 20’s it takes years of near exclusive preparation to reach the height of the sport. Do you think people like Kenechi Udeze went out and got a job? The job of NFL owner can be performed for decades. The Job of player cannot. THese people need to get that money now while they can. They should not have to suffer a paycut. THe people it hurts the most are the league minimum roster filler. The Jeff Dugan’s of the world. Guys like manning and brady will strike not so their salaries will go up, but for the guys on the practice squad who flameout at 25 and have no other skills.

I support your call for a boycott, LLV, starting right before the 2010 season.

And on player salaries, why don’t people complain about the owners making tens of millions in profits each year? All they do is sit on a chair. OK. Zygi Wilf does a lot of great things, but there is a limit.

It’s not like they go out on the field and block or tackle. Meanwhile a football player goes out and risks his permanent health for the team. I think players should get 60 or 70 % or some large figure of NFL revenues. A guy like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Adrian Peterson, etc…. should get paid big money. It’s a free country and if someone wants to pay millions of dollars to another person just so that other person will play football, I think they should have that right. A lot of us couch potato fans would go out there for free if they would let us.

Owners have a right to make profits. That’s how the world works. But then their employees have a right to get paid.

Not the owners, not the players, not the actors, not the bankers, not Wall Street.

The question of worth can only be fairly measured on one scale; as a percentage of the profit they bring in.

If a team brings in $100 of profit, and they get 60% to split between 63 players, and 40% goes to the owners who have to pay overhead like facilities and coaching/front office staff, advertising and marketing, people would complain that everyone is under-paid. Increasing the profit doesn’t change the percentage, the money still has to go somewhere.

Socialists want to cap the money earned by the players and owners, and skim whatever percentage they deem to be their ‘fair share’ for their own purposes. I’m not sure where they get the notion that they have any right to the profits that other people have earned, however.

The only reason that the profits are so high is because our economy pays them that much. Lower the amount they make, and fewer people will be interested in participating and risking their physical health and well-being. Capping an industry has been done before, usually with grievous results. The goose that lays the golden egg is slain. On the plus side, no one gets to steal the money, because now there’s no money to steal.

Personally, I subscribe to the ‘Mine Theory of Economics’. What’s mine, is mine, and by definition, that means, “not yours”. Probably comes from being a Constitutionalist and a Cold Warrior for 20 years.

- A Greedy Capitalist Pig

Scott Studwell