The NFL Labor Talks

Well the much anticipated NFL lockout is upon us. I really thought a deal was close for a while last week. But with the player's union decertified and lawsuits being filed by Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and other players, the courts will help decide the fate of the 2011 NFL season.

What the NFL doesn't want is for the Government to become involved. The Obama regime is very pro union and could nail the owners for anti trust violations if they wanted to do so. So the more pressure the Government puts on the NFL owners, then the quicker the NFL labor deal with be negotiated.

Apparently the whole 18 game season was a bluff by the NFL owners to appear to give the players something at the bargaining table, it sure went away quickly. The NFL owners and players did agree to a rookie wage scale which is much needed. I am tired of rookies getting paid huge amounts when they have not proven anything on an NFL field.

The big sticking point in the NFL labor negotiations of course is money. The owners are trying to cry poor but won't open the books to the players. The players are simply trying to keep what they already have from the last NFL CBA. The owners used an opt out clause to get out of that CBA early, Several NFL teams, notably the Panthers used the lack of a 2010 NFL salary cap to gut their teams and save millions in payroll.

The NFL is the big dog in American sports and wants a world wide stage. To keep that standing it's in their best interest in getting the CBA resolved and having football in 2011. However being the biggest thing going they also know they won't lose a huge portion of their fan base if they miss the 2011 NFL season.

The casual NFL fan may say screw it and college football will certainly be more popular than it has ever been in 2011. But your die hard NFL fan will wait impatiently for football to start again and grumble about the work stoppage but will return to watch it.

There will be a 2011 NFL draft and it will be huge as far as people being interested in it. My 2011 NFL mock draft has had lots of readers and that will increase even more as the draft approaches. The NFL draft is very popular but since it may be our last NFL "Fix" for a while it will be even bigger this year.

The biggest losers if the 2011 NFL season isn't played will be the fans of course. But many thousands of people will be affected that work for NFL teams or for business's that flourish during home games in their city. Even people like me who make income writing about the NFL will miss that money.

The television networks will be hurting and so will the gamblers. I wonder if the Mafia will get pissed off and put a horse's head in Jerry Jones's bed to prompt the owners to get this done?