Was Dallas a Swan Song?
DeMaurice Smith, right, Executive Director of the NFL Players Association responds to a question during a news conference as the association's president Kevin Mawae, left, and team representatives listen in during a news conference Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Another Super Bowl has come and gone with the Green Bay Packers winning the hardware and the glory. Another Super Bowl has come and gone where I sit through all the annoyance of the ancillary entertainment surrounding the spectacle. Another Super Bowl has come and gone with the inane questions fielded by once-a-year viewers such as, “Why are they kicking the ball,” or, “How do you tell the teams apart? They’re wearing the same color pants!”
The 45th version of this Classic went from looking like a blowout when the Packers took the 21-3 lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers to a nail-biter down the stretch. A record 111 million viewers watched the game here in the United States, and undoubtedly most of those eyeballs stayed with it until Ben Roethlisberger made that incomplete fourth-down pass that clinched the win for the Packers.
The commercials can wax and wane year in and year out. The half time performances can get one to yearn for the days when Up With People used to be featured in that slot. The National Anthem can creep ever closer to the one-hour mark.
In the end it’s about the game of football despite what that idiot Shelly from HR says. And if you hear her complain about the talking through the commercials while being shushed during the game, it is perfectly all right to wish her a lifetime of cramps and bloating. But I digress.
As great as the game was on Sunday, it can be taken away from us just like that.
The current collective bargaining agreement ends at the end of March, and given the rhetoric coming out of the owners and the NFL Players Union it looks like they're headed for a lockout. The billionaire owners want to keep more of their money from the millionaire players all the while leaving the hundredaire fans out to dry.
The owners already secured their money in case of a lost season in their last television contracts with Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN - even if no games are played this season they will have to pay the NFL for the television rights.
As for the players, if they don't play they don't get paid.
The players don't want a rookie salary cap. The players don't want to contribute to a depleted G3 Stadium fund that helps subsidize the building of new stadiums. The players don't want an 18-game season. The players would like to see where all the revenues generated by the NFL go.
Meanwhile the owners of the most popular sports league in America - which happens to be the most socialist league in America - don't want to share money with the players or one another. To hell with Buffalo, Green Bay, Jacksonville and Carolina. To hell with the aging former stars that helped make the league what it is now as they sit in nursing homes trying to figure out how they can get their next prescription.
Major League Baseball saw a steep decline in revenue and viewers after the strike of 1994. Same with the National Basketball Association in 1998 and the National Hockey League in 2004-2005.
So if there is a work stoppage in the NFL next season, will you crawl back to watch?