Dan Rooney is even better than his father, Art, in terms of business acumen and diplomacy. But I share your concerns about his successor, Art II. When Goodell was being such an ass about his ridiculous fines, it was obvious Art II had no influence there. Dan came home from Ireland, met with Goodell, and the whole issue disappeared overnight. I realized then that when we lose Dan, we’ll be in trouble. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s difficult to teach people skills.

Did you watch the documentary about the USFL? Very educational on many levels. What Trump did to them is what these new guys would do to the NFL. I’ve really enjoyed all of them. Ali, Iverson, Len Bias, Guru of Go, Red Sox, Evert & Navratilova, Ricky Williams, Marcus Dupree, Silly Little Game. The OJ one was really powerful–made me cry. Except for the Red Sox, there’s been something tragic or bittersweet about all of them.

I enjoyed the ones about Miami and SMU.

The younger Rooneys and Mara aren’t in the same class as Art and Wellington and they’re closer to the dark side than you think and the next generation of those families could very well be one of Jerry’s Kids.

Yes, sigh. The new guard is too powerful. Of course, it’s always possible that a new owner could buy in who’d have a Rooney or Mara mindset and be content to get rich without needing to lay waste to everything to do it. But that doesn’t seem to be the way people want to go about making money these days. Interesting idea you have, but the operative word is share and that doesn’t seem to be in the owners’ vocabulary.

The new guard is too powerful and unfortunately, if you get rid of Jones, there’s another greedy bastard to take his place. I think what WOULD get things done is if the owners were to share the non-NFL revenue with the players from the new palaces that they intend on building with the money that they want to take from them.

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You mean like the Bears, who may or may not have paid $100 for their franchise? Or the other franchises that are still in their original family hands and who paid less between $2500 and $50,000 for them? You mean the franchises that got tax payers to pay for their luxury palaces and they make all that non-NFL booty that they don’t share with the other owners and players? You mean the franchises that cost less than $1 billion to buy and whose cost was spread out between more than one owner? You mean these guys that “risked” all that money? You do realize that these guys with all that risk used to own Arena Football franchises and were forced to close down the league because they had REAL risk and they didn’t have the quality of players that allowed them to squeeze out huge amounts of money from the television networks (and the network execs were laughing their asses off at the fact that these same arrogant asses had to come hat in hand to beg for the scraps that they got, which is a big contrast to how they treated these same network execs when they were negotiating for the NFL).

That said, there is no conceivable deal that could be struck that would eventually make up for the owners the amount of lost revenue from just one season, even if they got everything they wanted. We’re talking the annual GDP of a small country just gone forever.

Although I don’t want to see a lockout or a strike, the owners have to get their costs under control. Everyone that is in the business world knows your labor expense is the majority of most business. The players are the products like it or not. They made a choice to become a professional football player. They get both the good and the bad of that. Yes their careers are short. However, if they play five years in the league they get a pension. If they play five years in the league, they have probably made more than most working people do in 30 years. How can the players complain about that?

And yes, I am a PSL holder for the Panthers. Yes we sucked this year. And yes, Jerry Richardson probably put the league ahead of his own team. Good for him. If the league ends up like the NBA (paying players WAY too much money and all of it guaranteed) than the NFL will be gone.

The NFL is the best pro sports product going. They need to find a way to make it work without simply passing that cost on to the average fan. My family is fortunate enough to have a few PSL’s and we do go to the games. But the average working fan may not be able to afford the $7 beer, $8 nachos and the $50+ ticket prices. Try taking a family of four to a game…bring your savings account.

It happened before to the NFL. It happened to the NHL and it happened to the MLB.

The last thing any owner should be driving for when the sport is at it’s height of popularity is a disruption.

Anyone who claims that it’s just a game and it’s fun either never played even high school football or they don’t remember what it was like to be at practice every day because I damn sure don’t remember them being “fun” and I know that my coach wouldn’t have expected ANYONE to think of them as fun. Plus, if you think being permanently being disabled and unable to get health insurance, AT ANY COST, is fun then you really don’t have a clue.

Jerry Jones and the new owners are ruining this game. They get cities to build their palaces and make tons of non-NFL related money that they don’t share with the players or the other owners and then get pissed off when smaller cities won’t come up with the ransom money to do the same for those teams.

The owners want the players to give back more of their share of the revenue and YET, they want to use it to build palaces with that revenue and keep it separate from the players and owners and then bitch about how they have to use more of their NFL revenue to pay for expenses, while they have tons of non-NFL revenues that they can keep separate and claim “poverty” because the typical fan will take their word and not look at where they’re hiding their money.

Since college football reigned for generations in the South long before there were any pro teams here, I have to listen constantly to college fans bashing pro ball. I love college ball, but have long preferred the pro game. If you don’t that’s fine. What the college proponents in my circle can’t seem to get through their thick heads is that we’re all entitled to our own likes and dislikes.

This labor negotiation is a serious situation that not only affects the fans, but the livelihoods of hundreds of people and the futures of the college players you so admire. We’re not going to suddenly decide the college game is superior because of these labor issues. College ball has issues of its own. So if you don’t have anything constructive to offer on the subject, please just stick to CFT.

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How on earth do you figure that? Did an NFL henchman come to your house, grab you by the throat, and drag you to the bar? Did they hold a gun to your head and MAKE you buy a satellite dish? I don’t know where you’re located at but I’m in DC and I catch the majority of my Cowboy games on TV, provided the Deadskins aren’t playing at the same time. Screw the NFL? Fine, go watch curling or some equally entertaining “sport.”

The last time I looked at this, the Federal Government has nothing to do with the negotiations. Some of the men associated with the though have legal training as employee’s of the Federal Government. It is a great training ground to hire these men to do the job of CEO because they know how not to become the next Enron or Arthur Andersen.

Furthermore the NFL is not Anti-Trust Exempt. Only MLB is exempt. The House/Senate can only hold hearings on the MBL not the NFL . You can check on that. The NFL can be sued for Anti-Trust violations just like any other corporation.

The Senate and Obama have gotten nowhere on fixing College Football anyway. They need to take baby steps.

Thanks for proving my point. Your source is an industry media outlet. The source is identifying JR as the great protagonist for his colleagues. The real brains behind deal getting done successfully is Goodell and his crew.

Thanks for being my fact checker but just one question. Who buys subscription from your source? Team executives, sponsors, agents and media, again thanks for proving my point.

“Richardson is right there with Roger Goodell in shaping the league’s labor negotiating strategy, he’s clearly engaged day to day, he’s tough and he has vowed to lead the charge for his colleagues to “take our league back.” Quiet and behind the scenes, Richardson’s forceful role is often overlooked.”

In this case, I’d like to see the Senate/House get involved and threaten the anti-trust exemption if these clowns don’t get something done.

This is not a negotiation. It’s two toddlers holding their breath to try to get their way. If they don’t start breathing/talking, everyone will lose.

Negotiate! I’d love to hear that they spent a week holed up in a hotel trying to reach a middle ground, not that they haven’t talked in months and won’t until it’s too late to play the season.

Mark Murphy the CEO of the Packers is the lead negotiator for the owners. Not only is he a former player, college AD and player rep. He is a former Anti-Trust lawyer for the US Department of Justice.

Murphy was plucked out of obscurity in 2007, the great one’s final season in Green Bay out of Northwestern.

The Packer’s had a new CEO and all of the sudden he was let go and a new search was conducted that brought Murphy in.

In 2006 the new CBA was signed. Mark Murphy was not hired out of obscurity as a fluke. The plan all along was to bail on the CBA this year by the owner’s. Murphy was brought in and placed in a powerful position for a reason.

The former commissioner Paul Tagliabue was a former Anti-Trust lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice . Go look it up. There is a reason the NFL plugs these types of guys into spots like these. It’s for labor negotiations.

The last NFL anti-trust suit resulted in a loss for the league and was very costly. Although the damages awarded were a pittance, the legal fees of such suits are exorbanent.

Jerry Richardson can pretend to be whatever he would like the media and public to believe he is. Unfortunately for JR, he is more hot air than anything else. If I recall correctly he never started on any of those Baltimore teams but when he was awarded the franchise he certainly had no problem showing off his achievements.

The NFL is not known for committing its sin twice. There is a reason for Murphy being in Green Bay. That is to keep the owner’s in check during the negotiations. The guy who is gonna cut this deal is named Roger Goodell. Bank on it.

Typical braindead robotic liberal drivel if you ask me.

If I were the NFL, I’d either go big or stay at home. If you are going to threaten a lockout, I would make it a permanent or extended lockout. Any player who refuses to accept our deal and disband the union must sit out of the NFL for a minimum 4 years or forever. Then replace them with fresh college, UFL, and CFL scabs and move on.

The league would lose revenue by losing popular players. But in the long run they’d gain.

The true battle though is for the hearts and minds of the fans. If fans come away hating on owners they might spend their dollars elsewhere.

But it does occur to me that if you are fan of one of the 12 teams in the playoffs, there may be a little extra emphasis on winning it all this year, with the potential of there being no next year….

Its high time for the owners to start logging on to profootballtalk.com. They really need to know how the fan’s feel. For god’s sake the leagues broadcast partner owns the site. One would think that arrangement’s could be made for the owner’s to receive access.

The Jerry’s keep playing a game of Russian Rullet. One day they are gonna end up with the bullet through there mouth’s.

Oh, I forgot how the year ended for those two. The Jerry’s will never learn!

it is a joke .. these owners are greedy !
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Key word being “owners”. They bought their teams. We don’t live in freaking China or Venzulea, as much as a segment or our society wishes we were like them.