I’m not allowed to answer your race question. Sorry.

In labor-intensive industries, personnel expenditures often account for 60 percent of the budget. The 59+ percent to players includes benefits, pensions, health care for retirees. And owners take $1 billion off the top before the pie is divided. Now they want to take an additional billion off the top. Stop viewing the NFL as a you would an auto manufacturer. This is more an actor/producer relationship–a mutually dependant partnership.

When free agency came into play, the salary cap was intended to level the field. It was the uber wealthy like Jerry Jones who used their liquidity to skirt the cap by paying out large cash bonuses, quickly driving up the pay scale. They’re the reason other owners had to build new stadiums with cash-cow luxury boxes to could compete. Now the Joneses are the same guys pushing for a new deal. I respect some owners, but not all are wearing white hats. Many are ruthless businessmen with their own agendas that have nothing to do with the best interests of fans, the league, or the game.

We’re on the same page on the rookie pay scale–and I believe the owners and players have reached an agreement on that.

I don’t believe everything the players do is perfect or that all owners are evil. But in this dispute, owners have acted in bad faith for months to force a lockout for their own ends. It was disingenuous to publicize their offer when it didn’t address the core issue. And how convenient not to mention that weeks ago the players offered to take a split that would have put their cut back to 2002 levels and dropped their request to see the books. But owners refused. Big Business plays the propaganda game well. Never trust the guy with the most money

People are jumping on the owners’ bandwagon primarily because they don’t like the idea of athletes making millions. For some, I’m afraid, there are also some underlying race issues. But the league has also done a masterful job of feeding the public distrust of labor and distorting the issues and how they’ve been negotiated. They’ve prepared for this lockout for a long, long time.

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Deb, with all due respect….you are either completely clueless or you have your head buried in the sand. The NFL is being wrecked before our very eyes by the players union. The players want an exorbitant amount of the pie, regardless of how it impacts the overall financial health of the league. I asked earlier…name me one business where over 60% of the expenditure was on labor costs. No response from you or any pro-player backers, because that business does not exist. It’s a flawed model that is doomed for failure.

To say that people are jumping on the owners bandwagon because they don’t want athletes making millions is partially true…any business where a rookie can come in and make 4x the amount of a 10 year veteran is simply wrong. And then that 10 year veteran wants more, and the cycle starts all over. Who pays for it? Me, the fan.

And I’m not even going to touch your “underlying race issue” comment, because not once has anyone even remotely hinted at that on these boards. Its just another example of your ignorance.

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Yea. Imagine these players playing for $50 to $100 a game. That isn’t even going to cover McKinney’s tip money at the bar. I’d love to see the players playing for that kind of money. Why don’t you talk to your heroes and see how fast they laugh in your face at that suggestion. You may love them, but they don’t care about you and what you’d like to see.

The NFL was a league long before the current crop of players were even born. Let’s hope it’s still here after they leave. I don’t care if any star player that’s currently in the league ever plays again. My favorite team is the Philadelphia Eagles, not the Philadelphia McNabb’s or the Philadelphia Vick’s.

The talent is only the talent because the NFL gives them a platform and promotes them. Let them play for the UFL (insolvent) or CFL or Arena League (bankrupted by their union and only now starting to play games again) to show everyone that they are worth millions of dollars.

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Prove that statement. I don’t think you can because it’s an ignorant statement. Record revenues do not equal record profits. To use the word profit you have to take into account EXPENDITURES. Guess what, player salaries are at an all time high (EXPENDITURE) among other things. Guess what the single biggest EXPENDITURE is for football teams? Player salaries. Public funding for stadiums has also dried up in recent years which means the teams need to make up more funding for their stadiums out of their own pockets. That’s another expenditure.

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The NFL revenues are doing great. The expenses are skyrocketing even faster than the revenue though. The owners offered audited statements through an independent accounting firm for the last 5 years.

The question isn’t why don’t the owners give proof, it’s why the players refuse to look at the proof? Why does it need to be the NFLPA auditors? The answer is simple. The NFLPA doesn’t want to make a deal. They want the opportunity to muckrake through the books. An independent firm doesn’t give the NFLPA the chance to criticize and leak individual expenditures which is really what they want to do.

There’s no reason for what they demand, it just makes for a good soundbite.

The players haven’t torn apart anything. You’re just buying company propaganda … hook, line, and sinker. If you’re a union supporter, you should know better. I’ll agree some unions have negotiated themselves out of jobs and helped management wreck their industries in the process. But that is not what’s happening here.

People are jumping on the owners’ bandwagon primarily because they don’t like the idea of athletes making millions. For some, I’m afraid, there are also some underlying race issues. But the league has also done a masterful job of feeding the public distrust of labor and distorting the issues and how they’ve been negotiated. They’ve prepared for this lockout for a long, long time.

I’d definitely take this report (as I take all of Schefter’s reports) with a grain of salt.

Let’s have a 53 round draft and let current players find another job.

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With the first pick in Round One, blackheld chooses…Bill Belichick’s camera man?

:this thread needed some humor:

And why should any of them be concerned about public relations? Get the deal done and the public relations will take care of themselves.

As an old Raiders coach put it, “If you can’t figure out how to share 9.2 Billion then don’t play.”

I have no idea if Mawae is Adam’s source, but if I had to put down my money, he’d be 3:5 in the clubhouse.

One thing to remember…the players love the current contract, and one thing litigation might produce is a “play under the current agreement while you negotiate”. Doty might have done that. So the players still have to like the litigation option, even without Doty. He already cut off the owner’s slush fund, so the players have to figure they’re starting out in the leaf.

I hope when the NFL starts playing games again, hypocrits like touchdownroddywhite ( and anti-player shills like him) don’t start lauding the players again. Change your name, pal, to TouchdownArthurBlank.

Why is that? Why are those two things interconnected in your view? People aren’t allowed to separate differing issues?