1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

NFL players prepared to strike

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by TheSportsPredictor, Jan 31, 2008.

  1. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I remember reading that with the TV contracts that the NFL has, each team is already making a profit just from their share of TV money. That's not counting ticket sales, luxury box sales, marketing toys, etc.
     
  2. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Two historical points from having covered the 1987 strike.

    1. Marino was the leading big star, maybe the only big star, to be an upfront union guy all the way. He deserves credit for that for loyalty if for no other reason. Montana was among the majority of stars who fled back to the league in the strike's third and final week. Not holding that against him, just citing a fact.

    2. The reason the strike failed was that the networks continued to pay the NFL for broadcasting the scab games, which NO ONE attended in person. It is unclear if they would do that again 25 years later, when their own economics are a lot shakier.
     
  3. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    The '87 strike was a huge win for the owners. This one won't.
     
  4. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Obviously, the NFL owners haven't learned anything from the baseball owners in 1994 or the NBA union in 1998, not to mention both sides in the NHL.
     
  5. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Whenever I think of the NFL using replacement players, I think of the lone scab game at RFK Stadium. The Redskins, who had nary an established player cross the picket line defeated a St. Louis Cardinals team that had some of its veterans. The thing I remember most? Diehard Redskins fans chanting: "Stay on strike!"

    If the union goes the strike route, the angry feelings engendered in 1987 would be at least 10 times worse in 2008. And the difference this time: The owners would not be sympathetic figures. It'd be a bastardization of that old Dave Mason song: "There ain't no good guy, there's only bad guys."
     
  6. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    The words of someone who doesn't care enough to learn about the issues or the history involved.

    As unpleasant as they are in professional entertainments, labor disputes are a contemplated and wholly necessary part of our economic system. As the stakes (revenues) grow higher, the likelihood of disputes increase, too.

    The collective bargaining system includes only three options for resolving disputes: negotiated settlement, lockout or strike. The latter two are designed to bring economic burden on the other side and, theoretically, increased incentive for resolution.

    The NFLPA has one more option to bring pressure that isn't an alternative in most unions -- decertification (which is their most likely option in a dispute). They can disband the union and have individual players sue the league, claiming that restriction of free agency violates anti-trust laws.
     
  7. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    The owners are never sympathetic figures -- never, ever.

    Silver-spoon billionaires who use their franchises to extort nine-figure giveaways out of their home cities, jack the fans over with astronomical prices, and then leap at the chance to ship their teams out of town, leave their current fans with nothing, and move on to victimize another group of taxpayers/fans.

    The players, constantly vilified by the fans and the large contingent of ownership puppets/dupes in the media, are the ones who actually play the game. Who the hell ever paid money to go watch an owner own?
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page