Tim Ajmani
The Corsair
If we were to take a poll of the most popular sport in America right now, it wouldn’t be “America’s Pastime”, baseball. It wouldn’t be basketball, despite the current state of the NBA that is signaling that a “passing of the torch” is taking place. And it wouldn’t be hockey, the sport that features nearly every playoff game going to overtime. Nope, America’s favorite sport is football, ironically the sport that shares the name with the most popular sport in the entire world. Yes, that sport who’s most popular league can’t decide on how to split a revenue share of more than nine billion dollars. Yes, that sport whose status is in major limbo with the season supposed to start three months from now.
In its current state, the American economy is a mess. Many citizens fight to put dinner on the table, and support their families. Players in the NFL, for the most part, don’t have to deal with economic hardships. Team owners don’t have to either. Yet, they can’t decide on a CBA that will allow football to continue. Seriously? Nine. Billion. Dollars. Now, that’s not the only issue in creating a new CBA, but the fact that two parties can’t decide how to best split that much money is just laughable.
The NFL, for many fans, is a way to escape dealing with the hardships of their lives. Cheering on their favorite teams unites families and friends and provides a common ground on which happiness can be secured. Many children look up to their favorite athletes in the NFL as role models. If the NFL and its players want to continue to serve as role models for the youth in our society, they will put aside their differences to make sure a new CBA is completed so that the offseason activities can start. Part of the problem may be because current commissioner, Roger Goodell, doesn’t have a good working relationship with the NFLPA (or what’s left of it for that matter) like the previous commissioner did.
But that’s not the point. The players and owners both continue to project the idea that all both sides want is football. Well, if that’s the case, why not revert to the old CBA for a year or two, so that both sides can back away and have a fresh start for negotiations? All the fans want is football. Now, the likelihood that we won’t have an NFL season is very small. There is too much at stake for both owners and players, and a year without football will put irreparable damage on the integrity and reputation of the sport.
We saw it in the NFL draft; fans are not pleased at all with the league. However, if the fans should need something to lighten the mood, they only need to step back and actually think about the hypocrisy presented to us by the league and its players. It is truly laughable.