After public humiliations and the court shouting illegal activity, the owners finally had a change of heart, right? Wrong. The owners responded by shrugging off the court ruling, as if an intern was merely suggesting a change of surgical strategy to the head of cardio-thoracic surgery. The owners know what’s in their chests. How dare the court tell them they are mistreating their fellow human beings, as if the court knows what is best needed for the players and owners. The owners aren't content. Don’t the courts understand that? The owners, they need more money.
You see, the last CBA failed to produce the results the owners intended, even though they agreed to it, or so they say. Revenue losses were supposed to be mitigated by the salary cap, increased revenue sharing between teams and the owners and players, and largely nonguaranteed contracts,3 which increased owner power while decreasing player’s job security. The owners want the players and fans to feel compassion for them; to have an understanding of the economic toil running a team takes on them; yet, they willingly provide outrageous contracts to unproven rookies, like Raiders owner Al Davis, who guaranteed JaMarcus Russell $32 million dollars his rookie year and instead of recognizing a bust and acting on it, continued to pay him a total of $61 million for the next two years. Owners agree to extravagant contracts with rookies and then tell the players stricter restrictions need to be put in place with a rookie salary cap because they won't stop spending on their own. Basically they're saying, we made some really poor business decisions and instead of giving contracts to proven veterans, gave a bunch of unproven players millions of our dollars and now we want all of you who have succeeded to pay us back for all the money we wasted on the Ryan Leaf’s and Akili Smith’s of the league. Feel sorry for them? Think the players should consider showing compassion to the owners who want to lock them out with no health insurance?
I don’t. But the players are open to the request. They’ve just asked the owners to prove they’re actually losing money. New England Patriots cornerback Kyle Arrington has summed up the players request to the owners when he said, “if you’re losing money, show us that, and we’re happy to negotiate.”4 The owners response is, “just trust us. Of course we’re losing money. The court decision is wrong; we’re honest. We have your interests and the fans interests at heart and in order to best meet those interests, you, the players need to help us help you, out of the goodness of your wallets, er, hearts.”
The owners are refusing financial transparency. Wonder why? Maybe because no matter how crafty Robert Kraft is at framing his colleagues as victims, reality proves otherwise. Perhaps Paul Allen, owner of the Seattle Seahawks is losing money. Although I find it easier to believe the crimp in his wallet is from maintaining his 414-ft yacht with a swimming pool, a music studio and a basketball court and not from funding the first ever NFL team to win a division title without having a winning record. And if Allen is having so much trouble finding the cash to fund his football team, maybe he could sell either of his 2 helicopters, 2 submarines, or one of his 2 backup emergency yachts.5 What’s the selling price for a submarine these days? Think that could pay for a wide receiver?
It’s very possible St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke saw a drop in profits this year considering he ordered employees at his 3 vineyards to destroy close to S3 million in wine because it wasn't up to his standards. Or perhaps the mortgages on his 4 homes and 4 ranches5 became a little too costly when the housing market took a turn.
But I think the best examples of how the owners are really nothing more than wolves prancing around as mere sheep can be found in Washington and Philadelphia. Dan Snyder should win an Oscar for his performance portraying an owner who is losing money. Not only has he sued a 73-year old grandma for not keeping up with her season-ticket package payments, whose price continues to increase much faster than the team’s winning record, he was caught buying stale peanuts from a defunct airline and reselling them at games. Surely, a man who is this desperate to make ends meet is down on his luck. Dan Snyder is worth $1.1 billion dollars.
Philadelphia Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie did win an Oscar. Beyond his 18-bedroom estate with a 3-hole golf course, 2-lane bowling alley, 2-story recreation center and indoor tennis court5, the owner was the executive producer of the Academy Award winning Best Documentary, “Inside Job,” which, ironically, extrapolates the global financial crisis of 2008. The plot summary on the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) states the movie provides “a comprehensive analysis… of how the greed and corruption of a few caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worse recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse.” Back track and read that again. The greed and corruption of a few caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes.
The NFLPA is estimating if the owners lockout for the season, each NFL city will lose $160 million and 3,000 jobs. That’s 93,000 jobs nationwide5. Perhaps Jeffrey Lurie was merely outlining the script for his own autobiography. I smell an Oscar. And the stench of decayed heart.
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