It's now good to see others -like The New York Times, Bill Rhoden and the Washington Post's, Sally Jenkins - take a similar approach.
They bashed the seating fiasco in Dallas as well as the bloated Super Bowl to build their case regarding the lack of sensitivity by the NFL management as well as the organizations penchant for distancing themselves from reality.
My own previous NFL gripes were not that complex: I simply asked, "How Much Is Enough?"
As the debut of the NFL films March sitcom "The Owners & Their Money" is about to debut we may well be looking at another lockout.
The 32 owners are now receiving off the top - $1 billion - and, from the bottom, 40% of the remainder; while crying they need more to avoid the poorhouse. And, that doesn't include tax breaks they're receiving from local and state government.
To the average guy or gal the numbers being bounced around are mind boggling - even in a recovering economy. But, when you're a billionaire you really aren't that anxious to remember what it was like when you weren't. That's a big part of the problem.
If you, or someone you know, haven't been able to find a job in a year and a half and are close to foraging for food, nobody could blame you for not choosing to read further. If the economy hasn't already emasculated you; the money, power and greed exercised by the owners and the NFL may do the trick.
Please do not consider me to be a descendent of Socialist Eugene V. Debs. My stand has always been that what's going on here with the NFL clearly isn't right. That opinion seems to be gaining some support from people much better informed than me.
In a recent blog we covered how the NFL threatened to "lock out" Toyota from advertising on NFL broadcasts should they not cease and desist from a suggestion in one of their ads that professional football is a violent and dangerous sport.The NFL official who was quoted claimed the ads put the NFL in an unfair light. Starting to see a pattern here?
That makes absolutely no sense when your Commisioner is saying we need to reduce the violence in the game and Toyota's example was helmet to helmet hits.
Possibly, the official could not recognize the irony of his statement as the type of power he wielded against Toyota (who changed the ad) has corrupted any sanity he may have employed to get the job. Please, read further - he's not alone.
At the recent Super Bowl an estimated 1,250 people were unable to sit in the seats which they thought they had purchased for a considerable amount of money They went to the game without a clue as to the blindside hit awaiting them. Now, comes more sensitivity.
One NFL management member, executive V.P. Eric Grubman offered this as an explanation for the communication and seating gaffe: "The fans who could not be given seats were not contacted sooner because of the 'uncertainty' of the situation." Makes sense to me.
Apparently erroring on the conservative side is now an outdated management strategy and is replaced by the one BP employed, which lead to the massive oil "spill" in the Gulf.
What "uncertainty" was it to which the guy was referring? Well, it's kind of tough to tell. It wasn't made clear by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. He was preoccupied by a pre-emptive strike; his lengthy defense that Jerry Jones, the stadium guru, was not to blame.
That act of benevolence could not possibly have anything to do with Mr. Jones being one of the 32 NFL owners who serve as Mr. Goodell's employers, could it?
Only those residing on another planet are unaware that Commissioner Goodell does not represent either the players or you, the fans, in any of the current disputes. He is paid about "$10 mil a year" to represent the 32 NFL team owners - all who are rumored to view him as todays version of a deity. Besides, the ones residing on that other planet are probably watching soccer and couldn't care less.
One rationale by the owners for needing more money is to use it to build more stadiums. The question of "building them at whose eventual expense?" is kind of side stepped. No new stadium has been built since 2006. But, the money keeps rolling in.
Per Sally Jenkins, "The last great building binge in the NFL was from 1995 to 2003, when 21 stadiums were built or refurbished in order to create more 'luxury boxes' at a cost of $6.4 billion. Of that, the public paid $4.4 billion, per Jenkins. She asks,"Why are we giving 32 rich guys that kind of money, just to prey on us at the box office and concessions?"
Jenkins points out that New Jersey, whose deficit is $36 billion, inherited the Meadowlands home of the Giants and the Jets when they upped and moved to their new $1.6 billion, privately financed stadium. She also quotes the Wall Street Journal:"Under the owners old agreement they paid $20 million a year in tax revenues - now, they will pay only $6 million a year
More of "How Much Is Enough" later."
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