The end is finally near for the NFL and its 2011 labor issues. The NFL has been in lockout mode for about 131 days now and it is finally time to play some football.
The key issues for most labor agreements is money and control and this particular one didn’t deviate from the norm. The power struggle between the NFL’s owners and the NFL’s Player Association was all brought about due to money and politics.
The owners wanted to broaden the percentage of money that they would receive from the leagues total revenue pool. The players wanted better benefits when it came to health for current and retired players. The owners wanted a rookie wage scale, while the players wanted to be compensated for bad business practices due to the deals that the NFL made with its television companies.
All in all there were a lot of issues that needed to be taken care of for the NFL and the player to agree to terms. The players and league now find themselves agreeing to a new 10-year deal that will give the NFL a decade of labor piece.
From the fans perspective, we all understand that business is business, but it does shed some light on how the league feels about its fans. The player and owners could have dragged this thing out another 131 days to the point that there wasn’t going to be a 2011 season. In other sports labor agreements have gone so far that the seasons are cancelled and the fan base is put in outrage. I think the player and owners of this league clearly understood that this wasn’t an option.
To me this situation turned out as good as it possibly could with millionaires fighting billionaires over money that ultimately belongs to the fans.
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