Vikesrule agrees with me all the time - it's his envy that drives his need of putting me down. 🙂

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However, its settled my only hope is that there is some kind salary cap. If that is lost it will be like baseball. Most teams will amount to not much more that glorified farm teams for the Schneiders and Jones of the league. Green Bay won't be able to compete with that even if they can keep the same level of revenue which is only that high now because they are winning. There needs to be a level playing field for all teams. That's what has made football great.

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I couldn't agree more. Greed has ruined most major sports leagues. Examples are everywhere - Major League Baseball, Pro Basketball, Premier League soccer, Formula 1 racing... honestly everything all the way to Tour De France bike racing.

I'd hate to see a lack of a salary cap ruin everything that has made the NFL unrivaled in fairness and excitement.

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I haven't heard of any serious talk about the players wanting to get rid of the salary cap. I think (hope?) that they realize it is best to have a salary cap in the long run, for competitive balance, which is a big part of the NFL's reputation as one of the best sports leagues. Remember, it is the owners who initiated this work stoppage, not the players. The players were happy with the existing CBA, which included a salary cap.

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I disagree players want salary caps. Free agents buzz in their ears to always get the biggest deal possible. Players caring about how their salaries impact the game are an exception, not the rule. I have never heard a single player ever say they want to negotiate a lower salary because they think it will inflate the wage scale too rapidly and negatively affect the league. Players will take as much as owners are willing to give. As I would in my job. Just because the players make less than the owners doesn't mean they are less in it for the money.

If the players don't like the offer the NFL gave them after legally opting out of the CBA then they can go find other jobs. The actions that the courts are taking are a scary proposition in my mind and sets a very dangerous precedent. Imagine if public labor unions could decertify and then sue the state because their careers are threatened since they aren't a union anymore.

And then the players are looking for a $1 Billion bond. Where was my bond when I got laid off, oh wait, I had to play by the rules of being a non-unionized employee. I think the players don't realize what the NFLPA actually did and still are acting as a union and the group speak confirms it.

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I love how players who made the minimum wage on the pay scale were complaining about the financial hardship of a lockout. Imagine what they'll be saying if they're given the option next season to play for minimum wage.

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Some of you have not read the lawsuit and what it says.

Why is there a guy just out of college listed as a plaintiff when he has not even been drafted or signed by an NFL team? They want the draft to go away.

Why would Peyton Manning sue when he is a free agent? He is fighting the franchise tag.

Everything in the suit is to give players more freedom and less discipline.

Why would you not take them at their word of what they are suing for. .

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I agree if the NFL became like the MLB Id prob only watch it casually instead of being really into it. And wouldnt care about missing games ...

I believe the players are willing to make a deal that includes a salary cap. There is a limited pool of money at any given time. What the dispute is mainly about is what percentage of that money goes to the owners and what percentage goes to the players. When profits increase, the salary cap increases.

When it comes to individual players, of course they are going to try to negotiate the biggest deal possible under the existing rules. That's really a separate issue: micro vs. macro.

It's true that if the players don't like the offer that the NFL gave them they can go find other jobs. It's also true that if the owners don't like what the players are willing to offer then they can go find other players. They did that before. It didn't work so well. The fact is that the players have way more leverage than any of us have in our jobs, union or non-union, because they happen to be good at something that a lot of people are willing to pay a lot of money to see. It's hard to have any sympathy for them, but it's also hard to have sympathy for the owners.

It does seem paradoxical that although the NFLPA has decertified, the players are still allowed to act as a group. So why hasn't anybody called them out on it? Maybe because the owners are also acting as a group, which technically is collusion. I don't think either side has the moral high ground on that issue. In fact, the owners may end up regretting that they opened up this particular can of worms by imposing the lockout.

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