A Letter to the NFL Owners and Players

To Whom This May Concern:

As a fan, and one who consumes far more of your product and service than an average one, I would like to start this letter very bluntly. F$%@ you both. 

I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel now that you’ve both decided that you need the courts to decide how the two parties should divvy up a near $10,000,000,000 piece of pie.

 

Before I get to why I say this about both parties, I have to admit that, as unhappy as I am, I get it. America is a great country for many reasons, but none bigger than the ability of a single person to become as rich possible. The 31 owners in the NFL are some of the richest in this country and probably because they worked hard (or there Daddies and Grand-Daddies atleast), took risks and made savvy moves financially. Great.

Looking at this whole debate from your side, I understand that you own private companies and as with any owner of any business, your number one priority is making sure your revenues grow year in and year out while keeping your costs at a minimum. So for reasons that you only know (so far), you feel you could and should be making more money from your business than you already obviously do. Power to you. You have no real obligation to show the players your books and why should you? If Starbucks wants to make more money on every cup of coffee by paying their employees less, they could do just that and would never have to tell employees why. Simply take this or walk as we’ll find someone to replace you.

Now obviously the players have a Union which certainly can’t make you guys too happy that now your businesses are about to be dragged through the courts. Boo hoo.

Also, aside from you wanting more money off the top of the already huge pie, you want to add to more games, cut rookie’s salaries (no argument here) and the like and again, it’s your business so why shouldn’t you be able to do that? Basically if the players don’t like it then find somewhere else to work is what you could tell them.

Now players, for lack of a better word, it just sucks to hear that you guys would be forced to take a pay cut from your bosses citing money issues to which they will not show you definitively by opening the books.  But then again, no one says you had to play football with your lives. Even if the owners took another $1 billion of the top, you would still have one of the most lucrative careers in this country regardless.

But again, I get it. Who wants to take a pay cut to do the same or maybe more work (18 games) than you already do? Would that same Starbucks employee want to get paid less to serve the masses coffee and oh, you have to work for 2 more hours a shift as well. Doubtful. But to that I say, tough.

Again, it’s hard to side with players here when according to a March 23^rd, 2009 article in Sports Illustrated, “By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.” So honestly, despite the fact that you’re some of the highest paid people in the country, is it the owner’s fault you guys don’t know what to do with your money? Is it their fault you decided to leave college early? If you’re not an elite player in the NFL I think it’s easy to figure that out within your first year so why didn’t you continue taking classes, or continue attending school with the money you were making to better prepare for life outside the game?

On top of that too, you all sit there and say how violent a game it is and how the NFL needs to help people after they retire and such. Do they? If the average career is only 3 or so years, how could it be financially plausible to give every player benefits for an extended period anyway? Again, you knew the risks playing football. Also what about all the people who played football in high school or college, who never sniffed the NFL, who might be dealing with the same long term effects years later? Again, no one forces you to play.

But now you players are mad at your owners, who’ve made you all pretty wealthy, because they want to pay you a little less to play a game. If you really love the game so much, you could go play in the CFL, AFL or UFL right? Oh, but they don’t pay as well do they? You’d have to live an average lifestyle to do that.

So basically both player and owners won’t budge on $1 billion of the $9 billion pie so everyone has to suffer huh? To the owners, $1 billion comes out to $31,250,000 per team. Really? Are you going to use that money so you don’t have to ask taxpayers to fund your new stadiums when in need? What will an extra $31,250,000 really mean for your franchise in a league that’s been growing by leaps and bounds anyways? To the players, if there are 1,760 of you amongst 32, 55 man rosters that equates to roughly $586,818 each. And again, when only 22% of you will actually not lose that money and unless you’re a Peyton Manning, Ray Lewis type of player, you’re not getting that equally anyway, big whoop.

Back to my first initial statement of F$%& you, I say that because to us fans, we really could care less how that money is divided as long as our sport will be played on Sunday’s in this coming year. As we all are tired of hearing that this is a billionaire vs. millionaire dispute, it is just that but I doubt fans aren’t going to come right back to consuming the sport as we have done when you finally come to some sort of agreement, but I do ask…why now?

Football is just another form of entertainment that regular people use as an escape from the harshness of reality. It helps us take our mind off of real world issues that truly affect our lives and both parties here have to do this now? With all that wrong in the world from wars in the Middle East, political unrest, earthquakes, tsunami’s, hurricanes, unemployment, devaluing dollars, gas prices, taxes, education so on and so forth, can’t the one thing a majority of people love be left alone?

Both parties own and work in an industry that despite all the above problems, has continually grown at a significant rate yet neither of you can budge even in the slightest? Entertainment is a great thing and Football is one of its best. It brings people together for a few hours each week to help us cope with all that is wrong in the world and you’re willing to take that away now?

Also, it’s not just the players the owners are affecting and its not just the owners the players are affecting. So many people in this country rely on the NFL for primary and secondary incomes and will suffer because of this mess as well. The bar that relies on customers for half the year on Sundays and Monday’s, the vendors who work at the stadiums, security men, secretaries, writers and more could all potentially be out of work for what? An article on Yahoo goes deeper into the people that will be affected and it’s just a terrible thing all around.

So honestly, owners and players are both in the wrong here. It’s sad that most people love it so much, pretty much hopelessly and helplessly addicted to it like me, that we will all rush right back once this dispute is over but maybe we shouldn’t. I wish people could come together and give you guys the proverbial middle finger for once and show you that without us anyway, there would be no money for you guys to quarrel over.

Sure it’s wishful thinking and what does this pawn in your grand scheme matter anyway? Someone is going to win, someone is going to lose and the fans will be footing the bill as they always have. Your combined hubris is astonishing.

So in all seriousness, F@$& you both. From the bottom of my heart.

-BurL