by Patrick Boucher
The NFL Lockout is over. The airwaves and Twittersphere are celebrating like it is Christmas. Reporters and ‘insiders’ are proclaiming “football is back.” I didn’t know it was gone. The Packers won the Super Bowl on Feb. 6th the preseason will start the second weekend in August (sorry Hall of Fame game), and the Packers will host the Saints on Sept. 8th. So, if football was gone, where did it go? The draft was still held. OK, so we missed free agency/minicamps/OTAs. Wow, what a tragedy. I really missed out on having ESPN show clips of Tom Brady throwing to Wes Welker in shorts and a t-shirt while Adam Schefter reports something inane like the Patriots are going to cut some 3rd string DE that you’ve never heard of.
But here is the thing about sports media (which is increasingly visible over Twitter) and the last 4+ months: They have loved every minute of this lockout. I follow the usual suspects on Twitter (profootballtalk, Trey Wingo, Rich Eisen, Adam Schefter, et al), having watched ESPN/NFL Network on and off since Monday, I have noticed that everyone is acting “relieved” that the lockout is over. As if the past few months have been some painful, grueling process for them. If you ask me, this 24/7 lockout/labor negotiation “reporting” – and I use that term loosely – has made work for these guys when there would normally just be a few months preparing for training camps and boring reporting like 32 teams in 32 days, or Mel Kiper’s draft grades or blah blah blah.
I would say there were about 5 people with any sense during this lockout: Jason Whitlock, Jay Glazer (who despite not bothering to report any of the “breakthroughs” during the whole process was the first to report the NFLPA approved the deal early this morning), Andrew Brandt (who is basically an NFL mouthpiece), Chris Mortenson (who is basically an ESPN mouthpiece, but did have the most accurate knowledge of anyone, along with John Clayton), and maybe Jason LaCanfora. Here’s the thing; everyone in today’s 24/7 news coverage cycle wants to be the first to predict something. How much of ESPN/NFL Network coverage is devoted to predictions? Each network pays people just to speculate on stuff: Where is this guy going? Who is going to get upset this week? Who will be drafted where? The lockout has been a huge vehicle for NFL reporters to whip it out and say “mine’s bigger.” Give me a break. I care about reality, not speculation, who reported it first, who has the most “inside connections.” I care about football being played on Sundays, and the Packers having a chance to defend their title. That is happening. We’re fine. Lets get on with it.
Jason Whitlock just tweeted on Monday: “Has anyone apologized for contributing to this Lockout Hysteria??” He has held the stance during this whole lockout (see: Jason Whitlock's appearance on PFT) that the mainstream NFL media and insider types are creating hysteria and drama around this lockout basically because they are worried that in the NFL misses games or loses popularity in the USA that they might not be making as much money themselves, because there will be nothing to report on.
My point is this, and I have held this since before last season was even over: The average NFL fan doesn’t care about the business side of football unless games are missed. I am a huge sports fan, and did not believe one bit this entire time that games would be missed. The NFL is not that stupid to allow games to be missed; there is too much money to be raked in. Most people really assumed that this would get figured out in July, and lo and behold, it has. All of this hysteria and doom and gloom talk about the labor situation really was only interesting to about 10% of the fan base. The NFL has hardcore fans, don’t get me wrong, but the way the last few months were reported was like the world would come to an end if a couple weeks of the season were missed. Calm down everyone, lets just get back to enjoying pro football for what it is: awesome entertainment.
Response by Pete:
Great point about the perceptions of “loss” during the lockout. I’ll admit I was actually fine with missing some preseason games – and even thought that might happen – but wasn’t going to be ultimately worried until regular season games were threatened. It will also be interesting if the News Powers That Be overreact to the NBA lockout in the same way. The ‘woe is me’ aspect works for both sports. With the NFL the woe was that there was even the slightest possibility that America would be deprived of its number one sport because the millionaires and billionaires couldn’t agree on dividing their giant piles of money. The NBA lockout carries the ominous weight of a broken system run by financially ignorant people. The complexities of the problem should garner legitimate reporting, so it will be very intriguing to see what hollow way the ‘journalists’ can amp up NBA discussion.
Oh yeah, the NFL will be going on, so I guess we won’t care until February. Nevermind.
Way to keep it real.
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ReplyDeleteYou wanna know what I really hate about the NFL/lockout situation? The worst is when someone says, "Uh, like those fuckin athletes don't make enough money already... now they have to hold out so they can make more, they're so selfish!" Well, to them I say, "You're an idiot."
ReplyDeleteInterruption, I'm watching the Deion Sanders induction speech right now... wow, does he think he's a preacher, or?? I feel like we're at story time in kindergarten.
Anyways, back to the ignorance of the typical NFL fan. Don't fans understand that the owners, not the players, are the selfish/greedy ones? The NFLPA is just smart enough to realize they aren't going to let the owners walk all over them and somehow try to defend the fact that they (the owners) have earned all of this extra revenue. Think about it - here's a scenario for you... Say you work for a boss that typically makes 1 million a year, you and 5 other employees make 50K each. This year, due to services that YOU provide, your company will make 1.3 million. Are you okay with the owner pocketing that 300K, or are you going defend your part in that sudden increase of revenue and say, "Hey, maybe all of us should get 70K this year." That's what's getting to be wrong with the world today. Everyone is getting to be such pushovers and let their boss walk all over them that they won't stand up for themselves and their worth (either that or they know they ain't worth shit). For you Wisconsinites, this is kind of how I feel about Scott Walker's bullshit. He's like the NFL owner's that just want to say fuck you, I get the money so I can move it over here to fix this problem... oh, what's that? You have a union? Oh, well I'll just take away that right, too bad for you. Could you imagine if Roger Goodell said there could be no union in the NFL?? Ha, I would love to see it. (The horrible part about this is that no one really cares about REAL people's lives in Wisconsin and what Scott Walker is doing to them but it would be the end of the world if this happened in the NFL.)
Anyways, that whole Walker story I could go on for ages about... Back to the NFL; I'm glad the lockout was finally ended, but I totally agree with you Pat - not once did I think it wouldn't be resolved before the season began. The owners are greedy, but they're smart enough to know it's better to take a few million less than a couple hundred million (if the season wouldn't have been played). As for looking to the NBA lockout... not so easy. This could be a whole other story. Personally, I don't feel like it will be resolved. Best case scenario will be that stupid 50 game season again. The main problem here is that NBA players are just dumb. Think about it, they all come to the league when they're 18-19, none of them have an education!! Hello!! All they see is dollar signs, they don't even know what they are negotiating for. (This wouldn't be a huge problem in the NFL because they're actually profitable. The NBA, however, is not. Hence, the NBA owners are going to be a lot less willing to dish out millions more to the stupid NBA players especially when they can't come up with any good reasons as to why they should get more money.) Which leads me to one of my biggest frustrations in professional sports; age limit for NBA draft. So David Stern, why can't we demand 2 years minimum of college? (4 Years would be better.) You said a few years ago that we can't put a restriction like that in place because it would be discriminatory. Huh!?? Bullshit! The best part was that a few months later the NBA made the 19 or 1 year removed rule... laughable. Anyways, tell me what other job just allows you to make millions without earning an education first? Granted, there is no college major titled "Professional Basketball." However, I don't see how it would be discriminatory to say that in order to apply for the draft, you must have earned at least 60 college credits/Associate's Degree while maintaining a certain GPA, just like any other job. Hence, players would be (well, they'd be better) more educated and there would be less to dispute in a CBA/lockout. Plus, it would clean up the NBA a little bit. I don't know about you, but I can't stand seeing some of these idiots being called "professionals." My favorites are guys like DeShawn Stevenson, Matt Barnes, etc. (Personally, I have not done any research on these guys' academic backgrounds but would have to assume they weren't honors students.) Anyways, I feel like I'm repeating myself so I'm going to stop now. I guess the point is that I'm a little frsutrated with sports fans, and even more frustrated with people in charge of sports (financially). I'm sure I will eventually comment on spending of GM's... I could go on for hours. Thanks for reading. Love u Pete!
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