tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

The NFL can’t get out of it’s own way!!!

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/league_and_players_deserve_unnecessary_945l1kIsgwcuN5lNbLzKdJ

Yesterday the 32 NFL teams opened up their training facilities as a result of Judge Nelson's ruling lifting the league's lockout.  When the players arrived they were told they couldn't use the weight room.  They couldn't talk to their coaches.  They basically had nothing to do but to leave.  This from the league who's Commissioner says he cares about the fans.

Steve Serby's article (above) really puts this whole thing into perspective.  It was the league who locked the players out.  It was the league who wants more of the $9.3 billion pie even though not one team is losing money.  It is the league that has been given a legal set back but continues to want a legal fight which will threaten the 2011 season.

What really is astonishing is that there is no recognition of what the average fan is going through right now.  $4.00 a gallon gas prices, higher food costs as a result, frozen wages if your lucky to have a job and the uncertainty as to what's next.  In the mean time, the NFL is going to fight over how they are going to divide the $9.3 billion pie with their employees.  Insensitive, you bet it is.  Arrogant, the NFL is the most arrogant sports league around.

If Commissioner Goodell truly cared about the fans, he would not be writing a column in the Wall Street Journal to defend his position while trashing the players.  What he should be doing is getting on the phone with DeMaurice Smith, scheduling a meeting with their respective negotiating teams and agree to continue talking until a deal is done.  The negotiation should be easy beacuse this isn't the NHL or NBA where franchises are in financial trouble.  This is about the small market owners wanting more money and the big market owners looking to appease them.  Whatever happen to acting in the best interest of the game.

It will be interesting to see what kind of reception Goodell gets at the draft on Thursday.  If I was there I know what I would do every time he stepped to the podium: boo his ass like there was no tomorrow.  Maybe that type of reception will shock some sense into him and send a message to the arrogance that is the NFL.