Photo From Google Images
It’s the first NFL game of the 2010 season and the New Orleans Saints are taking on the Minnesota Vikings- its just one of those games where every football fan was watching.
Before the game, both teams walked towards each other on the field, in a row and held up their right index finger as way to make a statement to the NFL and the owners. The statement the Satins and the Vikings made went beyond the rivalry of an NFC Championship game but as way to unite the National Football League players union.
The National Football League player’s union was formed in 1956 when football players on the Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns together demanded that the organizations provide players with a minimum league-wide salary and per diem pay, uniforms and equipment paid for and maintained at the clubs’ expense and continued payment of their salaries while they were injured and unable to play. Don Shula of the Baltimore Colts, John Gordy of the Detroit Lions, Frank Gifford and Sam Huff of the New York Giants, and Norm Van Brocklin of the Los Angeles Rams led the organizing drive. (Thank you Wikipedia)
So.. what’s the big deal? Basically, the owners and the players can not agree on the percent of leagues revenue that is shared between team owners and the players, the rookie salaries and contracts, the length of the season (will they extend to 18 games), health coverage for family and retirement and the use of drug testing. Will the owners of the most watched sport in the United States lock out players for 2011 season because they are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement for the league’s 1,700 players?
Honestly, let the individual teams deal with the issues of salaries and contracts and besides the extension of a regular season schedule, the rest should be the leagues responsibility to provide health care and instill drug testing. Take away professional football from millions of die hard, crazy fans and the NFL will not only be called the No Football League but the rivalry will no longer be between the owners and the players, but between the fans and the NFL.
FIGURE IT OUT GOODELL!
I just want to know that in 2011 I will still have a holy day of football and my excuse to my boss for why I am unable to work on Sunday’s. This is a rivalry that needs to end before March 2011 and it is the one rivalry that the owners and players do not want the fans to be against them.