Why So Much Drama?
by Rashid Castle-Ali
As all of the drama unfolds with the NFL and this on again off again 2011-2012 season and beyond, I sit and wonder when did the NFL turn into a soap opera? If I needed all of this drama, then I would look no closer than a week’s worth of the likes of “The Young and Restless,” Jerry Springer, any of the day time Judge shows, or tune in to Monday Night Raw. As a fan, I do not care to hear about all of the injunctions filed by the Players that put the season back on for a few days and things are back where we started with no agreement, and no season because of a counter injunction on behalf of the owners and the League. If I wanted all of this drama then; what would entertain me more would be to hear if DeMaurice Smith and a few of the players went down to the NFL HQ and met with Roger Goodell and a few of the owners and instead of meeting in the board room, they decided to take their meeting to the streets. There is nothing that would get my heart pumping than to see some 20-somethings take on some old retirement home aged men in a winner takes all, knockdown, drag out fight to the finish. Talk about drama. This would be great to see. The young guys put the beat down to those old geriatric center holdouts. Ok, I am not an advocate of violence and I’m especially against elderly abuse, but since the game of football has been reduced to being more about drama then why not indulge in its exploits by creating a scenario that would be more worthwhile to hear in the news than what we currently see in the news every day.
Imagine this, you come into work one day and your boss sends out a memo that there is going to be a mandatory company meeting for all employees in the auditorium. During the meeting with the boss, you learn that the company has decided that it wants a larger share of the overall revenue that the company brings in annually and the way that the company intends on achieving this mark is not by eliminating positions, creating a new product line, or introducing some new business innovation. The way the boss plans to get more revenue is by cutting the pay of the employees, who just so happens to be their business partners as well. Most Americans see no problem with this because the employees in this case, are overpaid players who make millions upon millions of dollars to play a game who do not deserve as much as they get because it is just a game. I just question, when did it become acceptable for employers to force their employees into such a situation? The same owners, who want a larger share of the revenue split that the NFL brings in on an annual basis, also went out and brokered their own deal with the networks that broadcast the games that the Players play in and they have not been forced to share this revenue deal with their partner. How fair is that? I wonder what would happen if the players did something like this behind their partner’s back? I am more than sure that they would be vilified in the court of public opinion.
If this drama were about fairness and these business partners getting their equal share of the overall revenue, then there would not have been an injunction filed in the first place to bring about a lockout. I for one am surely a fan of a good drama every now and then, but when it comes to a sport known more for its brutality and bravado than for a soap opera like suspense, I am beginning to grow impatient and upset. What needs to happen for the sake of the sport is for a deal to be done soon. I am not going to say that if no season happens that some of the ridiculous things I have heard from the Players will happen, but I do know that the fans are taking one on the chin for capitalism. Maybe, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have the Players and owners meet up for a battle royal that will decide on the outcome of this debate since that will most certainly produce an end result more quickly than the pace of the court filings. Bottom-line here is we, the fans, want a season. Therefore, whatever it takes to make it happen is what needs to be done so that we all can move on with our lives.
As all of the drama unfolds with the NFL and this on again off again 2011-2012 season and beyond, I sit and wonder when did the NFL turn into a soap opera? If I needed all of this drama, then I would look no closer than a week’s worth of the likes of “The Young and Restless,” Jerry Springer, any of the day time Judge shows, or tune in to Monday Night Raw. As a fan, I do not care to hear about all of the injunctions filed by the Players that put the season back on for a few days and things are back where we started with no agreement, and no season because of a counter injunction on behalf of the owners and the League. If I wanted all of this drama then; what would entertain me more would be to hear if DeMaurice Smith and a few of the players went down to the NFL HQ and met with Roger Goodell and a few of the owners and instead of meeting in the board room, they decided to take their meeting to the streets. There is nothing that would get my heart pumping than to see some 20-somethings take on some old retirement home aged men in a winner takes all, knockdown, drag out fight to the finish. Talk about drama. This would be great to see. The young guys put the beat down to those old geriatric center holdouts. Ok, I am not an advocate of violence and I’m especially against elderly abuse, but since the game of football has been reduced to being more about drama then why not indulge in its exploits by creating a scenario that would be more worthwhile to hear in the news than what we currently see in the news every day.
Imagine this, you come into work one day and your boss sends out a memo that there is going to be a mandatory company meeting for all employees in the auditorium. During the meeting with the boss, you learn that the company has decided that it wants a larger share of the overall revenue that the company brings in annually and the way that the company intends on achieving this mark is not by eliminating positions, creating a new product line, or introducing some new business innovation. The way the boss plans to get more revenue is by cutting the pay of the employees, who just so happens to be their business partners as well. Most Americans see no problem with this because the employees in this case, are overpaid players who make millions upon millions of dollars to play a game who do not deserve as much as they get because it is just a game. I just question, when did it become acceptable for employers to force their employees into such a situation? The same owners, who want a larger share of the revenue split that the NFL brings in on an annual basis, also went out and brokered their own deal with the networks that broadcast the games that the Players play in and they have not been forced to share this revenue deal with their partner. How fair is that? I wonder what would happen if the players did something like this behind their partner’s back? I am more than sure that they would be vilified in the court of public opinion.
If this drama were about fairness and these business partners getting their equal share of the overall revenue, then there would not have been an injunction filed in the first place to bring about a lockout. I for one am surely a fan of a good drama every now and then, but when it comes to a sport known more for its brutality and bravado than for a soap opera like suspense, I am beginning to grow impatient and upset. What needs to happen for the sake of the sport is for a deal to be done soon. I am not going to say that if no season happens that some of the ridiculous things I have heard from the Players will happen, but I do know that the fans are taking one on the chin for capitalism. Maybe, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have the Players and owners meet up for a battle royal that will decide on the outcome of this debate since that will most certainly produce an end result more quickly than the pace of the court filings. Bottom-line here is we, the fans, want a season. Therefore, whatever it takes to make it happen is what needs to be done so that we all can move on with our lives.
Posted by urbanpeephole at 6/3/2011 5:54 PM 
Categories: Community, Football., Sport News and Notes, Nation, Sports, sports, NFL.
Tags: football lockout nfl players Rashid CastleAli Sports urban peephole
Categories: Community, Football., Sport News and Notes, Nation, Sports, sports, NFL.
Tags: football lockout nfl players Rashid CastleAli Sports urban peephole
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