If you're reading this, you will probably connect well with this story. Let me ask, what is a perfect Sunday afternoon in your world? Here's how my Sundays often go. I wake up at about 8:30. Depending on the day, I'll either go to church, or I'll read up on the news. At about noon, I go to a fast food joint, because; who wants to cook on Sunday (unless you're grilling which is perfectly acceptable). By the time I get home, it's about 12:45, just in time for the ending of the CBS pre-game show. For the next 3 hours, I absorb the game I love. Then, at 4:15, I rinse and repeat.
It comes as no surprise to me that fans are flat out pissed off about the current lockout. The reason is simple, Sundays are the best, most relaxing day of the week, and the NFL along with the NFLPA are threatening my favorite day. Homework is seldom reserved for Sunday in my world. It's strictly for rest and relaxation.
What will it take for the two sides to get over themselves? Better leadership. As I write this, I notice that this article is taking on a new thought process that I didn't intend, but please, bear with me. I am a Social Studies Ed. major, with three related content areas. One of those areas is political science (government for short). If you are involved in this field, you quickly realize that Henry Clay is one of the most revered U.S. political figures of all time never to be president. Why is that? He was known as the "Great Compromiser." Simply put, he got things done.
When you clicked the jump, you probably weren't expecting a history lesson. Frankly, I didn't expect Henry Clay to pop up today, but let's move back to the "perfect Sunday." There is only one thing that I can think of that can threaten everything I know and love about Sundays in the Fall, greed.
Let's face it, regardless of who you think is right or wrong, both sides are having problems dividing 9 BILLION dollars. Let's do some math, each NFL team is allowed a 53 man active roster plus their practice squad. That comes out to about 2000 players, give or take a little. Let's also say that the owners do very, VERY well in their negotiations and the players are forced to equally divide 3 billion dollars. The number would come out to 1.5 million dollars per year. Yeah, I'm really feeling sorry for guys that would only get 1.5 million per year in an unrealistically poor scenario. If you're wondering, an even split would give each player about 2.25 million dollars.
Frankly, all most of us want is to see football on Sundays. I could invest my time and money in collegiate football, but I quite enjoy a playoff system. I also enjoy not hearing about rule infractions and teams forfeiting wins. All I want is to continue my Sunday rituals without hearing billionaires arguing with millionaires, but hey, that's just me.