It's sort of like a divorce. Does the kid take the side of Mom or Dad? In the end, neither wins, as the kid has sentiment for both, but he/she is the only real loser in the divorce itself. That's what we have here as the NFL players' union de-certified Friday afternoon, and the owners in turn locked the players out at midnight. Neither side won, at least not yet, and each side has given its side of the story. To be honest, I can make an argument for both sides, but just like Ed, I don't care -- I just want to see them come to an agreement and play the games. I know most of you feel the same way. There is only one loser in this labor mess, and that is all of us--the fans who ultimately pay the NFL's bills. And no matter when they return to the field of play, hurting the fans and leaving a black cloud of uncertainty is incredibly unfair.
NFL owners disappointed at breakdown of talks - latimes.com
As for NFL fans, they are divided over whom to blame. The popular website ProFootballTalk.com conducted an informal poll asking fans who is at fault. As of Saturday afternoon, 38.5% of voters blamed the players (9,852 votes), 24.5% blamed the owners (6,286), and 36.7% blamed both (9,399).
I realize the source of the numbers is ProFootball Talk.com, but there are some quotes from NFL owners in this piece that make it worth reading.
"There will be a season." You sure? - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
There will be an NFL season in 2011. That’s what Commissioner Roger Goodell keeps saying. So do many of the owners and lots of players, even though labor talks collapsed, the union dissolved itself, and star players including MVP Tom Brady asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent a lockout hours before the league even implemented one. Despite the nasty rhetoric of last week, no one would paint the doomsday scenario of no football come September.
Exactly. They keep saying there will be an agreement and, ultimately, a 2011 season, but at what point do they really mean it?
Cubs’ Samardzija happy NFL labor mess isn’t his - Chicago Sun-Times
Still think Jeff Samardzija should have played football instead of signing with the Cubs four years ago? Still think Samardzija wonders what life might have been like as a Notre Dame-bred NFL receiver instead of an Iowa-trained National League reliever? Samardzija has remained steadfast in the certainty of his decision at every career turn since signing a $10 million deal to give up football after an All-America season at Notre Dame in 2006. But never has that been more the case than in the last week or so, when he viewed the NFL’s labor Armageddon from the safe distance of a major-league clubhouse.
We're happy for Samarjzija, to a point. Of course, we all remember too painfully well that Bud Selig and Major League Baseball dropped an atom bomb on the 1994 season, cancelling the entire postseason including the World Series. So it's not like this stuff doesn't happen in baseball as well.
Athletes talk Man 2 Man with kids | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com
Former National Football League star David Tyree says many people know him for a big catch he made in a game-winning drive for the New York Giants in the 2008 Super Bowl. "But there is more — my frailty," he told a group on Sunday afternoon at the "Man 2 Man" event at the Muhammad Ali Center.
Just because I thought you guys needed a moment of euphoria in the midst of all the labor talk, I thought you could use a reminder of one of the greatest plays in Giants' history.