The popularity of the National Football League is at an all time high. The majority of NFL stadiums are sold out every week. Television ratings and advertising revenues are at an all time high. The most recent Super Bowl, the New Orleans Saints victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami, was the highest rated television program of all time, higher than any other Super Bowl, even higher than the last episode of M*A*S*H.
Conventional wisdom would dictate that life must be very good for anyone who is a part of the NFL. Player salaries are higher than ever. Ticket revenues rise on an annual basis. However the pursuit of collective interests of the two parties that must come together to make America's great gridiron game possible, players and owners, threaten to derail present-day America's pastime.
In any collective bargaining agreement, there is never one simple panacea. There are always multiple issues and multiple moving parts, all of which, directly or indirectly, influence the other moving parts. However, the issue that is most frequently raised in the mainstream sports media is the possibility of an 18 game regular season schedule.
The basic arguments have been positioned to the public. The fans do not like preseason. Season ticket holders do not like paying for two preseason games at the same cost of regular season tickets. Players will contend that football is a physically brutal game. Increasing the number of games by 11% will shorten careers and water down the product on the field due to the increased probability of injury. Owners will contend that by removing two preseason games and making them regular season games, the players will not be committed to any additional obligations to their teams and the fans will be more satisfied.
As a fan, from my vantage point, the only winner I see in this entire equation, with two games being added and no subsequent concessions, is ownership. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has often positioned the possible 18 game schedule as a change in the best interests of the fans. Quote ESPN commentator Lee Corso, "NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!".
The USA Today published a poll this summer asking fans if they supported an 18 game schedule. Nearly two thirds of the respondents did not respond favorably to this change. Perhaps the average fan thinks with more depth than, "I want more football! Football's good!" Perhaps the reality that there will be more meaningless games later in the season, more injured players (resulting in less skilled players on the field more often), and individual regular season games carrying less meaning, is not lost on the average fan. And while the average person may not be able to empathize with the finances of player earning a minimum salary of over $300,000 per season, anyone should be able to empathize with a human being not wanting to do more work for the same amount of money.
What the average fan may not know is that most players earn closer to the minimum salary than the seven and eight figured salaries that many of the elite stars of the game earn. The average fan may not realize how short the average player career is. MSN recently ran an article citing the average NFL career at three years. 4 I personally have heard estimates on talk radio closer to four years. Regardless, it takes the average NFL player longer to prepare for the NFL, playing college football, than that player will be able to play in the NFL.
Taking these career metrics into account, the life of an NFL player sounds like it may be good while it lasts, fun while it lasts, and may give young men the opportunity to start their lives with a healthy financial foundation, but it is far from buying a winning lottery ticket. So how can players and owners reconcile their conflict of interests?
If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It
One may think that I am living in a land of candy canes and gumdrop forests if I think that owners will simply back away from their idea of an 18 game schedule. Just because the present 16 game model, in place since 1978, has been immensely successful, many fans are cool to the possibility of an 18 game schedule, and Roger Goodell, who has played the role of consummate innovator in the interest of growing his product, has made it clear that he wants an 18 game schedule does not mean that is is an inevitability, right?
WRONG! Roger Goodell, from my vantage point, appears to have the full support of ownership in nearly all of his initiatives What Sheriff Goodell wants, Sheriff Goodell usually gets. So barring a miraculous visit from a muse, inspiring Goodell to do what is in the best interests of the quality of the game (according to the views of fans and players), the solution is not to fight the 18 game schedule, but to gain the most from agreeing to play the longer schedule.
18 Games? Okay! PAY ME!
NFL players exist in an extremely competitive work environment with absolutely no job security. Players should consider the possible 18 game schedule as an opportunity to gain some or all of the following concessions in exchange for a longer regular season.
Guaranteed Salaries
The NFL, far and away, is the most popular of America's four major team sports, football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Yet its players, on average, earn much less than the players in any other sports and are the only professional athletes of this group without guaranteed salaries. Now I do not have any fancy degrees (well, actually, I have an MBA, but I digress), but most "contracts" involve a service and terms of that service for a specified period of time. The party providing the service is committing a fixed period of its time in exchange for compensation and, if terminated without cause prior to the end of that time, it is entitled to collect payment for the entire committed period, less any earnings during that period, collected in a good faith effort to mitigate the damage of the early termination. In short - you fire me; you PAY me!
The NFL works a little differently. Players commit their services for a fixed period of time. They receive an irrevocable signing bonus, usually a fraction (less than half) of the total value of the contract, provided the player performs as dictated in the contract. No matter what a player does to uphold his end of the bargain, owners may terminate that player at any time for any reason and not pay another dime. Players may resign at any time also, but they are on the hook to pay back a prorated portion of their signing bonuses. Sounds fair, doesn't it?
The owners stand to gain substantial revenues from an 18 game schedule. They appear to want it badly. Agreeing to this extended schedule appears to be the players' best bargaining chip to gain the long coveted financial security of guaranteed salaries.
Increased Roster Spots
One may think, "Guarantee roster spots? If I am a current NFL player, how would that benefit ME?" The answer is: "plenty". The three year average career of an NFL player is short for a number of reasons. Injuries, in such a violent game, are certainly a major cause of career brevity. However, in the hyper-competitive NFL workplace, younger, faster, bigger, and stronger rookies are brought into NFL training camps every year. The man who caught a break and got to live out his boyhood dream three years ago now has to enter the real world. While increased roster spots will provide a number of benefits to players (such as reducing the risk of injury because more players can be rotated in during certain game situations) the greatest benefit is more total job openings, resulting in more opportunities to continue a playing career.
Premium Across-the-Board Salary Increases
The owners' response to players' concerns about salaries with an 18 game regular season may be to increase current salaries proportionately. However, the risks that players assume to their long term health and football career prospects, to me, would be exponentially greater than 11%. Bodies experience more ware and would seem more vulnerable to injury with each game played, without an extended period of rest. An across the board annual salary increase of 20%, for example, on existing player contracts would be a welcome windfall for players and a morale preserver for owners. Such a premium, whatever such a premium would be, seems like a small price to pay in exchange for transitioning to a new, more lucrative, regular season schedule in the long run. Most players contracts will be completely expired and up for negotiation within a few years and only the most elite players have the negotiating leverage to build upon a premium salary increase. The vast majority of players will have to accept relatively little more than the league minimum salary for their corresponding years of service. Of course, bargaining for an increase in the minimum salary levels may also be incorporated into salary increase negotiations.
Just Play Ball!
At the end of the day, the players, owners, and fans all want to see the highest level of professional football. Almost everything in life is a trade off. Anyone, even wealthy and powerful, billionaire franchise owners, have to give something of value if they expect to receive anything of value in return. The average fan may not be able to relate to an NFL player because the player is an elite physical specimen in a high paying glamor job that almost anyone that fan will ever be acquainted with will never have an opportunity to experience. However, players are human beings. They are not robots. They share the same goals that fans have of providing as much for their families and themselves as they are able to. If all parties involved play ball and give a little to get a little, so to speak, then everyone can win: players, owners, and fans.
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3) NFL shield is a trademark of the National Football League image from http://thecapitalsportsreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/nfl-logo.jpg
4) http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/retirementandwills/escapetheratrace/p100986.asp
5) Image from http://news-libraries.mit.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/money.jpg
6) Image from http://www.happynews.com/living/livingimages/how-safe-football.jpg
