Football players express union solidarity

The 2010 National Football League season began on Sept. 9 with an unexpected but welcome show of solidarity displayed by the two opposing teams — the New Orleans Saints, who are the defending Super Bowl champions, and the Minnesota Vikings.

Cleveland Browns players take a heroic stand, Sept. 12.

Players from both sides came on the field together before the start of the game raising their fingers in the air to show support for their union, the National Football League Players Association. On Sept. 12, more than 12 other teams carried out similar gestures before playing their opening games.

The players wanted to send a clear message to the NFL billionaire owners who are threatening a lockout against them next March when the collective bargaining agreement expires. If a new contract is not agreed upon by next spring, the entire 2011 football season will be in jeopardy of being cancelled.

The main issue behind the impending lockout is the billions of dollars in profits that the NFL teams generate in great part for the owners, especially in television revenues, food concessions, NFL gear sales, higher ticket prices, including luxury boxes, and much more.

The owners control 56 percent of these profits. The players are demanding a larger percentage of the revenues while the bosses are seeking to reduce players’ salaries.

Several sports commentators have reacted negatively to NFLPA standing up for their rights, hoping to turn the fans against the players.

There is a misconceived notion by many sports fans in the U.S. and worldwide that all professional football players belonging to the NFL are greedy multimillionaires.

There is no denying that high-profile players — especially quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning — make tens of million of dollars annually and can play for many years. Favre has begun his 20th year of play. However, in reality, the overwhelming majority of these players make much less than the superstars and usually experience the shortest career span of any of the U.S. professional sports — 3.6 years. (Bloomberg News, Sept. 8)

Putting aside any bonuses players can make just for signing for a team and performing other tasks, the minimum base salary for NFL players in 2009 was $295,000, and that’s if they were on a team roster for at least three games. (ehow.com)

The violent nature of the NFL games creates tremendous career-ending and even life-threatening injuries for these players, including multiple concussions, torn knee ligaments, broken spinal cords and much more. An untold number of players become addicted to painkillers to deal with the long-term effect of these injuries.

Once these players face retirement, including early retirement, they get adequate health care coverage for only a limited amount of time. Current players also want to see more of the revenue go to providing health care for retired NFL players.

Another important issue for the players is that the owners want to expand the 16-game regular season to 18 games next year. The NFLPA opposes this proposal as a further health risk to the players and a maneuver on the part of the bosses to squeeze even more profits out of the popularity of the players. In the end, NFL players are nothing more than highly paid gladiators who are superexploited for their skill, talent and popularity.

On Sept. 12, the NFLPA passed out cards to its members asking that they vote to decertify the union in order to block the owners from legally carrying out the lockout. “This is purely a procedural matter and is a non-story until March,” said George Atallah, the NFLPA’s assistant executive director. (Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 12)