The NFL Lockout--Who Cares?

So, the NFL players have been "locked out".  Just a quick question for you rabid NFL fans.....who cares?  Certainly not Tom "Carnival" Brady, who apparently was "locked out" so effectively that he ended up in Brazil. This "strike" (because that's the word we use to describe stuff like this) causes me angst only from the standpoint of not knowing which side is less right.




There are so many issues on the table here, dissecting any one of them leaves so much uncovered that it isn't worth going into.  Do I feel really awful about players who wind up in long term medical care because of multiple brain injuries?  You betchya.  Do I think the owners are money-grubbing cartel-ists?  Yep.  Do I think the season is already too long?   Yep.  Do I think players make too much money---er, no, not as long as the market can stand it.

What IS silly though is this statement by the player's union (well, former player's union) rep: "I will tell you this: Any business where two partners don't trust each other, any business where one party says, 'You need to do X, Y and Z because I told you,' is a business that is not only not run well, it is a business that can never be as successful as it can be," Smith said.  The NFL players and the owners are NOT partners.  Owners are owners and players are labor. Pure and simple.  Whether in the auto industry or the NFL, a business cannot long prosper which forgets that labor and capital are different and ultimately have different interests, some of which are antithetical.

I'm sure there are plenty of lost souls whose fall and winter will be made even more desolate without the chance to put on their Steeler jersey on a Sunday before they go to the Giant, or the inconsolable folks who thought to drown their loss of collective bargaining rights in beer, brats, and foam cheese headware, or those who will no longer be able to cheer on animal abusers.  But I will be none the worse for a football season lost to history. 

UPDATE:  An invaluable explanation from our friends at Reason TV

Vick for MVP

It's not easy being a Vikings fan this season. So I'm forced to find other sources of intrigue in the NFL, and I've found it in the Michael Vick comeback. Sports Illustrated takes a look at his saga in a recent cover story entitled 'What Michael Vick Tells us About Ourselves.' I didn't learn too much about myself reading the article, but there's no shortage of interesting sidebars to the whole tale.

I know there are those who still cringe in revulsion at the mention of his name. And at one time I was one of them. But he's paid the debt society determined he pay (unlike, say, Ray Lewis), has behaved for the most part as if he's sincerely contrite, and is hands down the most exciting player in the game to watch. If he's not MVP as he deserves to be, he's certainly the comeback athlete of the year. His story is a classic American redemption story. I sure hope he continues to give us a reason to cheer.