For weeks, in discussing the original March 3 expiration of the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, we've used words like deadline (stretched as it was to this week) and Armageddon, but they are not the right words. The business of the National Football League is currently at an impasse, but the game of football is very much alive. The sport itself literally hasn't gone anywhere. If you love football, go into the garage or a sporting goods store and buy one. Take the ball and throw it with your kids. Play Madden. Get really muddy by playing pick up ball with your friends.
The fan has the power to be a voice in this negotiation, but it is a voice that will only be heard if fans redirect their fervor and spending, because the only message sports leagues understand is the message that the public will pay to watch something else. That would get everyone's attention. Football doesn't need the NFL to exist, nor do football fans.
The real shame would be if fans just wait for the storm to pass and continue with business as usual without reminding both sides that the business of caring is what makes any of this important.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Don't have to worry about college players going on strike! Plus college players aren't overpaid, they just get free tuition and room and board. Oh wait, at Harvard that cold be worth 50K a year these days!
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
