nfl owners Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Monday Morning News Roundup

Why am I up at 2:30 in the morning? Craziness. It would be so much different if I were actually on call. I’m not. I’m supposed to be asleep. For some reason, I’m wide awake.

The NFL has become just as goofy as crazy as politics. After three weeks, it is clear that the replacement referees are not up to snuff. Yet, the NFL Commissioner and NFL owners are in a complete state of denial. Professional football is a highly emotional game. It is critically important to keep emotions in check. Yet,the replacement refs continually let the game get out of control. There’ve been more fights in the NFL and there have been in WWF cage match.

The problem with Mitt Romney and his campaign is Mitt Romney. For weeks I’ve been listening to conservatives whine about how the media is so much tougher on Mitt Romney than it is on Barack Obama. I have continually said the problem isn’t the media (the media is a separate problem) but the problem is Mitt Romney. Take for example his stance on his tax returns. He has decided that he is not going to release any more of his tax returns. Okay. Yet, he continually talks about the problem. Last week, out of the blue, he decided to mention that he was gonna release his 2011 tax returns. But, wait. He was not going to release all of the tax returns for 2011, just a selected portion of them. What? All this is going to do is, once again, stir up speculation.

Now releasing a portion of his 2011 tax returns wasn’t bad enough. He also contradicts himself. In an interview with ABC News Mitt Romney said, “I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president.” Well, in the portion of his 2011 taxes he released, he paid a higher tax rate by not deducting $1.75 million in charitable contributions. Why did he write off those contributions? Because he would’ve contradicted something he said earlier when he said that his tax rate never dipped below 13%. So, Mitt Romney tied himself in knots. There was no trickery by the media. This was simply Mitt Romney putting his foot in his own mouth and chewing vigorously. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2013-11-03T18:14:55-04:00September 24th, 2012|Elections, Party Politics, Sports|1 Comment

NFL draft – craziness

Nowhere else do you see this type of unbridled craziness. You can only find it in the NFL. It is only in the NFL that you take a veteran quarterback like Peyton Manning and actually release him. The craziness of this particular move can only be understood if you’re both drunk and high or a delusional NFL football fan. Every year, for the last 10 or 15 years, right around draft time, people lose their minds. NFL fans, NFL owners, Scouts, everybody starts scrutinizing these young athletes. Everybody starts projecting their own hopes and wishes on these athletes.

The fact that the NFL combine is televised is simply crazy. It’s not just kind of crazy. It’s over-the-top nuts. Let’s just think about this for half a second. I’m supposed to spend some time sitting down watching these young athletes basically do calisthenics. Why? I don’t see how these “tests” translate into the ability to learn how to play in the NFL. If these tests were so good, if these tests were so accurate, why did Tom Brady fault of the sixth round of the NFL draft? Blaine Gabbert, how did he get drafted in the first round? (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2012-05-05T17:31:35-04:00April 27th, 2012|NFL|Comments Off

Down to the Wire – NFL collective bargaining agreement

While many of us are been fixated on the unionbusting efforts of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, football fans been focused on whether or not there’s going to be any football next year. The collective bargaining agreement has evaporated. Over the last two years the owners and the players have been negotiating and it seems that they’ve gotten nowhere.

The NFL is a successful business just like any other successful business in the United States. The NFL makes buckets of money. Some estimate that the NFL raked in over $8 billion last year. Think about it – everything with the NFL logo, team logo and the like feeds the NFL beast. Everything from T-shirts and shoes to beer mugs and video games that have the NFL logo rakes in more money for the NFL owners.

Critics of the NFL union (NFL Players Association) point to people like Peyton Manning, Larry Fitzgerald and Tom Brady as multimillionaires. They paint this dispute as millionaires arguing with millionaires. Although that is technically true, most NFL players are not independently wealthy like Tom Brady. Most of them are making a solid annual salary of $175,000 – $200,000. These are the guys who are in the league for only a couple of years. They are cannon fodder. If they get injured and can’t get back on the field, quickly, they are cut. If that happens when you’re 24 years old, you’re dead in the water. Your source of income is gone. Sure, you made five times the national average salary but $200,000 is not gonna last you the rest of your life. The average life expectancy in the NFL is somewhere around three years. The players’ union is designed to help these guys. Peyton Manning will take care of himself.

Finally, I cannot let the subject go without commenting on the audacity of the NFL owners. These guys are the biggest bunch of capitalist hypocrites that we have seen a long time. They rival those knuckleheads on Wall Street. When was the last time you saw an NFL team in financial difficulty? One of the reasons that the NFL makes so much money is because we help them. Yes, we the people. By far, the largest expense that an NFL team undertakes is the stadium. Who buys the stadium? Who finances the stadium? We do. In return for buying the stadium, we get the ability to drive downtown, pay regular exorbitant ticket prices and see our favorite team. We get to eat really expensive hotdogs and drink really expensive soft drinks while watching our favorite team. Sure, there are some businesses which benefit from being around the stadium. The majority of the city enjoys whatever “clout” comes with living in a city with an NFL team. That’s it. Oh, and remember, that when the owner decides to sell the team or even move the team, we, the taxpayers, have no input. We have provided the owner with his largest asset, by far, and get nothing in return. Remember, we bail the NFL out every day.

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By ecthompsonmd|2011-03-04T07:10:22-04:00March 4th, 2011|Sports|Comments Off