NFL Lockout: Are the Owners Playing Dirty?

With the NFL Owners and their representatives calling a press conference to announce the ratification of the new CBA (from their side), the news aspect seems odd. I found the entire process to be very celebratory. At first, I thought the press conference’s purpose was to announce that a new CBA had been agreed upon by both sides and that the Lockout, in essence, was lifted. I figured that the worst case scenario remained in the formalities and that to be fair to all teams, the office ending of the Lockout would be tomorrow at, say, 8 am.

Boy! Was I wrong.

Looking at the entire process now, I’m reminded of the process our government undertakes when Congress makes decisions. The House of Representatives (Players) reaches a point where they feel the Bill (CBA) is done and they pass it over to the Senate (Owners) to sign off and be done with it. The House wouldn’t call a press conference to announce that they were done with the Bill and expected the Senate to sign it immediately. It would be a power play that would get ridiculed by every news station.

It seems to me that the owners made a PR move for the ages. The average fan will not read this article and will not hear of the entire process. If the players do not vote for this agreement, then they will take the turn of looking like the bad guy to the average, not well-read fan of this beautifully violent game that we all love.

What the owners have done, essentially, beckons for attention. They have come up with something that they like, voted on it, and passed it. Now, it’s the players turn to vote……after the owners made it seem like a good deal to the general public and the average fan. Not a fair move conducted on the owners part.

The players might as well just let it go back to court,  unless the want to call a press conference of their own and explain what really happened….

Who knows? Maybe the whole thing really will work out in just a few days time.