The 30 for 30 documentary on the USFL was really enlightening. They had a lot going for them, and I agree with Chip that they might still be around if they'd stuck to spring.
Football is so massively popular in this country that I think a spring league could still be successful if done right.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
The USFL also over-expanded too quickly, which is a common mistake for fledgling leagues. Several teams folded/merged following the second season, leaving no teams in the Midwest, IIRC.
Here's a question (theorhetical) I'm been thinking about. Not really important to the discussion, but the discussion led to this in my mind.
Lets say there are 1000 players that compose the NFL today. Lets assume they are the best in the world. Now tomorrow all 1000 of those guys disappear off the face of the earth, and are replaced in the NFL by the next 1000 best guys (guys ranked 1001-2000) in the world. Yeah their names and faces would be unfamiliar, but how much dropoff would we see in the on-field action? They wouldn't be as fast or hit as hard, the quarterbacks wouldn't have the strongest arms,...so how different would the on-field action be to the naked eye?
Your making my point. My point is that no other venue can pay these players as much as the NFL does. For that reason they eventually have to accept whatever they can get from these owners. These owners have set up this winning system for longer than any of these players have been alive.Originally Posted by Redsfaithful
What you're describing is scab football and we saw that in the 80s during the players' strike. It wasn't pretty. Stadiums would not sellout for that kind of football
Pretend we don't know it is scab football. How different would the on-field action look, given the players have adequate time to practice together and acclimate themselves to the teams.
Scab football was slopped together and we knew what it was. That will never look good.
What if we never knew otherwise?
You're the cattle, we're the ranchers.
Tex Schramm to Gene Upshaw 1987
I said quite some time, not the rest of my life and I said that if these players got some guidance on how to spend their money wisely, they could do well enough to take care of themselves and their family for quite some time. That also assumes they got their college degree or are working toward it and seek work after their playing days are over. With that kind of money, I'd have no debt, a house bought and paid for (at least in my neck of the woods), and enough money to sock away either for a nest egg or to pay for my kids' education and maybe even have enough left over for a rainy day fund. On top of that, if nothing else I could probably get a gig coaching high school football so that when I retire, I could receive both my NFL pension as well as a teacher's pension.
Trust me, owners do take a lot of risk. I suspect many NFL owners didn't just have a few hundred million in cash laying around to buy a team. They may be worth quite a bit of money, but that doesn't mean they have that laying around in liquid assets. So they probably had to take out loans to finance a significant portion of the purchase price, as well as bring in additional investors. So whatever revenues they take in have to first go to team operations, then you've got taxes, loan payments, and cuts for the minority shareholders. Even if the team makes an operating profit, it doesn't mean the owner gets to take all that profit, throw it in his tub at home and take a money bath. There are a lot of places that money goes, and that is why there are so few professional sports owners who run a franchise as their only business.
Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!
So it's the NFL owners' problems that the players they employ have absolutely no financial sense and decide to blow their money?
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
What I don't understand is how, when the NFL is clearly at it's height in popularity and revenue, the owners can then justify wanting to take $1 billion off the table from the start?
Also, if Goodell and the owners are so concerned about the players health with concussions and illegal hits, etc., then why do they want to move to an 18 game schedule and haven't increased health care benefits to former players?
It is all speculation, but I've been led to believe the 18 game schedule is currently just a bargaining chip, to be removed late in the game in return for concessions from the players.
That has absolutely nothing to do with players getting their fair share of revenue. I was discussing risk profiles, you're conflating that with discussion of revenue split.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
If there are replacement players like I'm hearing. I'm going down to try out for the Bengals lol.
When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand. - Pete Rose for HOF!
http://jeremiahssportsblog.blogspot.com/
And I make $50,000 a year, taxes take around 33% of my money. I have a mortgage to pay and insurance to pay and all kinds of costs that pop up over the course of a year. If something happens to me or I spend some money I don't have its on me! Its not on my boss or the owners of my company.
Comments like this create a society of entitlement. I would be thrilled to make $900,000 and pay 33% in taxes because that would mean I take home a lot of money over the course of a year.
Completely agree.
"I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."
Hitters who avoid outs are the funnest.
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