[alnorth]

I'm not in the tank for the player's union. All things being equal, I'm somewhat anti-union and will usually side with ownership whether its the NFL, MLB, or an electric utility.

That said, the owners are starting to irritate me. They are asking the players to give up another 600 million per year. Yeah its not enormous in the context of a nearly 10 billion dollar pie, yeah its only a few percent, but its not irrelevant.

If we believe a union is necessary, and sports is so uniquely weird that you need a CBA so yeah they are necessary, then if the owners say "hey, we are hurting, you have to give up some money", at a bare minimum, ownership should have to prove it. I don't even think the owners should have to prove they are losing money, they deserve a fair profit, if they can show they are still profitable but those profits are declining, that also could be good enough for the players to need to make concessions.

It is not reasonable to expect the players to just take your word for it that you need more money. Explain why, and back it up with audited proof. Show the players everything. If they disagree with your conclusion based on the financial information, fine, start arguing over that, but to not be willing to open the books makes me wonder why not.

At this point, I think I'm now on the NFLPA's side until the owners show them everything.