Football The Bizarre Cult Of Pro-Owner NFL Fanboys - Page 2

Skyy God · 05-12-2011, 02:08 PM

http://deadspin.com/5800887/the-biza...er-nfl-fanboys

Here's a tidy summation of how we've managed to get to where we are with the NFL lockout. A few years ago, the players and owners agreed to a new CBA, with only Ralph Wilson and Mike Brown voting against the agreement, in Wilson's case because he's old and easily confused by things.

Then, almost immediately after that agreement was approved, all the other owners suddenly decided WHOA HEY! THIS AGREEMENT BLOWS! And so, this March, they opted out of that agreement and locked out the players. The players, for their part, were happy with the terms of the original CBA and wanted to keep playing. But then Roger Goodell, who is a ****ing stooge, told the world that players being happy with the CBA means the CBA is totally unfair.

Now, the players decided to break up and sue the NFL to get the lockout lifted, which it was for seven seconds leading up to the draft back in April. The owners then fought to have the lockout reinstated while they appealed, and managed to temporarily prevail. So here we have one side that has shut down the operations of football TWICE, and another side who A.) didn't instigate the lockout and B.) sued to STOP the lockout and get football played again. This is now the longest work stoppage in NFL history, and it is the result of a labor battle initiated by the owners. Those are facts. It should seem obvious whose cause you, Mr. NFL Fan, ought to get behind.

So it baffles and angers me that there appears to be actual people out there who are squarely in the owners' corner when it comes to this labor war. I went to this post at PFT the other day, where Florio outlines a rumor about the league going out of business if they lose their appeal, and the number of pro-owner comments were just … ****ing … I don't even know. They must be plants. They have to be plants. That's the only explanation. How else do you explain comments like these? (Click to enlarge.)

It's like a group of people went directly to their computers after walking out of a screening of Atlas Shrugged. You can find reeruned commenters at virtually any Internet forum (why, just scroll down!), but the idea that there are people out there who would like to see the owners succeed in PREVENTING THE PLAYING OF ACTUAL NFL GAMES to spite NFL players strikes me as … what's the word? Oh, right. ****ING INSANE. Please God, let these people be planted there by Jerry Richardson. Don't tell me there are people out there this breathtakingly hardheaded.

Do you know how many NFL teams are owned by people who inherited their respective franchises? Eleven. ELEVEN. Over one third of all NFL teams belong to people who did nothing to deserve them except shoot out of the right uterus or **** the right spouse. Two more NFL teams are owned by scions of American industrial giants (the Lions and Jets). And somehow this makes them business geniuses who deserve to lock out their employees and rob the country of its favorite sport? Really? The same shrewd people who apparently screwed themselves into such an allegedly shitty labor deal not but a few years ago? Is there ANY situation in which a billionaire can be ****ing wrong, then? Or is their wealth simply an overriding character trait that trumps all flaws?

There's a distinctly political turn to much of these lockout arguments among fans. I guess if you think the players are right (and I do), that makes you a dirty liberal and there can't possibly be a decent case to be made. All unions are bad, which means the NFL players are ungrateful and lazy and deserve to be booted out on their ass because the owners are the beginning and end of why the NFL is successful.

No success is ever entirely self-made. Billionaires don't just crawl out of a ****ing swamp and then work 23-hour days until they're filthy rich and deserving of every penny. There are a million factors that go into the making of a successful person, and hard work is merely one of them. There's an element of luck. There's certainly an element of breeding. There's an element of good timing, of catching the wave at the precise right moment. All of those things factor in, not to mention the millions upon millions of tax dollars used to subsidize the stadiums many of these fine gentlemen happen to now own. But these pro-owner people seem to believe that NFL owners are ****ing magical money unicorns that came out of a glowing cistern on a mountaintop, and they have carte blanche to strongarm people accordingly.

I hope they're planted by the league. I really do, though some polls suggest otherwise. Because if you are a real, living, breathing person and you're actually rooting for the league to continue to, you know, not playing, then you can go ****ing die. If you have a beef with the union breaking up and suing the NFL, then you're too stupid to understand that suing the league was essentially ALL the players could do, because for years now the owners have been hellbent on losing games in the 2011 season specifically to squeeze more money out of the players, as much as humanly possible. Many owners didn't bother to show up for the initial negotiating sessions in March. They want their lockout, and they're going to exhaust every shitty, awful option they can to make it happen. And they sure as shit don't care about your concerns in the process. You're the fan. You're just a ****ing sheep.

Meanwhile, the players, who used legal recourse to return to the field, are the bad guys? Why? Because you think they may try and get rid of the draft, even though that will NEVER happen? (And it should be noted here that getting rid of the draft and making all incoming rookies free agents is far more in the spirit of unbridled capitalism, though that apparently only matters if the beneficiaries of said system are white billionaire one who sucks the peniss.) Are you that ****ing dumb? The idea that players are just dumb assholes who should be grateful that their noble employer sees fit to pay them ANYTHING is a bizarre and downright feudal stance to take. These strike me as the thoughts of someone with a massive political blind spot, where your politics so utterly consume you that you can't be bothered with the reality staring you in the face. This doesn't need to be a political argument, and yet there are people out there desperate to make it precisely that.

I love football. Football is pretty much what I live for, and it seems to me that only the players are interested in making football a reality this fall. So if you're somehow on the side of management in this NFL dispute, please know that you are wrong and that you are stupid and that I ****ing hate you.

Mr. Laz · 05-12-2011, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pants

So you think the NFL was screwed up under the previous CBA?

apparently is was for the owners or they wouldn't of risked the golden goose by going to battle 2 years early then they absolutely had to.

but i sidestepped the question

No, i wouldn't say it was screwed up. But imo the NFL needed draft slotting in a pretty bad way. Bad teams weren't getting a parity boost by drafting high because of the outrageous money giving to the top 5 picks. Picking in the top 5 was almost a penalty.

Dante84 · 05-12-2011, 03:10 PM

This article sums up exactly how I feel.

Dante84 · 05-12-2011, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laz

apparently is was for the owners or they wouldn't of risked the golden goose by going to battle 2 years early then they absolutely had to.

but i sidestepped the question

No, i wouldn't say it was screwed up. But imo the NFL needed draft slotting in a pretty bad way. Bad teams weren't getting a parity boost by drafting high because of the outrageous money giving to the top 5 picks. Picking in the top 5 was almost a penalty.

Draft Slotting - Yes. Needed.

Owners taking a larger slice, in essence taking Billions in future money from the players - Greedy as ****.

Mr. Laz · 05-12-2011, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -King-

How will the NFL get screwed up? Call me stupid, but I think opting out of CBAs, locking players out TWICE is screwing up the NFL than anything the players have done.

i'm talking big picture and long range.

In the immediate future, the owners did screw stuff up by locking the players out and i'm not really sure why they did it.

In the long range, having the players control the sport IS TERRIBLE for the sport. Just look at the parity issues in MLB and look at the way the NBA is trying to head the direction of the NFL and not the MLB.

In the MLB you have some teams with payrolls of 200+ million and you have some with payrolls of 50 million. This is decided by area population and t.v. contracts.

In the NBA, you have players 'taking their talents to south beach' and all sorts of empty arena/small market problems.

You must have cost control for businesses to be successful and the players salary are the biggest cost. If the NFLPA wins and continues to win in the future because of the backing of the courts, it will lead to less cost control and worse league market.

**wazu** · 05-12-2011, 03:17 PM

I blame the owners for the crisis. But although "how we got here" may piss me off, once I accept that the old CBA is done/over, we have to consider what is best going forward. Players want no salary cap. As long as they are fighting to the death over that issue, I'll be hoping the owners more or less "win", only for the sake of my team actually having a chance to compete down the road.

-King- · 05-12-2011, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laz

i'm talking big picture and long range.

In the immediate future, the owners did screw stuff up by locking the players out and i'm not really sure why they did it.

In the long range, having the players control the sport IS TERRIBLE for the sport. Just look at the parity issues in MLB and look at the way the NBA is trying to head the direction of the NFL and not the MLB.

In the MLB you have some teams with payrolls of 200+ million and you have some with payrolls of 50 million. This is decided by area population and t.v. contracts.

In the NBA, you have players 'taking their talents to south beach' and all sorts of empty arena/small market problems.

You must have cost control for businesses to be successful and the players salary are the biggest cost. If the NFLPA wins and continues to win in the future because of the backing of the courts, it will lead to less cost control and worse league market.

So...you support the owners because they opted out (even though you don't know why), just because you somehow fear they'll become like the NBA or MLB?

Then you should hate the owners for opting out because that's the first step in becoming like those two leagues.

Mr. Laz · 05-12-2011, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dante84

Draft Slotting - Yes. Needed.

Owners taking a larger slice, in essence taking Billions in future money from the players - Greedy as ****.

maybe so, it still doesn't change the fact that having the players control the league(ala MLB) is a very bad,bad thing.

Mr. Laz · 05-12-2011, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -King-

So...you support the owners because they opted out (even though you don't know why), just because you somehow fear they'll become like the NBA or MLB?

Then you should hate the owners for opting out because that's the first step in becoming like those two leagues.

not looking at 'who to hate'

looking at who helps the fans the most by controlling the league.

Dante84 · 05-12-2011, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laz

maybe so, it still doesn't change the fact that having the players control the league(ala MLB) is a very bad,bad thing.

By using foresight, and knowing that if they had a lockout and failed in their efforts, the players could gain control......

then the owners shouldn't have taken the risk of losing the golden goose.

The owners didn't think the players were capable of de-certifying and suing. The players weren't bluffing. They won in court (temporarily) and now the owners are looking very, very dumb.

They might even resort to CLOSING THE BUSINESS in order to get their extra money.

There is no way the players bear the majority of fault. We are in this situation because of actions that the owners set in motion - plain and simple.

**alnorth** · 05-12-2011, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notorious

With that said, any employee that thinks he is entitled to a set % of the businesses income can politely go **** HIMSELF. It is none of their business to know how much the company is bringing in. Get paid,

, or get another job. I don't give a ****.

If the NFL wants to operate without a CBA shielding them from antitrust law that virtually every other business has to follow, then you'd have a point. Since the NFL wants their employees to agree to provisions that are normally illegal, you don't.

If the NFL wants an antitrust exemption, then they must open their books, like every other damned major sport in the US, and bargain on the % of the pie each side gets.

**RNR** · 05-12-2011, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -King-

So...you support the owners because they opted out (even though you don't know why), just because you somehow fear they'll become like the NBA or MLB?

Then you should hate the owners for opting out because that's the first step in becoming like those two leagues.

"Kobe Bryant would rather Die than lose" That is just silly and false...carry on~

-King- · 05-12-2011, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedNeckRaider

"Kobe Bryant would rather Die than lose" That is just silly and false...carry on~

touche

**BigMeatballDave** · 05-12-2011, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notorious

Being the owner of a business, I can see where they are coming from.

Being a former employee of a business, I can see where they are coming from.

With that said, any employee that thinks he is entitled to a set % of the businesses income can politely go **** HIMSELF. It is none of their business to know how much the company is bringing in. Get paid,

, or get another job. I don't give a ****.

Have you ever been a business owner in which your product is the employee?

FishingRod · 05-12-2011, 03:44 PM

It may be a tired phrase but watching Billionaires and Millionaires squabble over money and act if they are being taken advantage of, just doesn’t play very well to the average Joe. You know normal people that work hard all year long just to stay above water. The owners were smart enough to realize that being a gifted athlete does not make a Pearson the sharpest tool in the box and they (the owners) have been pretty quiet and let the players make the occasional asinine statement like comparing their plight to that of Slaves. More than anything the owners could have said or done statements such as these show clearly that the little guy in this issue isn’t really anything like employees in other professions.

Pitt Gorilla · 05-12-2011, 03:47 PM

The owners opted out of a CBA that was making them millions.

05-12-2011, 02:08 PM
Skyy God 11-5, baby Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Livin the dream Casino cash: $2191557	The Bizarre Cult Of Pro-Owner NFL Fanboys http://deadspin.com/5800887/the-biza...er-nfl-fanboys Here's a tidy summation of how we've managed to get to where we are with the NFL lockout. A few years ago, the players and owners agreed to a new CBA, with only Ralph Wilson and Mike Brown voting against the agreement, in Wilson's case because he's old and easily confused by things. Then, almost immediately after that agreement was approved, all the other owners suddenly decided WHOA HEY! THIS AGREEMENT BLOWS! And so, this March, they opted out of that agreement and locked out the players. The players, for their part, were happy with the terms of the original CBA and wanted to keep playing. But then Roger Goodell, who is a **ing stooge, told the world that players being happy with the CBA means the CBA is totally unfair. Now, the players decided to break up and sue the NFL to get the lockout lifted, which it was for seven seconds leading up to the draft back in April. The owners then fought to have the lockout reinstated while they appealed, and managed to temporarily prevail. So here we have one side that has shut down the operations of football TWICE, and another side who A.) didn't instigate the lockout and B.) sued to STOP the lockout and get football played again. This is now the longest work stoppage in NFL history, and it is the result of a labor battle initiated by the owners. Those are facts. It should seem obvious whose cause you, Mr. NFL Fan, ought to get behind. So it baffles and angers me that there appears to be actual people out there who are squarely in the owners' corner when it comes to this labor war. I went to this post at PFT the other day, where Florio outlines a rumor about the league going out of business if they lose their appeal, and the number of pro-owner comments were just … ing … I don't even know. They must be plants. They have to be plants. That's the only explanation. How else do you explain comments like these? (Click to enlarge.) It's like a group of people went directly to their computers after walking out of a screening of Atlas Shrugged. You can find reeruned commenters at virtually any Internet forum (why, just scroll down!), but the idea that there are people out there who would like to see the owners succeed in PREVENTING THE PLAYING OF ACTUAL NFL GAMES to spite NFL players strikes me as … what's the word? Oh, right. ING INSANE. Please God, let these people be planted there by Jerry Richardson. Don't tell me there are people out there this breathtakingly hardheaded. Do you know how many NFL teams are owned by people who inherited their respective franchises? Eleven. ELEVEN. Over one third of all NFL teams belong to people who did nothing to deserve them except shoot out of the right uterus or the right spouse. Two more NFL teams are owned by scions of American industrial giants (the Lions and Jets). And somehow this makes them business geniuses who deserve to lock out their employees and rob the country of its favorite sport? Really? The same shrewd people who apparently screwed themselves into such an allegedly shitty labor deal not but a few years ago? Is there ANY situation in which a billionaire can be ing wrong, then? Or is their wealth simply an overriding character trait that trumps all flaws? There's a distinctly political turn to much of these lockout arguments among fans. I guess if you think the players are right (and I do), that makes you a dirty liberal and there can't possibly be a decent case to be made. All unions are bad, which means the NFL players are ungrateful and lazy and deserve to be booted out on their ass because the owners are the beginning and end of why the NFL is successful. No success is ever entirely self-made. Billionaires don't just crawl out of a ing swamp and then work 23-hour days until they're filthy rich and deserving of every penny. There are a million factors that go into the making of a successful person, and hard work is merely one of them. There's an element of luck. There's certainly an element of breeding. There's an element of good timing, of catching the wave at the precise right moment. All of those things factor in, not to mention the millions upon millions of tax dollars used to subsidize the stadiums many of these fine gentlemen happen to now own. But these pro-owner people seem to believe that NFL owners are ing magical money unicorns that came out of a glowing cistern on a mountaintop, and they have carte blanche to strongarm people accordingly. I hope they're planted by the league. I really do, though some polls suggest otherwise. Because if you are a real, living, breathing person and you're actually rooting for the league to continue to, you know, not playing, then you can go ing die. If you have a beef with the union breaking up and suing the NFL, then you're too stupid to understand that suing the league was essentially ALL the players could do, because for years now the owners have been hellbent on losing games in the 2011 season specifically to squeeze more money out of the players, as much as humanly possible. Many owners didn't bother to show up for the initial negotiating sessions in March. They want their lockout, and they're going to exhaust every shitty, awful option they can to make it happen. And they sure as shit don't care about your concerns in the process. You're the fan. You're just a ing sheep. Meanwhile, the players, who used legal recourse to return to the field, are the bad guys? Why? Because you think they may try and get rid of the draft, even though that will NEVER happen? (And it should be noted here that getting rid of the draft and making all incoming rookies free agents is far more in the spirit of unbridled capitalism, though that apparently only matters if the beneficiaries of said system are white billionaire one who sucks the peniss.) Are you that ing dumb? The idea that players are just dumb assholes who should be grateful that their noble employer sees fit to pay them ANYTHING is a bizarre and downright feudal stance to take. These strike me as the thoughts of someone with a massive political blind spot, where your politics so utterly consume you that you can't be bothered with the reality staring you in the face. This doesn't need to be a political argument, and yet there are people out there desperate to make it precisely that. I love football. Football is pretty much what I live for, and it seems to me that only the players are interested in making football a reality this fall. So if you're somehow on the side of management in this NFL dispute, please know that you are wrong and that you are stupid and that I **ing hate you.
Posts: 22,416

05-12-2011, 03:10 PM	#17
Dante84 Tossed Salad & Scrambled Eggs Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: ATX & OPKS Casino cash: $-1878004 VARSITY	This article sums up exactly how I feel. __________________ ..
Posts: 20,447

05-12-2011, 03:17 PM	#20
wazu ... Join Date: May 2002 Location: Kansas City, MO Casino cash: $-1507705 VARSITY	I blame the owners for the crisis. But although "how we got here" may piss me off, once I accept that the old CBA is done/over, we have to consider what is best going forward. Players want no salary cap. As long as they are fighting to the death over that issue, I'll be hoping the owners more or less "win", only for the sake of my team actually having a chance to compete down the road.
Posts: 30,650

05-12-2011, 03:44 PM	#29
FishingRod Veteran Join Date: Mar 2006 Casino cash: $10016661	It may be a tired phrase but watching Billionaires and Millionaires squabble over money and act if they are being taken advantage of, just doesn’t play very well to the average Joe. You know normal people that work hard all year long just to stay above water. The owners were smart enough to realize that being a gifted athlete does not make a Pearson the sharpest tool in the box and they (the owners) have been pretty quiet and let the players make the occasional asinine statement like comparing their plight to that of Slaves. More than anything the owners could have said or done statements such as these show clearly that the little guy in this issue isn’t really anything like employees in other professions.
Posts: 4,265

05-12-2011, 03:47 PM	#30
Pitt Gorilla Banned! Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: NOT Columbia, MO 65201 Casino cash: $20194	The owners opted out of a CBA that was making them millions. __________________ Your son is a bench warmer because of your weak genetics not because of the coach Norlin Mommsen is disgusting.
Posts: 47,337