Things are great now for the most powerful league in North America, which is why they’d be idiotic to let a lockout screw things up

SCOTT JACOBS

It’s the last game of the NFL season and the one game that captures the attention of seemingly everyone — sports fan or not.  The Super Bowl is more than just football, it’s a spectacle.  The NFL is more than just a league, it’s a juggernaut.  And those are two reasons alone why the NFL cannot afford to screw these labor negotiations up.

This league is too beloved, too etched in the fabric of our American culture and growing exponentially world-wide to just disappear overnight into the shadows of an ugly, momentum-mutilating lockout. The NFL is better than that, and they have to be smarter than that.  No one is going to feel sorry for a league that rakes in an estimated $7-9 billion a year.  And in a time where jobs are still hard to come by and so many people are still struggling, the NFL would look awfully silly shutting down their operations for a summer, and possibly locking out their players for a season.

As for replacement players, like they did in1987 (when the NFL lost one game off their 16 game schedule) the NFL cannot afford to put replacement players on their field.  There are too many entertainment options and competition for the NFL to send out a bunch of scrubs.  24 years ago the league had a players strike that lasted 24 days.  It cost them week 3 of the season.

If the NFL is smart they will get their act together.  Even the juggernauts can fall from grace.  Why chance anything like that happening when the NFL is on an all-time high?

I’ve talked to NFL players and they’re concerned.  The main thing, the proposed 18 game schedule has been met with mixed reviews.  While more football looks better on paper, let’s keep the schedule at 16.  If we have to compromise, 17.  Let’s get a rookie pay scale, so that guys like undrafted Chris Gronkowski have a chance at making somewhere close to the first rounders– assuming they meet certain incentives.

The NFL has a chance to right some wrongs during these negotiations.  Pay the retired guys something so that they can survive.  They’re the lifeblood of the league, the guys who helped it grow, and they’re sitting there with their bodies battered and bruised, and in desperate need of a better retirement pension program.

The Super Bowl is the most anticipated game of the sports calendar every year.  No matter the teams, no matter the players.  The NFL is the best, most exciting league in North America.

So on behalf of NFL fans everywhere, don’t screw this up boys.

Seriously, don’t.

Photo: Getty

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