greed

First, go read this article by Bill Simmons of espn

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/110304

Done? Good. I'm a football fan, have been since my brother bounced a nerfball off my head 20 years ago. I know very little about the economic of sports, and I don't really care. All that matter is the patriots on tv every week. What I do know is this: the NFL has never been richer. Revenues are in the tens of billions every year. Half the owners are independent billionaires. Now let's go through some other facts.
      Roger Goodell claims to be concerned about player safety. He's made a giant show out of concussion awareness programs, new helmet technology etc. Yet one of the issues in the mess of a cba negotiation is the owner's desire for an 18 game season. Two more games, with greater ticket sales and increased revenues. Which they want the players to accept, even as their slice of the revenue pie goes down by one billion dollars. Two extra games of 300 pound men running into each other flat out, every hit carving a few more days off their lives.
      I'm not trying to write a sob story for professional athletes. They know what they're getting into, and are paid well for the physical risks. Rational adults can do what they want. I simply don't understand how the owners sleep at night. People had to watch the Superbowl in crowded basements because Jerry Jones tried to install more seats than his shiny new stadium could hold. This man and thirty of his ultra-rich pals are about to lock players out for more money. What the hell is wrong with the world?