Goodell Promises NFL and NFLPA’s Goal is to Continue Playing Football
This coming season may just be the busiest season for Roger Goodell. Imagine the pressure on the National Football League's commissioner. Fans around the league are praying that there is no work stoppage next season. Many are also debating whether the NFL should expand its regular season and cut some preseason games.
The league and the players’ current collective bargaining agreement expires in March of 2011, at which point the league could be facing a work stoppage for the 2011 season. Goodell though remains confident that an agreement could be reached in the next eight months.
“We’re so far away from that,” Goodell said. “We have an entire season of football and a lot of negotiations. We have a lot of work to do, but a lot of time to get it done. There’s a desire on everybody’s part that we can continue playing football.”
Despite Goodell’s optimism, there are plenty of issues that the league and the union must figure out as all 32 teams are preparing to get the uncapped 2010 season underway. For one, owners want players to take less revenue than under the current agreement.
The NFL Players' Association however hasn't budged. They have stated that they are happy with the current deal and have not asked for any changes. NFLPA President Kevin Mawae spoke on the union’s current position on the deal.
“We liked (the previous) deal,” Mawae said. “They’re the ones that opted out, yet haven’t given any strong indication as to why other than to say, ‘The deal’s not working for us.’ The numbers are out there and they’ve shown that they’ve not lost money. No team is hurting.”
Mawae also went on to talk about the fact that owners have not lost any money so there is no reason to panic: “They lost profit margins, but they haven’t went into debt trying to do it. Every team is making money. Just to the extent of what level they want to make money may not be there.”
The union’s executive director DeMaurice Smith claimed that the owners wanted the players to take one billion dollars less. Smith said the possibility of a lockout is very real for the 2011 season.
“The National Football League over the last two years has done nothing but prepare for this lockout,” said Smith, ProFootballTalk.com reported. “This is not a work stoppage. This is a lockout.”
The commissioner of the league though rebuffed those statements: “What we’ve discussed with the players association, to create revenue takes an investment,” Goodell said. “There’s a risk to those investments, obviously, but there’s a cost.They have more financial information available to them to help them understand what is wrong with the model. … We consistently provide that information so that they have the right kind of data to make the decisions. They know our revenue to a penny. … They know our costs … which are player costs. They have a very good understanding of our stadium expenses. … There are audit rights. …. So, they have a tremendous amount of information.”
Another notion that Goodell has talked about is the possibility of extending the regular season to 18 games, adding two to the current 16 and taking out two pre-season games of the four that are played every year. Goodell has also looked at reductions in other off-season programs so that players can take the toll of a longer season.
“It’s getting people to understand what we’re trying to create, how we build a better game,” Goodell said. “You can’t look at this in isolation. It has to be done in a comprehensive way.”
Whatever it will take to get a deal done, it must be done. No fan around the world is hoping for a lockout, and if it happens, you can bet Goodell will be under even more pressure than he is now.
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