The trickle-down effect of the NFL lockout (Part 2)
This is the second and final part of a two-part series of articles discussing the trickle-down effect that the National Football League (NFL) lockout has had and will have on players this offseason and into the regular season.
They will not be paid for those workouts this year so can there potentially be solidarity issues when moving forward?
There certainly will be a problem to some extent, since you have different tiers of players. You have players that are on the top, the ones with big contracts that aren’t really worried about the money, then players with medium sized contracts that are fine
with the unpaid offseason. The main problem comes with minimal players, those that depend on these checks.
Now a lot of times, people don’t understand about the NFL is that guys spend their money depending on these checks or thinking that these checks will be coming in. So they go out and buy stuff and do different things based on what they think is coming in.
so with the checks stopped, they are stuck in the middle where they don’t know what they will do without the roster bonus and workout salaries.
Even though they were warned that this was coming, they didn’t really think that this was going to happen. Players had been warned for years now that a lockout may be coming but they had been worried for no reason at the time. They thought the same thing
was coming this year but, unfortunately for them, the lockout finally became reality. Now that it is here, some of the lower calibre players are really struggling.
To put this into perspective, just think about how normal people lease cars. They expect to earn X amount income every month to pay the instalments but if the expected income suddenly drops or is eliminated, then you would have trouble paying the instalments.
The same thing happens with these NFL players.
Another thing to keep in mind during this offseason is that players miss the supervision of the 14 to 16 week offseason where you learn on field as well as mentally. These players need to be pushed, especially the heavier ones. The bigger players need a
structured environment to keep their weight under control. That could also lead to potential injury once players get together for the 2011 season since they won’t be physically ready to play.
It will be interesting to see what happens. Stay tuned!
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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