It’s Monday morning. What are football fans talking about? If their team won it’s who surprised and
who’s next. If they won and have a chance
at the playoffs it’s “how many Super bowls can they win in a row?” If they lost
it’s the cold silence of a deep frustration and six day depression until the
next game. And whether their favorite
team came out on top or got toppled, everyone agrees the replacement refs
simply stink! It must be a great unifier
if Steelers and Ravens fans can come together on the issue. Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith can finally
agree on something (though they’ll find a way to argue about how bad these refs
actually are!)
These great rivals have concurred
on a few issues before. Chiefly being
the class action lawsuit filed by former players regarding concussions, and the
payroll collusion suit filed by the NFLPA.
In the concussion lawsuit 3,236 former NFL players have filed class
action lawsuits alleging the NFL knew the effect of concussions on the brain,
but willfully ignored the evidence.
These players are suing for millions in damages.
The collusion lawsuit was filed in May 2012 and
alleged that during the uncapped 2010 NFL season the team owners had a secret
agreement to set a $123 million salary cap, in violation of labor laws and the
NFL’s own collective bargaining agreement.
The ownership can’t even agree on whether they colluded or not. According to Fox News (1), when asked about
the accusations “NFL spokesman Greg
Aiello responded with: "There was no collusion. There was no agreement.
These claims are totally unfounded."
However NBC Sports (2) writes:
In support of the claims, the NFLPA cites
comments from Giants co-owner John Mara (who said the issue “came up several
times in [ownership-level] meetings,” that the teams in question “attempted to
take advantage of a one-year loophole, and quite frankly, I think they’re lucky
they didn’t lose draft picks,” and that the teams knew “full well there would
be consequences”)
The NFLPA wants $4 billion in damages from the NFL. Over 3,000 former players have filed lawsuits
alleged gross neglect of their health and safety. That’s a lot of bad press for the
owners. The NFL ownership is using the
replacement referees as a way to distract fans, players and the press from covering
and talking about the lawsuits. They
have a found the perfect scapegoat, and a way to save money by not paying the
old referees higher salaries. The
replacement officials aren’t bad for business either, as Sunday Night
Football’s broadcast achieved their highest ratings in 14 years last week (3). These replacements (maybe we should started
calling them the permanents) are good for business, and they will be here for a
long time.
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