NFLPA Super Bowl Ad

Dear NFL Fan:

That’s me!

Thank you for doing your part as a fan and signing the Petition to help Block the NFL Lockout.

How about I do my part as a fan and pay entirely too much for tickets, memorabilia, beer, and whatever else generates money for the league and the players? To say that signing your petition is “doing my part as a fan” is assuming that I owe anything at all to the players and their union. The lockout is being caused by a a disagreement between the owners and the players’ union; it has exactly NOTHING to do with the fans who are providing the immense pile of money that is the object of desire of both said owners and players’ union.

The players and I hope you have enjoyed the most successful season the NFL has had to date and are looking forward to Super Bowl XLV.

By “most successful,” are you referring to the viewership of the fan base? That “most successful season” sounds like it’s worth a big ass pile of money. Maybe that should serve as an incentive for you to work shit out with the owners so you don’t sit around for a year making no money at all.

With a lockout looming that will shut out players and fans from the game they love …

I love the confluence of fans and players here. It seems to me, though, that the fans have NO say in the lockout, but the players do. If the players loved the game so much, why would minor disagreements in money distribution be such a major holdup as to cause a lockout? If “the game” is so important to you, why not take a minor hit to your pile of money so as to keep playing?

Thanks so much for your support …

For some reason, this statement strikes me as refering to the fans’ support beyond all the money they spend and all the TV advertisements they watch that pay even more money into the pot over which players and owners are fighting.

… here’s to blocking the NFL Lockout and having football in 2011.

I’ll drink to that. Now get off your collective asses and get an agreement hammered out with the ownership without trying to drag the fan base into the middle of a petty fight over how to divvy up piles and piles of money.

None of what I’ve said up to now should be taken as meaning that I’m taking the side of the owners over the players; however, it seems to me that the players’ union is trying to make it seem to the football fans that the lockout is completely due to the evil owners, and that if we could just get everybody to sign some stupid-ass petition, the ultra-greedy owners would cave and allow the next season of football to happen.

I can’t imagine anybody actually being stupid enough to believe that. Both ownership and the players’ union are equally to blame for the looming lockout. If there’s no football in 2011, it won’t be because a sufficient number of fans failed to sign a petition. I’d be happy if the two sides of this debate would leave the football fans out of it.