• It was the owners who decided to end the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) early
• It is the owners who are demanding a larger share of the league’s revenues while refusing to provide real evidence that the current arrangement is driving them into bankruptcy.  We’re all supposed to take their word on it which is hard when league revenues keep going up up up.
• It was the owners who negotiated contracts with the major networks that brought in less revenue than they could have in exchange for a clause specifying that they would get paid even if no games were played.  Those same revenues are shared with the players and the owners were legally obligated to negotiate the best deal possible.  Not only did they not do that, they used the opportunity to buy themselves some “lockout insurance”.  A federal judge ruled the contracts unacceptable and blocked them.
• The players haven’t asked for any changes to the old CBA.  It’s possible that should be seen as evidence that it was unbalanced in the players’ favor.  But until the league agrees to open its financial books, we really don’t know.

I’ve heard a lot of fans lay the blame on both sides equally, pointing out that this is fight of millionaires against billionaires.  I don’t buy that:

• There are thousands of players in the NFL; most are not actually millionaires
• The average NFL playing career lasts about 4 years.  Most of us have 30+ years to make our career pay off.
• NFL players find it nearly impossible to get health insurance other than through the NFL.  Their bodies just take too much punishment.  The owners are counting on that as one of their trump cards during the lockout; the players have lost their insurance.
• It is true that not all owners are billionaires but about 50% of them are.  The percentage of millionaires among NFL players is much lower than 50%.

One final thought.  Who makes the NFL possible?  The answer, of course, is that it takes both players and owners.  But who is more replaceable?  31 (the Packers are publicly owned) owners, many of whom don’t actually have strong roots in the game?  Or thousands of players who have the skill to play the game at the professional level?  I think it would be a lot easier to find 31 new businessmen to run the teams than thousands of professional-caliber players.

It’s just my opinion but I’m blaming the owners.

Anyway, Willie had a lot of interesting things to say, particularly when comparing today’s NFL to the NFL of the 1960’s and 70s.  In the old days, there wasn’t enough money in the league for players to make a living at just football.  During the offseason, most players had to work some non-football job to make ends meet.  By contrast, few if any NFL players have to do anything but focus on football and training nowadays.  Lanier felt that, in the old days, a player’s college academics were more critical because it wasn’t just about having options for a post NFL-retirement career.  Your academic degree had a lot to do with your off-season job and thus had immediate impact on your life.

Lanier also thinks that the art of tackling and hitting people has gone downhill a bit as teams have gotten more worried about the risk of injury to their high-paid players.  :-)