Batch warns of lockout after 2010 season
LATROBE – Enjoy the 2010 NFL season. In fact, you may want to root for overtime in every game played, just to stretch it out a little bit. Pro football, as we know it, is about to change, not necessarily for the good.
Those are the sentiments of Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch, who also serves as the team’s player rep to the National Football League Players Association.
Batch spoke to anyone who was willing to listen on Friday about the current state of negotiations between the NFLPA and NFL owners. As you likely know already, there is no salary cap in place for this season and the current collective bargaining agreement expires in March, three weeks after Super Bowl XLV is played in North Dallas.
Beyond that, nobody knows when or even if the next NFL game will be played. In the meantime, teams are spending cautiously and players without contracts or wanting extensions are being put on the proverbial back burner.
“Nobody wants to talk about the 2011 lockout,” Batch said. “It’s all about the 2010 season.”
Perhaps rightfully so. This is, after all, the beginning of training camp, which means all teams are undefeated and all teams have an equal and justified belief that they are on a fast track to Super Bowl XLV. It simply the nature of the fan to cheer for the best possible scenario for their team.
Friday began Batch’s 13th NFL training camp and his ninth with his hometown Steelers, so you’ve gotta believe Batch has more than a casual rooting interest in the future of the Steelers. He knows the Rooney family will do what is best for their franchise and their rabid fan base. He also knows the Rooneys can’t change the course of the league or even straighten the course of the league all by themselves.
In fact, it’s Batch’s contention and that of the NFLPA that the owners, not the players, are the ones standing between the league and continued labor peace.
This battle, though, is different than most.
“It’s not owners vs. players. It’s owners vs. owners,” Batch said. “That’s why they opted out in 2008 because some of the owners liked the CBA and others didn’t. They knew what they were doing.”
You’ll recall that in 2008, the national economy was in turmoil. Banks and automakers were accepting bailouts from the government just for the right to stay in business. The NFL owners opted out of the final two years of a CBA that had been extended several times and was set to run through the 2012 season. The owners couldn’t reasonably predict what the economy would look like in a couple of weeks, let along in a couple of years.
Every NFL team was and still is making money, some more than others and therein lies the rub.
The NFL and 31 of its teams are covered by 501(c)6 status, which any lawyer would tell you means they are protected by non-profit status. The exception is the Green Bay Packers, who are publicly owned and must leave their balance sheet open for stockholders to examine.
So while the owners will tell you they spend 60 percent of their profits on player salaries, the players counter with “60 percent of what?”
“The owners don’t even have to open their books to one another, so one owner doesn’t even know what another owner or team is making,” Batch said. “That’s why there was so much interest when the Packers had their shareholders meeting and opened the books, but even that wasn’t very helpful because it was only 1/32nd of the real picture.”
Looking back at the last two years, it’s easy to see the players’ point of view. When you go to an NFL game or even watch one on television, what you see is what you have always seen: packed stadiums. “In the last two years, how many NFL teams have lost money?” Batch asks before answering his own question. “None.”
Batch contends that owners have asked players to take an 18 percent cut in salary without so much as an explanation as to why a pay cut is necessary. The league also wants to implement a rookie wage scale, which you would think would be a popular concept to the players. If Sam Bradford is worth $50 million guaranteed before throwing his first NFL pass, then how much is Peyton Manning worth. Or Drew Brees or Tom Brady?
But the union won’t/can’t accept a rookie wage scale until the owners divulge their plans for the money. Would it go into veterans’ salaries or to pensions for retired players. Or would it go directly to owners’ pockets? “We could live with a rookie wage scale if we knew where that money was going,” Batch said.
Compounding the owners’ dilemma was a recent statement by Commissioner Roger Goddell that said he wants “To grow the NFL to a $25 billion industry by 2027.” Statements like that severely damage the owners’ argument that they are not making as much profit as they need to make in order to keep up with escalating player salaries.
Playing devil’s advocate, I asked Batch to name a business that pledged 60 percent of its profits to employee salaries.
He didn’t miss a beat.
“Name a business that has grown 300 percent in the last two years,” he said.
Point taken.
So, it’s up to the owners to right their ship before even addressing the growing split between labor and management. And, even though it sounds so far away, the work stoppage keeps getting closer and closer and closer.
“Right now, a lockout is as real as ever,” Batch said.
But he also contends an owners’ lockout of players about 13 months from now would affect more than the players and owners and fans. “Vendors at stadiums would be affected, so would ushers and anybody else who does business remotely connected to the NFL,” Batch said.
OK, that’s probably enough doom and gloom for now. But remember this as the 2010 season unfolds. Before you know it, it will be midseason, which is only a few months away from the playoffs and the Super Bowl.
After that + nothing, as of right now. You’d think there is enough money to make everybody happy and to make sure the league keeps on keeping on.
Of course, there’s still time. But the clock is ticking.
Sports editor Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com.