This one’s for the Jobless.

9 thoughts on “This one’s for the Jobless.”

1. Good Morning from Omaha,

   and just like sheep we will scurry back to the tv’s and stadiums to watch them play and support this madness for another year or so. If it was just foot ball that was out of touch it would be easy to isolate the problem and then fix it but it seems the whole world has been tipped on its head.

   A couple of months ago there was an article in the Atlantic Monthly magazine about the “ubber” rich and their feelings toward the working people in America. It really revealing just how separate our society grown. I think its going to take the equivalent of a social bulldozer to put things back into balance in our country.

   We used to live in Joplin but that was 30 years ago. We were down in NW ark this weekend for my niece and nephews HS graduation and they had some huge storms all over the area. Our thoughts are with the people of the area.

   Strive for excellence, nothing but your best

   Gene

2. I’m with the players so far. The owners seem unwilling to put their cards on the table and what they do show is that they don’t get it. You can’t talk about player safety and then add more games to the schedule, and it doesn’t help when you claim that there is no difference in number of hits taken in preseason and regular games. Players have a short active lifespan and deserve a share of the profits as well as compensation for the talent that creates those profits. Would I support a different way of compensating them? Yes. First-rounders earn too much and second-stringers not enough. But I haven’t seen the owners put a logical proposal on the table.

   If both sides are operating in good faith, maybe we need them to do an hour long special in which they show the public what exactly they are proposing, so we can see how far apart they really are and how realistic each side is.

   Barring that, the perception that the owners are acting in bad faith is hard to avoid. And I say that as someone who was out of work for eight months and now earns about half of what he made before. I feel solidarity with the players, not envy.

3. Dear Drew,

   An interesting cartoon. It is normally difficult if not impossible to find a flaw in your concepts but in this case there is either a flaw or I’m missing the point (which could very well be happening here).

   The flaw is this. The NFL players have not been fired. They are not “out of a job”. They are on strike. Now if the NFL owners hire replacement players then your statement would be accurate. But when you’re on strike you have not been fired.

   This may sound nit-picky of me (I hope not) but it is something that felt important enough to mention.

   Have a great week everyone.

   All the best,

   Louis

   P.S. Rest in peace Randy “Macho Man” Savage. I’m sure Miss Elizabeth (Huelette) will be glad to see you.

4. This was an interesting and poignant cartoon and I totally understand your point. My heart goes out to those affected with the recent natural disasters. That being said not all NFL Players are sitting poolside. Some are just like the left side of the cartoon. From ESPN ” Meet Brian Schaefering, Cleveland Browns defensive lineman. He has a wife, three kids — all 8 and under — and a rented house. He doesn’t have a shoe deal or a Lloyd’s of London policy or a super agent willing to float him till this is over. Yeah, he’s got a safety net — himself. “I’ll do anything,” says Schaefering, 27. “If I have to work for UPS, I will. I got a family to feed. I’ve paved roads, fixed roofs, done landscaping. I’m not better’n anybody else. I don’t want any handouts. I’d be happy with $12 an hour if I could get it.” You hear anything about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wanting to run a road paver lately? “The problem is,” Schaefering says, “who wants to hire a guy who may have to pack up and leave [for the NFL] a month or two into it?” So Schaefering and his wife are cutting back. They slashed their cable and cell phone bills and chopped their weekly date nights considerably. They used to get a babysitter, then catch dinner and a movie. “Now, it’s put the kids to bed and slap in a DVD.” You might be thinking: What the hell has he done with his money he has made so far in the NFL? Well, he went undrafted in 2008, barely made the practice squad in ’09 and finally started nine games for the Browns last season, making $395,000. He says he netted just over $200,000 after taxes. And he had plenty of bills to pay going into last year.

   “I hear people joking around about this thing, but it’s no joke,” he says. “If this goes into the season, my wife might start panicking a little.” Thats just one person, though, in the article here http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6388708 they profile three NFL players who dont have bags of money at their side. Just a thought, great cartoon, though and I respect ur point.

5. Drew–

   So far, based on what I’ve seen/heard regarding the NFL fracas, I’m siding with the players. The last time I checked, they weren’t asking the taxpayers of a given city to build them a fancy new stadium OR ELSE…

   But the team owners have done that maneuver in recent times. So far, they aren’t making much of a case for their side of the issue.

   As for what happened in Joplin: well, that kinda is close to home, so to speak. At one point I had either family or good friends living in that area of Missouri. They’ve moved to other locations and haven’t had any major disasters (thank Heavens). But it is a case of “coulda been”.

6. I have to agree with the above posters – the players are going to be hurting just as much as the 99ers. Maybe not the guys with the endorsement contracts, but the second-stringers and guys in the trenches will be.

   But it’s like I said last week: You don’t alienate your fan base in the middle of an economic downturn. MLB is struggling to keep the cameras off the empty seat sections, and interest seems to be fairly healthy there.

   And I’ll betcha that some season ticket holders are actually hoping for a reduced season; with even the cheap seats costing $75-100 (I don’t actually know – that’s an estimate based on the last time I checked on going to a Houston-Denver game in Houston), they could use the break. That is if their “seat contracts” don’t screw them over because there’s no game on.

   Perhaps when I come up to Colorado next month, I’ll be able to go to Wal-Mart and find Bronco merchandise on clearance. It’s for damned sure I won’t pay full retail. And that brings up another issue: the people who make their living selling everything from sports memorabilia to cleaning up the stadiums are going to suffer as well if there’s a reduced season. Hotels, restaurants, newspapers, stores; the list goes on. There’s less sales tax revenue for state governments, who are already suffering from this recession and are gutting vital services and education. (That’s also related to Big Business’ hold on government, but that’s a whole ‘nother rant.)

   The owners and players may think they’re keeping their integrity by standing by their principles. The longer this goes on, the more people it hurts. That’s the only guarantee that I can see happening over a lockout. The loss of the diversion that the NFL provides our lives is secondary to the economic consequences.

   We’ll live through it if there is no season. But the further it goes on, the less likely we’ll be willing to forgive the owners and players and welcome them back when they finally decide to bring their ball back to the playground.

7. Harry brings up a good point, it’s not so much the players and owners who suffer most, but the people in the background, all kinds of people that we don’t think about, and more to the point, apparently the owners and players don’t think about them so much. I have not paid much attention to this squabble, my feeling is that it’s all about the bottom dollar and my educating myself wont mean much. But the general feeling the NFL is leaving with myself and other fans is not a healthy happy one. And if the fan base is damaged, so is the well being of all the people we don’t think about.

8. I was reading a few articles about how the owners are having to cut back on their expenses and are having the office staff take a pay cut or sell 10% tickets equaling of their wages.

9. Hey Everybody,

   I just want to tell all of you how amazing you are and how thankful I am for you! I visit a fair amount of blogs reading and researching and without a doubt you all are THE MOST intelligent, well informed, kind and articulate readers on the planet. All of the comments today were just fantastic, all with differing viewpoints and insight and not a single put down or snarky reply. Thank you. You really are the best!

   I have been working like a crazy man on two separate projects with pretty demanding deadlines. Hopefully when things slow down a bit I’ll join in more of the conversations as time allows.