I know that it is almost a part pf the conservative credo to suspect, and at times castigate Big Labor. After all, Big Labor generally supports out political rivals, and the actions of the labor unions are generally a detriment to the society. Just look at how the hand of Big Labor  makes cars too expensive, while  simultaneously making such outrageous salary and benefit demands that it basically drives the car companies over a cliff financially. And I am going to scream the next time I hear the head of the NCAE here in North Carolina publicly suggest that municipalities need to place taxes on everything from beer to soda in order to keep teachers working...but for the benefit of "the kids", of course. Because we all know that the teacher's unions are not really concerned about getting the best deal for their member teachers, but exist to make sure my kids are well educated.

However, there is one union that I am supporting totally in their current battle with management: The National Football Player's Association. In this one instance, I say "Go Big Labor!"

The NFL owners are in the process of locking the players out because they (the owners) have ripped up their current collective bargaining  agreement, even though this agreement has made the NFL one of the best revenue generating businesses in the country. And with the help of complicit media/corporate partners like ESPN/ABC, they have tried to convince the increasingly gullible public that somehow owner lockout=player strike. And way too many people, including a lot of conservatives it seems to me, have swallowed that story hook, line, and sinker to use an angling metaphor.

The owners are crying poor right now as a reason to rip up the current CBA, which still had at least a year left on it, in an effort to force the players to give in to ownership demands of revenue give backs and to accept a much worse deal that the league currently operates under. They claim to be awash in a sea of red ink, but they refuse to open the books for union perusal and have set about trying to paint the union as responsible for the looming lockout. But in this instance, the union has not made any demands and started the process by simply asking that the current CBA be kept in place while a new deal was worked on by the two sides. But the owners refused to do so, and now they act as if the current CBA is obsolete and the players must cave, or the NFL is in serious financial peril.

The NFL and its defenders like to use the 60-40 revenue split in favor of the players as a basis of saying that the players are being greedy. Their argument is one that resonates with a lot of sports fans and many conservatives, who see the owners as bulwarks of the capitalist system. But a deeper look at the real story may change some minds.

For example, the whole 60-40 split is very misleading. The NFL and the press make it seem that the players get 60% of the gross revenues that the NFL takes in, when that is not really the case. The NFL owners take $1 billion dollars of the top of the yearly revenues, then gives the players 60% of what's left. Now in a multi-billion dollar business, that is still a handsome sum for the players, but contrary to the prevailing conventional wisdom, that money does not go straight into the wallets of the players. Their share of the revenue has to go out in player salaries and in pension benefits for retored players, and part is used to pay for the NFL's health care insurance plan for the players. Even then, things aren't as fair as they would seem, because the players are only fully vested in the insurance plan after 4 years of service/ This is in a sport where the average career only lasts about 3 years, and even then the plan is only valid for 5 years after the player's career is over. A "Cadillac Plan" this is not.

Further, the idea that the league is drowning in debt is laughable. In 2009 the NFL actually increased their revenue by 7%, up to $7.6 billion. Each team got $94 million from the various network television deals, plus another $22 million from DirecTv's Sunday Ticket Package. Also, they had a a 6% increase in tickets and concession that netted each team around $59 million! Couple that with the fact that the salary cap was only $123 million, with a minimum of &108 million, and it is hard for me to see just where the NFL is allegedly losing all this money. I mean, if the teams and the league are so broke, then where did Jerry Jones find the $1 billion he just spent to build Cowboys Stadium? The freakin' plastic surgery fairy!?

Another thing that the league is claiming is that rookie salaries and player salaries in the league are just "Too Damn High!" and something needs to be done about it right away. Now you won't get any argument, even from the NFLPA that it is insane to guarantee tens of millions of dollars to some kid that was just drafted. The players have been complaining about this for years, especially after the Matthew Stafford deal a couple of years ago when he was given $41 million in guaranteed money...which was more than even a Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, or Tom Brady...Super Bowl winners all...were making. The players association has been talking openly for years about trying to get a rookie salary structure similar to the NBA deal, so that the money teams have to spend are not allocated to unproven rookies s much as it can be used to take care of proven veterans. Yet, this was not the fault of the players association, it was the result of poor management to begin with, and the acceptance of an agent driven practice where players drafted in a certain position were expected to earn more than the guy drafted in the same slot a year earlier. Ownership could have stopped that practice by simply refusing to play along, but they were more than happy to play the game by the rules the agents put down.

As for the player salaries, despite popular belief player salaries on average are not that great of a burden to the owners. Check out the average salaries by position just a couple of years ago (listed by salary ranking):

1. Quarterback: $1.9 million
2. Defensive end: $1.5
3. Offensive line: $1.2
4. Defensive tackle: $1.2
5. Cornerback: 1.2
6. Linebacker: $1.1
7. Wide out: $1.05
8. Running back: $957, 000
9. Safety: $$947k
10. Kicker/punter: $868k
11. Tight end: $863k

Now, those numbers are nothing to sneeze at, but the salary averages are not much stacked up against the team revenue figures. And think about this as well, these averages are skewed upward by the big money contracts being paid to the superstar players at each position, and we know that there is a vast disparity in what Peyton Manning is going to be paid, versus a journeyman like Sage Rosenfels.

What the owners are demanding, and the players are rightly resisting, is that the owners be allowed to take $2 billion off the top while the players take less of the total revenue. The players offered a counter proposal that would allow the owners to keep their $1 billion dollar 'credit' and increase their revenue share to 50%, but with some changes to the rookie salaries, the salary cap, and player benefits including extending the health care plan to older retirees. And do you know how the owners responded?  By storming out of the meeting! Now you tell me who is being greedy here!

Hopefully the antitrust exempted cartel that is the NFL will sit down and actually try to strike a deal with the players. But it seems that many of the owners are operating under the delusion that what happened to the NHL after it lockout a few years ago and to MLB after its last strike cannot happen to the NFL. But if you choke the life out of the magic goose, who knows if it will ever lay another batch of golden eggs the way it has up to this point. What the owners have to realize is that the players are the product, because without them there are no games to be played, no tickets to be sold, and no apparel to be retailed. They are the reasons why the NFL is a profitable, multi-billion dollar enterprise and deserve to be compensated fairly.

So in this one case I emphatically say: "GO BIG LABOR!"