- cross-posted to:
- sports
- cross-posted to:
- sports
The context for those who don’t care about sports:
The NFL’s Covid policy has been absolute ass and not nearly enforced equally or fairly throughout the year. A Baltimore Ravens coach ignored Covid protocol and his Covid symptoms and practiced with the team. As a result, a catastrophic number of Ravens players have caught Covid, including almost the entire offense and their star players. The game was postponed after the initial Covid diagnoses (including a type 1 diabetic player who has a much higher chance of experiencing acute symptoms) from Thanksgiving, to be played Tuesday, December 1st. In the subsequent days since Thanksgiving, an even larger amount of players have now been diagnosed or deemed ineligible to play due to close contact with players/coaches who have tested positive.
In the beginning of the year the NFL released a statement saying there could be fines, suspensions, loss of draft picks, or even forfeits as the result of failure to comply with Covid protocol. As of now, the league has again postponed, and the game is to be played on Wednesday, December 2nd. Some players are outraged at being forced to take the field when practice facilities have been shut down for over a week, just to go intermingle with each other and a previously unexposed group of players from the other team. There have been rumors of a wildcat strike for player health and safety, and as of now it appears that enough players are in on this idea that the Ravens would not be able to field a full team.
The NFLPA is in a tough situation because so many careers are so short that the voting parties want to secure the money while they can. It’s a very unfortunate circumstance because of the nature of the sport and as a result the union is not very strong
The NFLPA is at fault for this too though. They could've made demands for safety and a bubble. They were more worried about money. They just got that new CBA approved that adds a 17th regular season game and has royally fucked the playoff system up so bad now that only 1 team gets a bye and it adds playoff teams to increase the possibility of teams with losing records getting in. Most of the representatives of the NFLPA are fucking millionaires themselves. It's a union for millionaires. The NFLPA didn't support the CTE lawsuits either filed by former players who need help with their medical conditions.
I also want to say fuck the fans. NFL fans majority are the biggest bootlickers of any sport in the country. Not all of them are like this, but the majority are. I would know cause I used to run DVOA/advanced stats and all that nerdy stuff with a blog as a hobby of mine. These fans never blame the owners or the league. They just moan endlessly about the players and blame them. If you go on most NFL team forums and read what they are posting, the fans are more angry that they can't go to games and angry at players for getting infected, rather than being mad at the owners for not coming up with a plan. You'll see hundreds of posts about "I have to work in these conditions, so it's their own fault if they get infected!".
No doubt, I 100% agree the NFLPA is also at fault. I would honestly even say mostly at fault. The demand should have been bubble or no season.
They could've demanded a bubble, but nooooo, some millionaires who are already overpaid and get endorsements, need even more money! Money more important than safety!
Sadly the majority of players have a very short career and as a result want to secure as much money as possible during what little time they can earn it. I agree they’re overpayed, but the way the majority of the union votes makes sense (sadly) if you put yourself in their shoes
There's 2500 members of the NFLPA, most of them are retired, or practice squad players who never sniff the big bucks. It's why the NFL is able to so effectively divide and conquer the union by offering slight increases to pensions and minimum salaries to secure the votes of the rank-and-file members. NFL stars absolutely hate the CBA, and they should given that it is the most management sided deal in pro sports. But a large part of the problem is that the NFLPA is still very scared by the memory of the 1987 Strike, where despite overwhelming participation by players, 80% of fans still tuned in to watch the games, and the NFLPA was forced to return to play with basically nothing to show for it.
Could they have demanded a bubble? Seems incredibly difficult due to the number of players and staff. Certainly many more than other sports/leagues anyway.
Someone somewhere made the point that NFL tickets in particular are all expensive, even the nosebleeds. You can still get cheap tickets to MLB or NHL or NBA games but seeing football live isn’t something many can easily afford. Is there any truth to this? I’ve never been to a football game but I remember paying $20 for standing room tix at a baseball game.
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Football itself is a reactionary culture from top to bottom. The fact that NFL players are forced to play 3-4 years of college ball, for free because they're "students" (whose course load is heavily managed by others so that it doesn't interfere with ball), being screamed at by wannabe field overseers who think that they're drill sargeants (youth football culture is fucking disgusting, especially before people started caring about concussions 5-10 years ago...), is really emblematic of a lot of the problems with football.