Enjoy the last 12 weeks of football in 2010. It might be the last football you see for…years.
NFL Players Union: Football A Possible No Go In 2011
Scary, I know. But NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith sees a lockout coming.
Prepare for a football-free 2011. And to help a quarterback you might not always root for on the field.
Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, the newly elected player representative to the union, is asking for your support.
"We're going to keep you guys daily on our minds and we realize how much this means, and affects not only us but this community," Rodgers said. "We thank you for your support, and stand with us. It's going to be a tough fight, but we're trusting that in the end everything's going to turn out to way it's supposed to."
Reasons Smith gives for a lockout:
- Smith referred to a recent Sports Business Journal report that said the NFL is requiring banks that lend money to its teams to extend grace periods for loan defaults through the end of the 2011 season in the event of a lockout.
- Provisions in television deals that provide for some payments even if there is a lockout, are evidence that owners are planning for the possibility that there won't be a season in 2011.
Although NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Smith apparently have a good relationship, a future deal remains as unknown as the Lions completing a season above .500 by the time Obama's out of office.
"It seems to me that the greatest gift we could possibly give is a Christmas gift where we sign a new deal and tell people that football for our fans is not only going to continue, but the businesses that rely on football and the jobs that this game generates are going to be secure," Smith said.
See More:
