As the representatives from the National Football League ownership group and the National Football League Players Association continue to try and bridge their differences and sign a new collective bargaining agreement (and yes Green Bay Packers players have collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin despite the best efforts of the state’s governor to bust public employee unions as Governor Scott Walker told the fake David Koch), it might be useful to review 60 years of television money and players association activity and how closely linked television and the players really are.
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NFL owners were planning to use some $4 billion in 2011 television rights fees to underwrite a lockout. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (FOX), General Electric (now Comcast)’s NBC, Sumner Redstone’s CBS, the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN and DirecTV cozied up to the NFL owners because the owners’ product is still a consistently watched fare in an increasingly fragmented audience industry: TV.
Frank Deford continues to point out the long-running imbalance between current and retired disabled players’ benefits (or lack thereof) in the NFL. Deford discussed the intricacies of the NFLPA/Players Inc. trial on HBO’s Real Sports in January (clickHEREread about that show).
In his latest piece, There’s No Love in the NFL, Deford discusses the callous indifference of the NFL and most of its current players to its old warriors.
HBO Real Sports ran its Disunity episode on the retired players GLA trial last night. In under 15 minutes, they managed to present the major highlights of the entire 3-week trial, covering the points and counterpoints between the retired players and the NFLPA/Players Inc. and how the trial was won.
Joe DeLamielleure, Bruce Laird and Herb Adderley on HBO Real Sports
As the representatives from the National Football League ownership group and the National Football League Players Association continue to try and bridge their differences and sign a new collective bargaining agreement (and yes Green Bay Packers players have collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin despite the best efforts of the state’s governor to bust public employee unions as Governor Scott Walker told the fake David Koch), it might be useful to review 60 years of television money and players association activity and how closely linked television and the players really are.
