CBA Marketing Magic

After 18 months of dread and 4 weeks on NON-STOP COVERAGE, the NFL CBA deadline has come... and passed.  Not only did both sides agree to extend the deadline 24 hours until midnite Friday, but they also saw their way to tack on an additional week.  So now the owners and the union can barter until 5pm 03.11.  Many might point to the a Federal court judge's ruling that negated the owners guaranteed $4bil in TV money regardless of a lockout as a motivating factor.  Possibly.  There is opinion and then there is fact.

FACT: The NFL is a marketing machine.  A juggernaut that has rehabilitated the image of countless reckless millionaires, the League and its franchises are recognizable and adored around the world.

FACT: The NFL is so concerned with image that it is regulating the fury of contact out of the game.

FACT: The NFL is hubristic enough to take the tradition of a Thanksgiving night game and prevent the majority of us from watching it.

FACT: The NFL has not had a work stoppage since the replacement glory of '87 (cue Footsteps Falco).

CONCLUSION (if the above are true so must this be): The NFL will do anything to further gild its perception and grow the brand.

INTERPOLATION (this logically flows from the above): The Damocles Sword of a lockout has been a ruse.  In a business where collusion is not only disregarded but is rule of law, all involved have played the hand dealt better than any could have imagined.  While MLB and the NBA have suffered dramatically from strikes/lockouts over the past 2 decades, the NFL has latched onto the massive upside of a CBA expiration: in addition to avoiding any effect to the season, keep your sport in the headlines during downtime.  While Spring Training is in full force and Selection Sunday is 9 days off, the top story remains to be the NFL.  NFL Today is still on ESPN EVERY DAY.  I'm not saying that there aren't issues that the two sides could be closer on, but this is a dog and pony show.  "Oh, we've had 2 years to work this out, but these extra 8 days will be all we need to get this done... FOR THE FANS!!"  And the Oscar goes to...  I never understood how football became America's sport anyway.  I think it must have something to do with short attention spans and one game a week.

I'm not getting fooled, Roger.  Mark my words, despite my deep and abiding wish for the opposite, THERE WILL BE NO LOCKOUT.  This is what you get when the men in the picture control the future of your game.  Go wax your mustache, Arthur Blank.  And all of you screw off.

Cheers.