I have to admit that the farther this has gone, the more depressed I have gotten. Where do we turn anymore. MLB is a mess, its CBA having created entitled players that play up to their first big long term "guaranteed" contract and then coast for the rest of their careers, secure at that point for life. The NBA is a joke. The NHL was handed a national TV contract is did not deserve, a golden opportunity to finally springboard the NHL possibly into a national and international standing that it could only dream about in years past and promptly go into their third CBA negotiation including lockout in what now....I think nine years????
The NFL made me feel like they were at least trying. Sure it took Bob Kraft to step in and provide a visage that the players could trust and that got their CBA done. But they did not miss regular season games and such.
Now this replacement refs thing has unfortunately given us all an opportunity to see what the NFL really thinks of us, the fans, how serious it is about player safety and ref safety for that matter. How much of its own integrity it is willing to flush down the drain for a few shekels and pride. The NFL offices announcements on the Packers/Seahawks game were disgraceful.
I used to feel that while the NFL had issues, it was genuinely working to resolve them....treating all of its various constituents both internal and external with a reasonable degree of respect and making progress on some things slowly and on others more slowly but still making progress. It appeared to be a league that was genuinely thriving based on the work done by some of the greatest sports visionaries of our time starting with Pete Roselle.
Things like the crippling and debilitating ailments ex-players were left with and the lack of any real response either from the league or the current players made me uncomfortable but not to the point where I felt the issue would just go ignored forever. This is not an argument to let the regular refs off the hook. They appear to have been corrupted by proximity to this beast and are clearly no better.
Now I just feel like one of those human batteries from the movie the Matrix....just plugged into the NFL bank account with my own little meter tallying up how many pennies they are making off of my dumb butt.
I am beginning to feel totally disrespected...like the NFL believes that while my little personal pennies meter may run more slowly on occasion, they just plain have me by the short hairs and can sling however much dung in my direction they want to and I will just have to stand there and take it.
Well the curtain is pulled back now and we can see the Wizard for what he really is. What is galling to me is that the NFL does not even seem to care that the Wizard's butt is hung right out there in the breeze for all of us to see. I am just beyond depressed. Where do I go now.....Anybody know if there is a World Water Polo League?
