Agreed. Players have more to worry about than what's best for the business owners.
The NFL Players Association is a joke. The players are not interested in being a "union", they are interested in collecting a paycheck. Remember the last work stoppage when LT and Doug Flutie crossed the picket lines and broke the back of the work stoppage? Remember the number of players who crossed en mass?
Let's face it, these guys are treated pretty well, they get paid 6 figure salaries and get per diem. They don't care how much the owners are making, they only want to keep collecting their paycheck. The owners want to make money, and that is what a business is supposed to do. Truth be told, the NFLPA is probably the best union in pro sports at keeping the golden goose healthy. Yeah, you can argue that the past players are not being taken care of, and you can argue that the owners want give backs, but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter whether collectively it is the right thing to do, what matters is what the rank and file think. My guess is that they want to keep the money coming in.
There are some really easy fixes here that will get this done. The owners are looking at debt and saying that 60% is too much. For an owner like Kraft, 60% really isn't a killer, but for an owner like Wilson in Buffalo, 60% could drive him out of the state. The union will say, let them move, but al that will do is foster bad will in the NFL fan base, in the NFL ownership and in the rank and file. The union will ask to see the owners books, a typical canard, the owners will balk and the union will proclaim "I told you so!", but the fanbase won't be impressed and in the end it is the fan base who will be the judge.
The end game will be:
A rookie pay scale
A lesser percentage of the gross
A return to sanity in player penalties
A less restrictive free agency system
A second bye per season
Better healthcare for "modern" retirees
A discipline committee instead of Goodell the God
There are too many people in the league whose main dialog would be "paper or plastic" if not for football. They need football more than football needs them. This will get settled, I hope. The golden eggs can still be broken, and if that happens, the outcome will be the same as it was the last time there was a strike.