The owners take all the "risk?"
A select few of the owners' grandparents took a big risk way back in the day. These days, with the shared revenue streams from their ~$10 billion dollar TV deal, the billions of merchandising money, and the millions upon millions more of licensing fees (for every truck, candy bar, airline, and erection medication that wan't to be the "official _____ of the NFL,") not to mention the gate, the amount of "risk" the owners are exposed to is pretty effing minimal.
Owning an NFL franchise is a license to print money -- and this is true
no matter if your team wins championships or not, and (due to the revenue sharing) not as relative to team market size as you might think.
No, today's owners don't assume much risk, and if their franchises are floundering, in every case, there's a mountain of evidence showing why its owners gross mismanagement at fault. And for every franchise that's losing value, there is a line of prospective buyers a mile long.
Meanwhile, you want to talk about risk. You think the players don't assume risk? On a dollar-to-dollar level, maybe not. But in terms of the percentage of prospective value, it's not even close. First of all, they have to make a choice when they're 15, 16 or 17 whether or not they're going to try to make a go at being pro. You need to work your ass off, hone your skills, and sell yourself to college recruiters. If that works, next comes a 4-year unpaid apprenticeship where you're practicing your trade, billions are being made off it, and you don't see any of it ('cept you, Reggie.) In return, if you're gifted enough to not need to spend all of your time practicing and working out, you are allowed to try to get an education -- but never, ever to the detriment of your performance on the field. Then, after that, instead of being able to shop yourself to the prospective employer whom you believe offers you the optimal balance of immediate financial security and the best fit for a chance for a bright future, you to wait and find out what one employer you can negotiate with, whether you think he appreciates your abilities or not, whether you think the organization is going to develop your talents well or not, and then move wherever they're located.
If you are one of top fraction of a percent of college players trying to make it into the NFL that year, you will be handsomely paid for this. About 20 more guys will at least achieve a certain level of comfort. The other 99% have to spend the next handful of years playing a game where they can suffer a career ending or at least seriously devaluing injury on any play, so that at the end of their initial contract, they can finally get their share of the pie.
I'm sorry, but it's just insulting to argue on the basis of risk.
Also, cut out the cheap appeal to emotion by referring to the players as "millionaires." What's that got to do with anything? In a free market capitalist system, you're worth isn't determined by how much people feel you "should" be making, it's determined by how irreplaceable you are at a job and how much money can be made off your work. In the NFL, the players are irreplaceable. They are what is known in the entertainment industry (of which the NFL is a part) as "the talent," and as such, are themselves the very bricks of gold on which the league builds its fortune. As I said before, there's no shortage of rich individuals or financial institutions who wouldn't jump at the chance to replace the Al Davises of the world.
The players are the product. THe owners are fungible.
