Your NFL Strike Update: Nothing from nothing means nothing (Rich vs. Rich-Day 13)

DeMaurice Smith of NFLPA (not a union)

Well...there really isn't too much to report here. On the good side, nobody from either side said anything stupid. Which is a change from previous days.

Both sides have spent the better part of the past couple of weeks. No, actually the past couple of years saying stupid things to each other and just being entirely unproductive.

According to many, the players primary complaint really is more the "Lack of respect" shown to them by the owners. And while on one hand we understand that, on the other, it's completely and utterly childish.

Read a good story on respect from Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com RIGHT HERE

For their part, the players are sticking to their revenue complaints. They maintain the league is inflating the figures that the players receive from extra revenues.

You can read the story the refer to RIGHT HERE

Okay. We don't dispute the math here, but the whole thing misses on fundamental issue that neither side is willing to address. This is an ASTRONOMICAL amount of money. Why or how can you not work this part out?

We cringe at comments such as the one by NFLPA President (not a union, a trade association) Kevin Mawae. Mawae is concerned that young players don't have insurance and have to get COBRA insurance and that they may not have the ability to pay it long term.

Ok Kevin, we get that COBRA is not cheap. But the league minimum salary is somewhere close to $400,000 a year. We are pretty sure if the money is budgeted well, it can be afforded.

Do we think the owners should do more for players in terms of medical? Absolutely. Players and former players are injured and have health problems that don't go away. Why can't you take some of the $Billions we are talking about and put it in a HSA?

As for the Owners/Greedy bastards. They seem to be coming across as just looking for more bucks. They already, routinely hold city's hostage for new stadiums paid for on the backs of taxpayers in those cities. At last check, there are a ton of cities and states going broke these days.

We suspect that is the crux of most of their issues. None of them want to dish out of their own pockets...to build a stadium themselves. Which it appears is what the owners believe can drive revenues.

Anyway, we've rambled on and on about this, we could talk for hours. We still maintain this is all about greed...on both sides of the issue. We suspect nothing is going to happen before the "Class-action" case goes in front of a Minneapolis Federal Judge on April 6th. Legitimately, there isn't a reason this can't be resolved before the season starts. It's more a battle of egos than issues, but we suspect it is going to drag on for awhile. So we better do our homework, because it's going to be tough to come up with material every day.

In the meantime, here is your title music, which really...kind of sums everything up: