For the last two years everyone knew a work stoppage like the one detailed by AP Pro Football Writer Howard Fendrich in his most recent article titled Lockout, Court Cases Put Popular NFL On Hold was a possibility, but most fans figured the wealthy owners and players of pro football would find a way to avoid it.
After all, it's a well-known fact the last NFL work stoppage in 1987 saw everyone losing; from the players to the owners to many coaches and personnel. As Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com talked about in his March 3, 2011 article Lessons From Past Labor Disputes Prove Everyone Loses, even Hall-of-Fame former Head Coach of the Dallas Cowboys Tom Landry wasn't able to avoid the fallout from that contentious labor dispute.
When Federal Judge David Doty ruled in favor of the NFLPA in the dispute over the deal the NFL made in their television contracts, effectively stating the league had breached the collective bargaining agreement, some were under the mistaken impression the ruling would give the players enough leverage to actually have the negotiations between the Players Association and NFL owners be quick and decisive; avoiding a lockout.
Apparently reality is far different, as ESPN.com News Service in their March 12, 2011 article titled NFL Locks Out Players, Who File Suit made clear, we've now entered the beginning of what could be a very protracted work stoppage of pro football.
Considering all the labor strife engulfing America as a whole, as huge protests in Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere have followed attempts to limit the negotiating rights of state workers, perhaps it really shouldn't be surprising.
Yet, it is, and the very real possibility there could be no 2011 NFL season has many fans bemoaning all of it. How can they possibly get through no football this year on Sundays, Mondays, and even the occasional Thursday?
Life just won't be the same.
President Obama weighed in on the issue, saying he "expects and hopes" the two sides can settle their differences. However, considering more than $9 billion in revenues is at stake, and those doing the negotiating on both sides seem adamant in their stubbornness and greed, the president's hopes might be unwarranted.
In truth, as Yahoo! Sports' Les Carpenter points out in his piece, Arrogance Unnecessarily Jeopardizes '11 Season, none of this really needs to happen.
It won't be the first time greed has stifled the dreams of sports fans, though. Just in major American sports, there have been 19 major work stoppages in modern times, 10 lockouts (where the owners bar the players from working until an agreement is reached) and nine strikes (where the players refuse to work until their demands are met).
Following are the Top Five labor disputes in the four major professional sports; all of which have led to a shortening of the season, abandoning the postseason, or cancellation of the entire season in the respective sport:
5. 1982 NFL Strike
Lasting a total of 57 days between Sept. 21 and Nov. 16, the 1982 Strike cost the NFL a total of 98 games and plenty of money.
The season was forced to be shortened from a 16-game schedule to just nine games and the playoff format was changed to include 16 teams (eight from each conference) because of the dispute over revenue distribution from a five-year $2.1 billion television contract the league had signed that is eerily similar to the current situation.
A five-year collective bargaining agreement was eventually reached that gave the players a moderate increase in salaries and playoff bonuses, as well as severance packages to those players retiring. Most players also received a bonus upon the signing of the new CBA of anywhere from $10,000 to $60,000.
The players were shortsighted in their demands, however, wanting only a wage scale with incentives and performance bonuses rather than unrestricted free agency; which other major American sports had implemented to the players benefit.
This led to the 1987 NFL Strike, which was much more costly to both the owners and players, with fan interest in the league waning sharply afterward.
4. 1998 NBA Lockout
NBA owners seemingly came out of this labor dispute smelling like roses after locking out the players for 191 days from July 1, 1998 to Jan. 6, 1999.
The dispute over a salary cap and minimum salaries resulted in the first loss of games for an NBA season, with the schedule being shortened from 82 games to 50. The players' resolve was weakened when an arbitrator ruled teams didn't have to pay players their guaranteed salaries during the lockout.
This led to David Stern and the NBA reaching a new collective bargaining agreement with the Players' Association that was far more favorable to the owners than the players, setting a cap on salaries of $9-14 million, while putting a rookie pay scale in place and raising the league minimum salary only marginally.
Yet, the owners probably regret wholeheartedly the whole matter every got as far as it did as they saw television ratings decline; with Michael Jordan finally retiring from the Chicago Bulls (he would return one last time to play for the Washington Wizards), and fan interest waning badly because of the strife.
3. 1987 NFL Strike
I personally remember this as one of the darkest times I've ever lived through as a fan. After just two games of the season had been played, the players decided to go on strike, hoping to gain concessions on free agency.
Their strategy was flawed right from the beginning, as the owners had prepared well for such an eventuality, with most teams already having assembled "replacement" players to take the NFL players places in order to continue playing games.
After just one week, those "scabs" as they were called, took the field, and were quickly joined by many players who crossed the picket lines. The players union simply didn't seem to have the resolve to stand up to the owners, and the situation quickly devolved as the replacement games that followed were fairly well attended.
The NFLPA caved in to the owners, and returned to work, although not before the NFL locked them out for an additional week without pay in order to teach them a lesson. That lesson was apparently learned well, as until this year there had been labor peace in the NFL.
A great deal of that probably had to do with the fact the players were later able to win many of their demands for free agency through the court system, however, there's no doubt the lack of solidarity among the NFLPA members is still existent, which is why this latest labor dispute is a lockout, and not a player strike.
Yet, the 1987 Players Strike lasted all of 24 days from Sept. 22 to October 15, and was anything but a victory for the players, with "replacement" players playing three games of the schedule that year and their statistics and records counting for all time.
2. 1994 MLB Strike
Nearly ending baseball as we know it in America, the 1994 MLB Strike lasted 232 days over two seasons from Aug. 12, 1994 to April 2, 1995. Resulting in the first cancellation of the World Series since 1904, the strike crippled major league baseball in more ways than can easily be quickly detailed.
Suffice it to say that fan interest, attendance, and television ratings fell through the floor, and have still not returned to the levels they were at prior to the strike. The Montreal Expos, who had the best record in baseball prior to the strike, saw that record become meaningless with the cancellation of the postseason that year, and were so decimated by the labor dispute they eventually had to move the franchise to Washington, D.C.; becoming the Nationals.
What's most disturbing, is the strike probably could have been avoided if the two sides had just worked a little harder in negotiations, but both sides were stymied by the personalities of those leading the negotiations; MLBPA head Donald Fehr, and MLB Owners representative Richard Ravitch.
However, it was mainly the mistrust Fehr had of current Commissioner Bud Selig and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who had colluded in signing free agents and were caught (being forced to pay the players $280 million), that probably poisoned all negotiations.
The two sides did eventually reach an agreement that included revenue sharing among teams and a luxury tax to attempt to prevent big-market teams from spending outrageous sums, but the owners' desire for a salary cap went by the wayside. Yet, the strike itself damaged baseball to a far greater degree than anyone could have imagined when it began.
1. 2004 NHL Lockout
Never before in the history of American sports had a professional sports organization cancelled an entire season, but that's precisely what happened in 2004 to the NHL.
Stemming from a dispute over a salary cap as well as other issues, the lockout lasted 310 day between Sept. 16, 2004 and July 22, 2005, as hockey fans all across North America were left to suffer through the worst catastrophe they could have ever imagined.
The NHL had nearly gone this same route just a decade earlier, with a 104-day lockout forcing the league to shorten the season from 84 games to 48. However, that labor dispute pales in comparison to the 2004 lockout in most NHL fan's minds.
Again, the entire thing probably could have been avoided if more genuine negotiations had taken place, as the eventual settlement was pretty fair to all, bringing a salary cap to professional hockey as well as seeing a salary floor implemented. Beyond that, the players saw their revenues increase to 54 percent guaranteed, and new free agency rules favorable to them instituted.
In order to avoid fan dissent and dissatisfaction, the NHL also instituted numerous rule changes for the 2005 season aimed at speeding up the game and increasing scoring (something all fans of any sport like), such as the shootout and harsher penalties for hooking and interference.
What to Expect Going Forward
Hopefully this current NFL Lockout won't become part of this list, and NFL fans can trust in Commissioner Roger Goodell's assurances that the 2011 season will be played. However, nothing is guaranteed, and considering out testy the negotiations have been so far, I wouldn't personally put any money on the two sides being able to resolve this any time soon. It all may just end up having to be decided in the courts.
Whatever the outcome, though, it won't be the end of labor strife in American sports, or the nation as a whole. The NBA is facing a similar lockout this coming summer, and the NHL and MLB are right behind them in terms of needing to deal with coming to terms on new collective bargaining agreements with their respective players.
As long as there is a labor force and management, there will always be labor disputes.
All stats and information taken from personal notes and verified at Yahoo! Sports, Pro-Football-Reference.com, and NFL.com.
Read more by Daniel Barber aka Hotnuke at TFS Sports.
Sources:
Fendrich, Howard (2011). Lockout, Court Cases Put Popular NFL on Hold. Associated Press.
Freeman, Mike. (2011). Lessons From Past Labor Disputes Prove Everyone Loses. CBSSports.com.
Evans, Simon. (2011). Judge Rules Against NFL in Dispute Over Television Deals. Reuters for Yahoo! News.
ESPN News Service. (2011). NFL Locks Out Players, Who File Suit. ESPN.
Curtin, Stacy. (2011). Wisconsin Labor Fight Spreads to Ohio, Oklahoma and Indiana. Yahoo! Finance.
Huffington Post. (2011). Obama Addresses NFL Labor Dispute. Huffington Post.
Carpenter, Les. (2011). Arrogance Unnecessarily Jeopardizes '11 Season. Yahoo! Sports.
Wilner, Barry. (2011). "There Will Be a Season." You Sure? Associated Press.
Reuters. (2011). Work Stoppages in Major U.S. Professional Sports. Yahoo! Sports.
Thomas, David. (2011). When Playtime's Over: History of Major League Work Stoppages. Star-Telegram.
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