The owners will always make more money. The whole thing is the owners signed a contract saying the players make x percent and they make y percent of z. Knowing that z will grow every year. Now the owners say the players x percent is giving them too much of z and have backed out of the contract

Barrister the draft is a tough one. I wouldn't want to be put in the predicament.

Well then the owners are at fault. Lol

The power of knowledge. Lol

Both sides are being obstinate.

But, the fact remains that the owners passed the last CBA 30-2 and then the OWNERS decided to opt out of the CBA, not the players. Plus, its the OWNERS that instituted a lock out. It's not a strike by the players. In fact, the April 6th court date on a suit filed by Brees, Brady, Manning et al is to get a judge to issue an injunction against the lockout so that the NFL is forced to reopen its doors. It was the owners that bargained in bad faith with the TV networks and DirecTV during a binding CBA essentially forcing a 4 billion dollar "lockout insurance" contract with TV. This baldfaced and audacious ploy was sniffed out easily by the NFLPA and the NFL was slapped down in court and banned from accessing the 4 billion dollars. In fact, they may even have to pay damages to the NFLPA. PLus, the players aren't asking for a single cent more. They just want to keep the status quo...which they won't be able to in order to get a CBA. They're going to have to give some money back. But, how much is the big game now with each side measuring their leverage now in court.

I'm not a labor lawyer, but there's a reasonable argument that the NFL IS a monopoly and that the NFL draft, exclusive rights, franchise tags, etc are frankly illegal. In what other profession is an employee "forced" to work for a "company" for 4-5 years and not have any freedom to move to another job. In what line of work, is an employee subkect to a "franchise" tag again limiting job mobility? What allows these practices to continue is the CBA. If the owners are stupid enough to allow the players to continue litigation with anti-trust lawsuits, it's going to change the landscape of the NFL labor situation forever. Don't forget, in the last major labor dispute, Reggie White was able to successfully sue the NFL regarding labor practices which is what finally prompted free agency.

That said, I do think the NFLPA is being disingenuous in asking for detailed financial statements. Although I totally understand why, since the NFL is asking for another billion dollar give-back from the players to the owners. Essentially, the owners are asking the players to share the risk of stadium financing, etc. There's no way that the owners want the players to see their expenses and, frankly, they won't want their fellow owner-competitors to see those statements.

That said, that info is going to become public if the lawsuits continue forward. So, the owners are looking at revealing this info to the NFLPA or in court it seems.

Is there still gonna be a lock out? NFL helps the economy in sooo many ways!

Although not unexpected, this is a BIG victory for the players.

Judge rules for players, ends NFL lockout; owners seek stay, appeal - ESPN

Good for the players, although I know there's still a long road ahead.

Sorry if someone said this already, I don't feel like reading the whole thread.

In my opinion, both sides make WAY too much money. Sure, they put in a lot of work for training & such, but they don't deserve $1M+ salaries. No 'professional athletes' do. They should be playing because they love the game and want to entertain people, not to get rich. Endorsements are another matter, and one that I don't really care about -- if companies want to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, to get someone's picture or testimony, they can go right ahead.