BY JIM LANG
sportsnet.ca
DALLAS, TX—Forget about the countdown to the Super Bowl.
What really matters right now is the countdown to March 4.
Contrary to what you’ve heard, it isn’t the unseasonably cold weather that has dampened some of the enthusiasm for Super Bowl XLV in North Texas, rather it has been the looming lockout.
I am well aware that the average football fan doesn’t want to hear about CBA talks; they only want to know who is going to win the Super Bowl.
However, since there is the potential for lost regular season games as a result of a lockout it is a subject that has to be dealt with.
On Friday NFL commissioner Roger Goodell held his annual state of the league address and was inundated with questions about the expiring CBA and the looming lockout. Acting every bit like the Teflon Don, Goodell fielded the questions as smoothly as possible. But even Goodell made no bones about the fact that time is running out to get a deal done.
"I think March 4th is a very critical date," he said.
In the words of Bob McCown, the award-winning host of Prime Time Sports: Tempus fugit.
If there is no new CBA by March 4, nearly 500 players who are scheduled to be free agents will officially be left in limbo.
"If we are not successful by March 4th a number of things will happen," Goodell explained. "When that happens, one of them will be no free agency."
One of the biggest sticking points in bargaining talks has been the proposal by the league to play 18 regular season games and just two pre-season games.
Currently, the split is 16 regular season and four pre-season games.
To his credit, Goodell made it clear that an 18-game regular season is not a potential deal breaker.
"There are no deal breakers," he said.
However Goodell also made a point to say that it is the fans who want an 18-game regular season because they no longer want to pay full prices for four pre-season games.
As you would expect from a violent sport such as football, the players are adamant that they want nothing to do with an 18-game regular season.
Colts’ tight end Dallas Clark is a good example of how tough it is to stay healthy in the current 16-game season. Clark underwent season-ending wrist surgery back in October and helplessly watched his team get bounced out of the playoffs by the Jets.
When I asked him about the prospects of an 18-game season Clark made it clear he’s not a fan of the idea of playing two more games.
"Adding two more games, it’s just tough," said Clark. That’s adding a lot of stress to our bodies. Clark went on to say that as players, they feel some sort of pain throughout the entire season and beyond.
"You never really feel good. Once training camp starts, that’s the last day you feel good. Guys don’t feel good again until March."
When he met with the media on Thursday, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith painted an equally grim picture on the state of the CBA talks.
If there is a lockout, Smith and the NFLPA would place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the league’s owners.
"We’ve said that the lockout is irresponsible. It is irresponsible from the love our fans have for the game. It is irresponsible from the economic impact on our country during the time when we fight through a recession. And I know for a fact it is irresponsible given the great (fan) base that football has today."
Despite the rhetoric from both sides, Smith and Goodell are scheduled to meet Saturday in the latest round of bargaining.
What most observers feel is necessary is for both parties to get down to some serious round-the-clock bargaining.
"He’ll (Roger Goodell) go 24/7, get in a room, lock the doors, put a mattress in there, sleep there and put food under the door if necessary to continue negotiations," said Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank.
But Blank added that as much as the owners want to get a deal done, it has to be a much different deal than the current CBA.
"There’s isn’t one owner in that room that doesn’t want to get a deal done as soon as we can, but it needs to be a win for both sides, not a win-lose situation"
Goodell’s best line came when someone asked him about his pledge to reduce his current salary of $9.7 million to $1 in the event of a lockout.
"My wife doesn't want my salary to go down to $1," he said.
No kidding.
Because if that happens, Mrs. Goodell won’t be able to go shopping for a while and NFL fans might have to wait a long time before they get to see another game after Super Bowl XLV.
The bottom line is that when billionaires and millionaires can’t agree on how to divvy up a $9 billion dollar money-making machine like the NFL, it is the fans that made the league so popular that will lose in the end.
