The Unintended Result from Cutler’s Knee

As many of us are aware, the NFL faces a potential labor stoppage this off-season. The thought of missing out on any games next year is truly terrifying, but there is the very real possibility that this thing doe not get resolved any time soon. Apparently it’s a lot harder to divvy up billions and billions of dollars than you would think.

One of the biggest issues that will be negotiated is an expansion of the regular season from 16 games to 18 games. The  owners are all for it as more games equals more ticket and, down the line, more TV revenue. The players are against it for two reasons. One is that the players want their salaries to grow by, at least, the same percentage as the season. In their view, (and I think rightfully so) their current contracts were negotiated for a 16 game season, thus they should be paid more for an 18 game season. The other reason is the toll that an additional two games will have on the players’ bodies. This is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly as it seems qualitatively that teams are filling up their IR more and more each year. Just look at the Saints running back depth chart or even the Packers.

This brings me to my main point. I think it all the public outrage over Cutler’s knee the players have hurt their position with regards to collective bargaining. One of their main arguing points for either more money or for a status quo with regards to the length of the season is the amount of additional punishment the players would incur. Unfortunately, the flurry of tweets and immediate armchair analysis made the players association  look far from united in that regard. All the current and former player’s blatherings about Cutler makes it sound like they would do anything to stay on the field, no matter the costs to their body. It’s football after all, they have to do what they need to for their team. Plus they’re super bad-ass and would play gladly play on torn MCL’s if given the chance. While I’m sure that it won’t have a massive effect on negotiations, the deluge of thoughts along these lines can only serve to help the owners.  Hopefully, it doesn’t come back to bite the players in the butt, but if it does we’ve at least learned that they’ll play through the pain.