Twitter. It is officially the great flattener.
In a response to a tweet where we questioned Baltimore Raven Donté Stallworth’s tweet that the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) will need some time before passing judgment on a new collective bargaining agreement that would effectively end the NFL’s lockout and ensure a 2011-2012 season, Stallworth claimed that we were just falling for the owners’ “propaganda.”
Here is the original tweet sent to him:
Ok, even though we can’t type, within a few minutes, Stallworth posted this to us and our friend @JaimieField:
Ok, first of all, thank you, Donté, for ACTUALLY RESPONDING TO US ON TWITTER. We will give you that.
As for the fact that me and Jaimie are just blind propaganda followers of the NFL owners, we are going to pass on that one.
The fact is the the owners won the PR battle on this one. They went on the attack quickly by announcing that a deal was made (smart move, by the way) and the NFLPA is now backtracking and a bit confused. Your player egos are a bit bruised, and we have no sympathy for it.
This is the problem with the court of public opinion here. THE FANS DON’T CARE ABOUT THE PLAYERS’ INDECISION. THEY WANT FOOTBALL. AND THEY WANT IT NOW.
At a time when people are losing their jobs, having problems paying their mortgage, and trying to stretch their budgets, football gives people comfort and hope.
Instead of sympathizing with your fans — the people who pay the tickets, but the jerseys, buy the concessions, play the fantasy games, and in essence, GIVE NFL PLAYERS THE PRIVILEGE TO PLAY FOR MILLIONS AND MILLIONS — the NFLPA and the player reps like you are trying to equate this labor struggle with any other labor struggle.
Sorry, we aren’t buying it.
You guys are talking about sharing billions and billions of dollars, so you can live in your nicer homes, drive your nicer cars, and live a nicer lifestyle than, say, 99% of the US population.
Charges of “propaganda” won’t fly, Donte. Sorry.
Just say yes and let’s get ready for some football!!!!
It’s hard to have much sympathy for athletes in big money sports. The superstars of baseball, basketball and football make enough money to qualify for a Fortune 1000 listing. But the issue of fairness is nonetheless at stake.
The owners are still management and the players are still labor. Goading the players to cave in to the owners demands is a one-sided perspective.
Without a doubt the owners have won the public relations battle. They are making the players out to be the greedy ones, the side that’s denying the fans of their football. But why not ask the owners to bargain? Why should the players accept a smaller slice of the billion dollar pie? Would any of us pay to watch the owners? The players ARE the game.
I took Carlos Beltran to task for failing to protest the All-Star game in Arizona. That would have cost him little except perhaps a few endorsements. But I would not fault Carlos for negotiating a better contract with his team.
I am a huge football fan. In fact, I will watch practically any teams play. But I still feel the players have a right to stand up for themselves. The players say NFL stands for “Not For Long.” Careers of players are very short. Most owners will die with more money than their heirs can spend.
Let’s give the players a chance to negotiate.
They have negotiated for four months. Very hard to sympathize with multimillionaires.
Gotta go with Dante and Raul on this one. This isn’t about the fans, because we pay the owners, too, in terms of tickets, jerseys, etc. This is about management and labor, and despite the PR battle, I’m with labor here. But, damn, I miss football!
“labor” is an understatement in this case. I can’t equate a union that will share about 10 billion bucks with a union that is fighting for it’s workers.