NFL may be headed for labor unrest

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9283198/NFL-may-be-headed-for-labor-unrest

by Michael Rosenberg

Updated: March 2, 2009, 12:40 PM EST

Albert Haynesworth gets $41 million guaranteed. Nnamdi Asomugah gets way more money than any cornerback ever has. And I start wondering where this is all headed.

The last time the NFL lost games to a strike, nobody had ever heard of fantasy football. The year was 1987, and the main issues were, in no particular order, free agency and whether cheerleaders should wear legwarmers.

Since then, baseball canceled a World Series, the NHL canceled an entire season (what, you didn't notice?) and the NBA lost a big chunk of a season.

Is the NFL era of labor peace about to end? There are many reasons to wonder: The economy is sinking, yet a few teams are doling out record amounts of money anyway. The league is looking at a 2010 season with no salary cap if no deal is struck before then. And the two sides — ownership and union leadership — are already sniping at each other.

What happens next year at this time, if the NFL is really heading to an uncapped year? Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, for all his on-field failings, has turned his team into a revenue machine, and he is obviously happy to spend his money on players, no matter what the market is. Will he really keep his hand in his pocket? For that matter, what will Cowboys owner Jerry Jones do if his new Jerry World Stadium brings in as much money as he hopes?

I'm not saying this will get ugly. I'm saying it's already ugly; the only question is how ugly it gets. The players' union has said, in no uncertain terms, that once you go no-cap, you never go back. The union also recently issued a report that said teams averaged nearly $25 million in profit last year, so what's the problem?

FULL story at link.

Jerry is going to make or maybe lose a fortune off of that stadium.
He's got big plans.
He's already got a Super Bowl, a Final Four, and the Big 12 Championship and Cotton Bowl games lined up.
Seating can expand from 80k plus to 100k plus for something like the World Cup, and he's working on that.
If the economy continues to tighten, all major professional sports are in trouble.
The NFL chief among them.
Jerry may have doubled down at the wrong moment.
Considering he fired the guy who won him two rings, it's possible.