$uffering from its own success?

Yo, National Football League fans.

Getting disgusted again, fellow National Football League fans?

Owners and players are at it again, posturing and manipulating each other into another agreement about what to do with their billions. There is simply too much money involved in this equation to make an early agreement between the players union and owners possible. There is too much leverage available—off-season mini-camps, the college draft, and even pre-season training camps.

The NFL is suffering from its own enormous success. Untried rookies get millions for signing their names, owners build new stadiums and in many cases get the public to help pay for them. Fans flock to the seats, and television networks line up desperately trying to get in on the action.

This is big-time sports, which are mostly about money, secondarily about athletic competition. Illegal hits, concussions, protection of quarterbacks, and the consistently ugly behavior and “it’s all about me” attitudes of too many players go unaddressed.

Remember, fans, whatever happens in this mess, and however long it takes to get a new player-owner contract signed, you all will come flocking back to your seats the instant players and owners beckon. The current NFL situation was predictable and inevitable. There is no incentive from the public to get a deal done, and there are a ton of reasons for it to drag out to the brink of destroying a season. You all remember “The Replacements,” don’t you? The movie that portrayed a team of castoffs and amateurs that took full advantage of a strike 20 years ago?

The league charges fans hundreds of dollars for a ticket and then insults them by threatening to, or occasionally actually, taking away the games while they bicker over billions.

The sports of hockey, baseball, basketball, and baseball are no different. To a greater or lesser degree, they all conduct these off-season “games,” maybe because they don’t know what else to do after the championship is decided every third or fourth year.

There is some talk about shortening, or eliminating, pre-season NFL training camps. Too many players and owners apparently haven’t been paying attention to pre-season games, which are nothing more than rookie-tryout scrimmages. Why not re-design the pre-season into a series of scrimmages? But don’t stage them as exhibition games. Don’t ask fans to pay big bucks for seats. They aren’t worth it.

The NFL should simply decide how to divide billions by two, forget all these revenue-sharing histrionics, and start paying attention to some of the serious problems of the game (listed above). If they want to negotiate something, talk about pensions and health care for retired players. Surely there’s enough money laying around to pay for some better benefits for those who play a brutal game.

The NFL will be back, fans. Probably in time for a 2011-12 season. But hey, why not boycott some games? “Strike” back. How about it, Joe fan? Wouldn’t you like to exercise some leverage?

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