The amount of money lost for the networks is staggering when it’s the players that make the advertisment revenue.People watch football for the players,the larger majority of fans couldn’t name the owners other than the douche bag Jerry Jones who buys so much air time.

The previous disputes were nothing compared to this one,way too much to lose for all involved.

The issue is that the players make about 60% of total revenues. This is higher than in any other sports league. The owners want this reduced drastically. The players understandably do not. Every other issue- 18 game season, preseason length, rookie salaries, pension benefits, safety- these are all far secondary to the 800 pound gorilla of the splitting of the pie.

The players can talk tough and likely will with a new union president wanting to prove he isn’t as soft as Gene Upshaw, but ultimately the owners hold the cards. The NFL’s popularity has peaked and is far ahead of any other sport, which makes this the perfect time to have a lockout if you have to. Also, the majority of the TV contracts are GUARANTEED. Thus, through revenue sharing, every owner gets his piece of the tv revenue, which equates to about $30 million per team, regardless of whether any games are actually played. The players on the other hand make nothing if no games are played. The richer players may have saved some of their signing bonus’ in anticipation of a lockout, but the majority of your average salary players still live paycheck-to-paycheck and can hardly afford to not get paid, especially when you consider the union’s misleading stats regarding the length of an average career.