National Football League

NFL's battle before the battle

Published Feb. 10, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

People will call them whiners. People will say they should just take the deal in front of them, it's a good one. Any one of us would have been happy to take what they've been offered, in their places, wouldn't we? Who do they think they are?

This is what people will say, and it is exactly what the NFL wants people saying. Headed into this upcoming fight, this is exactly the kind of reaction the league wants toward its opposition.

The NFL Players Association? No. Not yet. But as we'll see, close enough.

No, I'm talking about the displaced Super Bowl ticket holders suing the league, the Dallas Cowboys and even Dallas owner Jerry Jones. It's a crazy enough story in its own right. But this dispute has its share of foreshadowing, too.

The NFL hopes to cut down on exhibitions in its next collective bargaining agreement. But instead, now, it finds itself in its own new preseason game. And this time the owners have to play it (see how they like it).

Can the NFL position itself in the public eye as the feel-good entity dedicated to simply giving us all the football we want? Or does it come off as the evil corporate overlord out to dictate terms and grab cash?

This is the warm-up to the big one, the labor battle. This is the perfect dry run.

The way this one goes could be indicative of what's to come. Both disputes will be waged in the court of public opinion as much as they are in a courtroom or across a bargaining table. We'll see the way the NFL handles itself in this opening scenario, if it ends up heading into the final talks with the players weakened, or strong.

True, the NFL has never seemed stronger. But in something like this a misstep is easy, and it reverberates. In facing a class-action lawsuit filed by its own fans, the NFL may as well wrestle a pig.

If the league gets its name dragged through the mud here, it allows the players at least a ray of hope.

In both cases the league is ahead on points in the PR battle before the opening bell is even rung. People think millionaire players should shut up and play ball and take their millions. In the Cowboys Stadium fiasco, the average fan thinks the plaintiffs should stop whining and take triple value. Yeah, it sounds like a rough day -- but who wouldn't want a ticket to next year's Super Bowl?

(Yeah, walking with a limp at age 40 is a bummer. But you'd gladly do it for all that glory and all that money, wouldn't you?)

So the NFL starts the PR battle with a big lead, but the key in both cases is keeping it. Few do PR and image better than the NFL. But this is the kind of opening the NFLPA has been looking for.

After all, this lawsuit wouldn't have even come up had the NFL not overreached, and gotten greedy, and put itself in a position to look foolish. This itself speaks to the upcoming labor negotiation, as it shows the NFL is apparently not the Impenetrable Fortress of Marketing Genius we all thought it was. It is capable of slipping up.

The NFL blew it. First, in selling seats that weren't ready. Second, in allegedly herding some 400 dissatisfied customers into what one of them called a "bat cave." And third, in opening with a low-ball offer.

If at any point they felt like they had been treated with respect, you wonder if 95 percent of the plaintiffs wouldn't have told any class-action sharks to take a hike.

NFL fans want to like the NFL. (These people went to the Super Bowl, for goodness sake.) But in the player-management divide, who do you think they identify with today?

The Cowboys Stadium flap proves that, yes, there is an insatiable appetite for the NFL. You could cram 100,000 people into the stadium for the Super Bowl and people will scramble to plunk down big money for those tickets, gladly. But on the flip side, you've got to make them feel good about doing it.

We'll see how the NFL's image emerges from this case. The way it handles itself. The moves it makes. It could be a sneak preview. Come off as greedy or uncaring? The players have hope.

Of course, if at the end of this people are still calling the ticket-suit plaintiffs whiners, the NFLPA may as well fold its cards.

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League