Copycat

Copycat

The Seahawks Richard Sherman told Jalen Rose in an ESPN interview the other day NFL players have to be willing to strike if they want to improve their status vis a vis the other sports.  “You’re going to have to miss games, you’re going to have to lose some money, if you’re willing to make the point [about bigger contracts], because that’s how MLB and NBA got it done.  They missed games, they struck, they flexed every bit of power they had, and it was awesome.  It worked for them.”  In the case of baseball, yes, definitely for the players but not so much the fans.

In several respects, the NFL is more like the NBA than MLB, so Sherman’s call to arms may not alienate fans as much as it has in baseball.  By that I mean basketball and football fans go in accepting players as different beings given their size and shape.  Baseball, and even more so hockey, still have players who don’t stand out in their street clothes.  Kyle Long and LeBron James will always draw a crowd wherever they go, not so much Mookie Betts and Tommy La Stella or even Patrick Kane.  Someone like James or Michael Jordan has demigod status, which includes the right to untold riches.  It’s different with a guy who looks like me—or how I used to look in my 20s—making $10-million plus can rub people the wrong way, especially if he starts criticizing fans for getting on his performance.

I don’t begrudge Sherman or any NFL player for wanting to make more money.  Football is a brutal game that can shorten lives in a way baseball doesn’t.  But in the short run, a strike will irritate fans the way work stoppages did in baseball.  After that, who knows?  Owners being owners, they’ll no doubt try to replace any revenue lost to players by recouping it on tickets.  I wonder how fans will react.