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Reilly's Latest on the Labor Dispute (with Rebuttal)

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A rebuttal. Sure, there are lots of players who aren’t millionaires. However, they are not involved in this labor dispute. At all. The as-yet-unreconciled differences between the owners and player’s union (note player’s union, not players) boils down to a few percentage points on the cap numbers. The guys highlighted by Reilly are in line to receive none of that revenue. Where the top end of the cap gets set has no impact on the salaries of those players making at or near the minimum. Those percentage points matter to the players who are, in fact, millionaires. The owners haven’t unconditionally locked their doors. It is indisputably true that the guys in Reilly’s article would be better off if the union accepted the owner’s current offer than to protract this process by continuing to hold out for more. It is the millionaire player’s interests that the player’s union is representing at this stage in the negotiations. The battle is indeed between millionaires and billionaires. So go ahead and feel sympathetic for the players that Reilly mentions, just as you should feel sympathetic towards the team employees who are or will be missing paychecks, and for us fans who are even now missing out on the pageantry that is the year-round NFL football experience, having thus far been deprived of free agency. But it is not the owners alone causing that pain; it is equally the fault of the millionaire players whose interests the union is representing in this dispute. Why should I feel sympathetic towards the millionaire players who are putting their less affluent teammates in this situation by declining a deal that would instantly relieve their situation? Both sides actually involved in this dispute are powerful business entities involved in a business negotiation. Sympathy towards either side is ridiculous. Just get a deal done.