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That’s what this is, really. One gigantic battle. Not like that god awful Michael Bay film which should have been titled Apocalypse or something like that. No Armageddon is supposed to be the final battle. Scholars think the word Armageddon comes from Megiddo, a small city in the ancient world that the favorite battleground for the major powers. Living in Megiddo was like living in a foxhole. You’d just cower in your home and wait for the Egyptians and the Hittites to stop killing each other, all the time praying that when the fighting stopped there’d be something left of your home.

Flash forward a few thousand years to Europe 1914. The big powers all decide to go to war. Why? No real reason. Most of the leaders went to war because they wanted to go to war. They didn’t think it would be that bad. It utterly destroyed Europe.

It brings us to today. Two sides have picked a fight because they wanted to pick a fight. The owners have been angling for a lockout for years now. The player’s union has been building their litigation case almost as long. Neither side wanted a deal. How can you deal when you’ve spent years gearing up for a fight?

Both sides are idiots and we’re the ones who are paying the price.

Owners, how in the hell do you go broke on 9 billion dollars a year? You guys are so bass akwards in your thinking it’s unbelievable. Football is the number one TV draw in the country, hands down, no question. The next biggest isn’t even close. Survivor, American Idol and CSI wish they had your ratings. So what are you doing? Blowing it all on stadiums.

Stadiums?

And you’re blacking out games that don’t fill up your precious stadiums. Stadiums are the least important factor in the whole business. TV is where it’s at. Get with the current times. The more people who watch, the more valuable that airtime becomes, the more you can charge. The networks would pay double what they’re paying now and they’d do it without blinking an eye. But only because you’ve got the best players in the world. Only because fans can tune in and watch Aaron Rodgers play the game at the highest level possible. You really don’t have employees, you have partners.

Players. Yeah, you’re the game. Yeah nobody would pay ten cents to watch Jerry Jones push papers around his desk. But you need the owners too. Respect the logo. Respect the uniform. That logo and those uniforms mean history. They mean loyalty. They mean thousands of fans still watch the Bills and my Browns, not because they’re good at this point but because these fans can remember Jim Kelly and Bernie Kosar and all the others. You’re the game right now. But the NFL is bigger than that because of its history. You’re just here for a set time. The NFL was here before you and it will be here after you’ve faded into history yourselves.

Both sides have forgotten the biggest rule of warfare. The most effective weapons are the ones that are never used. Instead they abandoned arbitration. They didn’t walk out because things weren’t getting done. Quite the opposite. They abandoned arbitration because things were starting to get done. And that might mean they couldn’t have their big fight.

And so we the fans wait while the two parties fire round after round into each other. It doesn’t matter who wins, we have already lost. All we can do is hope there is something left of our wonderful game when this is all over.

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By Hell’s Grim Tyrant – Jabberhead, SJ Contributor Author, SJ Magazine Columnist

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