For everyone calling for the NFL to end this ludicrous lockout of the referees, we would not hold our collective breaths waiting for this to happen.
This thing ends only one way: the refs caving.
Or, God forbid, a player getting killed because of the incompetence of the replacements.
The NFL claims to care about the fans. It doesn't. If it did, we would have at most two preseason games (with no addition of regular season games) and charged a pittance for admission. As long as fans will allow themselves to be screwed over in order to obtain season tickets, all the moaning and groaning in the world will not change things.
The NFL responds to one thing: the size of its collective wallet. If fans cannot hit the NFL in the pocketbook, nothing else matters. The NFL will not care about the fans until the fans no longer care about the NFL. Now, that's a wicked catch 22, is it not?
This referee lockout cannot hurt the NFL. Sure people could stop watching on television. But the television rights are locked into place. The refs will cave long before the next negotiating window and all will be long forgotten. Besides, we don't think the NFL will lose viewers because of this. It's like a train wreck. You can't help but look even if it may disgust you.
Until and unless fans can make a dent in the NFL's revenue, we are stuck with whatever the NFL force feeds us every week.
I agree with you re: the NFL has all of the leverage in this one.
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