Carl Marx and a Sociological View Of The Possible NFL Lockout

This is a paper Ashley Coleman prepared for a Sociology Class at Marshall University. Since it involved sports and once again a day has completely passed me by with no opportunity to get something posted I thought why not run with it. Also it is always great to unveil a new writer. Please note the paper is written from Marx's perspective.


NFL Versus NFLPA. Who Wins?
Although I am an educated man I can still enjoy football. I can admit that I have been known to spend a whole Sunday propped back in the recliner with my wings and a beer. That is why I have been watching the conflict between the National Football League (NFL) and the Nation Football League Player’s Association (NFLPA) closely. The possibility of next fall and no football is enough to make a grown man cry. That and the fact that I am one of the greatest sociologists in the world leads me to take a sociological look into the dispute.
I begin to take notice of the conflict when I was watching the season opener on September 9, 2010. I was all kicked back ready to watch the defending Super Bowl champs, New Orleans Saints take on the still not retired Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings. They went through the normal rigmarole of the Star Spangled Banner when all of the sudden both sidelines form a row and walk out 10-15 yards onto the field. Each player lifts one finger high into the air. Without saying a word two teams have told the NFL and the owners that they may be ready to go out there and bash each others heads in but when it comes down to the bottom line, they are one voice. Oh you smart, smart players I think to myself. Solidarity is the way to win. What one person has no chance to accomplish, a group can do. It all points back to my theory of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
For this case we will look at the NFL as the bourgeoisie. They are the owners, they use the players to make a profit. They run the business not for the benefit of the fans or the players but as way to make more money. That is what they base their decisions on. Like I said in the Communist manifesto, “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.” This is evident with the playing of games in foreign countries. Such as last years Patriots vs. Buccaneers and this years Broncos and 49ers. Another example of this is the ever expanding television, radio, and internet coverage. Everything from satellite radio, to apps on your phone, to the NFL network anything you want to know or see about football is there in seconds.
This is part of the NFL’s argument. Lets take a look at what the NFL is wanting. Right now a season consists of 4 pre-season games and 16 regular season games. The NFL wants to change this to 2 pre-season games and 18 regular season games. The players currently receive almost 60% of the designated NFL revenues. The NFL wants to change this. Out of the 8 billion the league brings in, 1 billion goes to operating costs, the owners take about 40% of what is left. They want to add another 1.3 billion to this because, according to them, they have acquired debt from the building of new stadiums and venues such as the NFL Network.
The players, in the case the proletarians, are not agreeing to that. The additional 1.3 billion the NFL wants will result in pay cuts for them. They also do not want to agree to the increased seasons with out discussing things such as health care, veteran funds, drug testing, rookie contracts, salary caps, and discipline of on-field disruptions.
Like it shows throughout history, society has almost always been broken up by
social rank. This is the case here, although instead of many classes it is broken into two, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The proletariat's are a direct result of the bourgeoisie. They developed because they are needed by the bourgeoisie for labor, without the players there is no way for the NFL to make money. The players are organized like soldiers and monitored all the time by certain members of the NFL. At any time they can be suspended or cut from the team and replaced. The NFL is trying to make them play more games with less perks. It is the same as the bourgeoisie and their way of the more repulsive the work, the less pay there is for that job.
The big benefit that the NFL has this time around is that even if there are no games played next year the NFL will still receive 4 billion dollars from television contracts. At the same time the NFLPA only has 200 million set aside for a lock out but in reality how long will that last and what exactly will it be used for?
Most proletarian groups go through stages of development. Small groups against their own individual owners, etc. However in this case I feel that it is important and absolutely necessary for the success of the NFLPA to band together as one large group to go up against the NFL as a whole.
The NFLPA has been successful a few times, now the teams provide and maintain the equipment, there is a health plan for five years after you are finished playing, and you still get paid if you are injured. However, sometimes the real battle isn’t in the immediate result, but among the players themselves. Take the strike in 1987. The players only got a week of no games because the owners had the foresight to keep players that had been cut on retainer for $1000 a game. They NFL also used the players that would cross the line. For this reason the strike did not work for the players. There was not enough solidarity among the players to overthrow their owners.
As a NFL fan I hope that the NFLPA keep up their solidarity and reach an agreeable conclusion with the NFL. Like I also said in the Communist Manifesto the proletarian movement is a movement of the immense majority , in the interest of the immense majority. I’d like to see them use this to their advantage. However, as I said, I am one of the world’s greatest sociologists. I also know that this one issue will just be one small part of the issue. This will happen again and again as the contracts end and the proletariat's evolve more and the bourgeoisie “need’ to make more money.