Published: The Huffington Post 2011.03.22
The NFL Owners are now locking out the players. It is March and it really isn't that big of a deal.
But I started thinking about the last championship football team here in Philly.
The 1960 Eagles -- nope.
The Philly Soul from a few years back -- indoor football; seriously?
(Did the fans ever get that Bon Jovi concert they were promised?)
It was the 1984 USFL Philadelphia Stars. QB Chuck Fusina WOULD NOT LOSE. Coach Jim Mora was fantastic.
The USFL was an upstart league of misfits, free agents, and really good players that operated as a spring league until Donald Trump convinced the other owners it would be a good idea to compete directly against the NFL in the fall. That move alone should disqualify The Donald for the presidency.
Reggie White played in the USFL as well as Sam Mills, Sean Landetta and a stack of players that would later make real marks in the NFL.
Instead of the players complaining about the owners -- why don't the players start making a move towards forming their own league?
Seriously, what do they need the owners for? They have been paid enough cash. Kinda like doing the Keith Olbermann thang. Make your own network.
Why can't this group of players hire a bunch of lawyers and accountants to negotiate their own TV deal with FOX, CBS, and NBC. Why can't the players be given access to all these taxpayer funded facilities that sit across the country?
Since the players are being locked out, would that void the contracts they have signed, so they are all essentially free agents? Each of those players signed their contract under the rules of their union, since the union doesn't exist anymore...
The players can reconstitute their "union" as a group of free agents who wish to do business together.
They could set up shop immediately in Los Angeles, since the NFL hasn't bothered to put a football team there for a while. Could you see Peyton Manning in LA?
And in 30 years we could be saying, remember the NFL?
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