The Argonauts Are Coming

On this brisk, yet tranquil, Sunday fall afternoon, America will be rudely awakened when it flicks on the tube and discovers Merlin Olsen introducing the Toronto Argonauts' defensive secondary.

The National Football League's players are on strike. NBC plans to appease football enthusiasts everywhere, however, with its presentation of a Canadian Football League doubleheader featuring well-known personalities from the 11th round of the NFL college draft. And since the CFL doesn't play on Mondays (people are still wondering if the CFL really plays at all), rumor has it that ABC will instead feature back-to-back action-packed episodes of "Wild Kingdom" and "In Search Of..."

Insiders say the strike is going to be a long one, and many speculate that the young 1982 season is finished. Both sides--the owners and the players--are at philosophically opposite poles: the owners want to withhold revenue from the players, and the players are demanding at least 50 percent of that annual $2.1 billion intake.

To the average football fan, discussions of labor disputes and percentages of profits conjure nauseating sensations reminiscent of last spring's baseball strike. To an unemployed steelworker who now spends his days slumped in front of the soaps, the spectacle of relatively rich athletes (the average football player nets about $50,000 per season) struggling for more loot is unbearable. Someone who daily encounters hazardous situations can't empathize with a player who claims a Bubba Baker collision could end his career.

But, although we may feel twangs of animosity towards the players, we nevertheless long for them to perform. Americans revere gridiron heros more than they do the boys of summer. Does the country stay at home to watch baseball doubleheaders like it does Monday night football? Do Distraught women write Reader's Digest complaining that bug-eyed husbands watch baseball too much? The truth is at least half the top-rated shows have been Superbowls, and while most football teams are financial successes, some baseball teams never break even.

It's much easier for an individual to be entertained in the summer without the aid of baseball, than in the winter with football absent. Look at it this way: you probably went swimming several times this summer, but when was the last time you went sledding?

Let's face it. Football has America where it wants it. And for this reason, the NFL Player's Association (NFLPA) may well reach its goals at the end of the strike where the baseball bargainers failed to meet their objectives. In addition, football players--as well as baseball players--have special skills which--because of the immense popularity of their sport--put them in a secure negotiating position. This Sunday, we are not going to want to watch the third-rate CFL. We crave stars whose names we recognize.

A Chrysler worker can be replaced and no one will notice or care. But a Terry Bradshaw, a James Jefferson or even a Tim Fox are more marketable and valuable commodities. So, whe NFLPA players' representative Ed Garvey suggests that NFL football players are, indeed entertainers and are similar to personalities like Frank Sinatra, he has made a valuable point.

All of the players astronomical demands are logical extensions of capitalism--in a free economy, everyone scrabbles to get as much as he or she possibly can. But these demands actually result in a perversion of capitalism where the workers/players strive to climb to the plateau where the owners/management stand. In this set of circumstances, thoughts of socialism cross one's mind.

As the threat of a lengthy strike looms, the players are attempting to organize their own football league, composed of six all-star teams (one representing each NFL division). The labor force of the NFL wants control over its organization and its own services. At least, that's the threat.

Despite the reddish hue to this set of circumstances, we have no right to scorn the players in the NFL. If you were the only one in North America who could make an automobile, wouldn't you ask for millions, also? But the fact is, lots of people can help manufacture a car. Very few can stop a driving George Rodgers.