Maher makes a good argument. What the NFL does is work with the labor union's interests and the owner's interests to produce a product that works...works better than most other major league sports. Workers are compensated, and that keeps labor trouble at a minimum. Owners are happy enough, as they make enough to satisfy them. The NBA is headed to a likely contraction of teams, and a likely lockout of the players after this season, as the owners claim to be losing money. So the NBA is going to have to hammer out a new deal. One of the problems with baseball, is the owners cry that they are losing money...but they refuse to open the books to allow the players to view the numbers. So, work stoppage happens, until some agreement with labor and ownership is reached. All of this depends on the consumers of sports, as if they reject a sport, then there is less revenue for the owners and the players. Baseball, for some unknowable reason is exempt from anti trust legislation...even though they are a monopoly...unless players want to play ball in Japan, etc. What is killing America is not socialism, but the concept of "free trade" where countries pay much less, as the cost of living is less in other countries. America can't compete, because the playing field is not a level playing field...like the Yankees being able to outspend other teams for talent. Socialism is not the cause of the current problems. The best and most productive times in America were from the New Deal up to the beginning of globalization. America sold their soul to China and cheap shit...at the expense of the well being of America as a whole.
Uh actually we've pretty much collectively determined he's full of shit. Do try to keep up won't you TrollZZZzzzz?
even your logic about the nfl is odd.. the nfl had strikes and plenty of player vs management strife. the players union is despised by retired players for screwing them over. finally the players accepted a salary cap.
Not talking about the players but the teams. Since you are a socialist you obviously are unaware: There's a difference between winning and just having tickets.
The thing is this level playing field thingy. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a level playing field at any time in human history. Location of your original tribe alone obviates this notion of a level playing field. Everyone in this life starts with a collections of strengths and deficits. Resources and lack of resources. What is killing us is that we refuse to acknowledge certain deficits. For example, everyone is not meant to go to college! But because certain groups refuse to acknowledge that some individuals are simply better at working with their hands we cheat them of the chance to explore and begin to the journey to expert ( i.e 10000 hours of directed learning) early in life. We send them up paths that they will ultimately fail at because they simply do not have the APTITUDE! Take the NFL, players are paid based on their ability to contribute to a winning franchise. Granted, everyone starts with the same pot, how this pot is allocated is up to the GM. Not everyone will have the same aptitude to make the same contribution. To bring it home, I am a native of Atl. I have been watching the Falcons since I was nine years old. Up to recently, the way they allocated their pot for talent just sucked. Mike Vick was the highest paid player in the league and it was well known that he took shortcuts, did not watch film, etc. The key to the NFL and it's parity is not the pot, but what they do with it. What they do with the pot is the essence of capitalism, IMHO.
The NFL had strikes and plenty of player vs. management strife. Likely, they will again as revenues and expenses fluctuate. The former players are unhappy because when they were players, they didn't negotiate good health care for the future. The players accepted a salary cap. So, the point is that labor and management negotiated a deal. Guess what? When there is give and take from both sides, generally someone is not happy about it. Both sides concede a bit, and the fundamentalist thinkers on either side are pissed off about the concessions it takes to get things done. But unlike the party of no, the players and management came to an agreement that required both sides compromising. It is going to happen again, as the collective bargaining agreement is up for renewal. So, your claim of my view of the NFL being illogical is dead wrong. The NFL and the players compromised, and found a socialistic solution that strengthened the league, increased popularity, and gives any team the chance to win a Super Bowl.
But that's not true, every team will not have a chance for a title because some teams will take their pot and fuk it up. Cleveland Browns
Every team has a chance. Where teams are continual failures, like Cleveland, the Raiders, the Bengals, etc. have to do with management and coaching...more than the players. Look, if 5 years ago I were to suggest New Orleans would win the Super Bowl, most people would have laughed. But the signing of Drew Brees, Sean Payton coaching, other free agents and good draft picks, and see what happened. Look at New England before Belichick and Brady. The point is that Kansas City in baseball has almost no chance, because if they develop good players through their farm system, they can't afford to keep them. San Diego trades away their good players, because they can't afford them. In the NFL, truly any team can win if management makes the right decisions on players, general managers, and coaches.
But that is not socialism, it is more like profit sharing, paying dividends to the shareholders, each has an equal amount of stock. Everyone that wears the uniform of perspective NFL team is subject to the most brutal form of capitalism they must win and keep their jobs every season if not every game! That is what truly makes the NFL what it is. The purely raw capitalism of you must perform every single game of the season or be benched or cut. In socialism, they would not have to worry about taking a season off, they would be paid anyways! Case in point: Kevin Kolb----Mike Vick. I do agree that profit sharing should take place in baseball. I remember the year the Marlins bought a title by going out and signing players that could hit Braves pitching. That cannot happen in the NFL.
do you mean the nfl is socialistic because ocho cinco uses social networks? because otherwise you are off your rocker. Yes the NFL is socialistic. Everyone gets share in the wealth. I expect zzz will be getting his free superbowl tickets with his food stamps tomorrow. And if you can't make the team because you are not the most talented or hardest working. don't worry because the nfl has cut insurance... if you try out and don't make it you can still earn as much as the guys who do have jobs and work hard. Also any day now I expect them to enact an affirmative action policy and within a few years women and white people with constitute 50 and 90 percent of the roster, respectively.