Suh Reversal No NFL Surprise
Anyone remotely familiar with the unregulated monopoly called the NFL knew the Suh incident would be given the usual disingenuous treatment by the NFL. The goal of the NFL owners is simply to make the most money possible. That is the bottom line. Remember, there are 1696 players in the NFL and 32 owners. Each group gets roughly the same percentage of the profits. If we think players, at least the top players are making way too much money, then just imagine the amount of money being made by the 32 owners. From the same profit the owners, per owner, get 53 times as much money. It is not quite so lopsided in that I believe the owners do have some hefty expenses like coaches salaries, stadium upkeep, and so on. BUT, how much this impacts depends on what profits are being delved up in the labor negotiations. If TV revenues are part of the profit, then the case is as unfair as I am portraying it. Nothing is ever self evident in professional sports. And no one is watching over them to any extent. Even if you are wealthy enough to buy a team you can’t unless the cabal of existing owners think you are going to play the game as they already do. You have to be voted in by existing owners.
But let us return to Suh. The owners are not particularly concerned with Suh or any other players. Suh is a good player for Detroit. Having Suh play in a playoff game translates into big money for the Detroit owner and the league. The game will be much more competitive with Suh playing and more money will roll in and the interest in football maintained. But the league knows it need give the public perception of not approving opposing players stomping on, stepping on, banging an opponents head on the turf while down, etc. The owners don’t want that either, up to a point. And of course the point always boils down to money.
So here we are in the playoffs and Suh comes up with this new try-to-injure a downed player twist. He has already done all the rest of the more obvious techniques. It fools hardly anyone. Standing on someone’s leg and then switching legs to push off on the same opponents injured leg with the other foot? How could he be expected to know he was doing that? Walking on the turf always feels like a leg underneath. Anyway the league then suspends Suh. That demonstrates the league is not going to tolerate such incidents. But it really doesn’t because act 2 follows. They, the owners, through their appointed Commissioner, assign the one arbitrator they always assign to a case they want overturned. Most of the time this is done to placate the players union, now and then, but this time it was not the player’s union they needed to placate (since players don’t like to be injured while lying on the ground) but the money to be generated by heightened interest in the next playoff game. The Lions have little chance to win if Suh doesn’t play. With Suh they have a chance to stifle Murray the running back and force the game into Romo’s hand. And Romo is always unpredictable, the Cutler of the Cowboys.
There were other creative alternatives. They could have suspended Suh from the next game Detroit plays Green Bay, either in the playoffs or next year, whichever comes first. Or I suppose, if one team in this playoff contest is to lose one of their best players because of their thug like behavior, then maybe make the game be played minus the biggest thug on each team—Suh and Bryant. Smile.
Or, to be more realistic, arbitrators should never be chosen by either the management or the players. There exists a pool of arbitrators who have been approved by both management and the players union. BUT this is disingenuous too, since the management picks the arbitrator from that pool. Had the players picked the arbitrator they would never have picked this guy because players themselves don’t want to be injured by the likes of Suh while lying on the ground. I don’t know why not, Suh is just trying to give his final stomp of approval on a mission accomplished. Others may just beat their chest.
In the last analysis, when the country allows a cabal of extremely wealthy citizens to own our professional sport teams, a monopoly if there ever was one, then have Congress give them immunity from anti-trust laws, and exempt this ‘corporation’ from most all taxation, set no limits on profitability, provide any oversight on behavior, and allow them to set up their own court system with the Commissioner being the policeman, the prosecutor, the Judge, and the Jury, well—it is only a matter of time before it will have to collapse under it’s own weight. Only then will the predatory nature of such a beast on the public be curtailed.
