A Sigh of Relief

The great NFL labor dispute is no mas. In a much-publicized, sometimes contentious debate over profits, free agency, schedule structure, and many other vital points, both ownership and the NFL players union came to terms in time to salvage the entire 2011 season. Well, unless you want to get technical and count the Hall of Fame preseason game which was scrubbed.

Had the entire season been lost, as had been feared, surely there would have been much hoopla about the numbers: tallying up the massive losses - league revenue, lost merchandise sales, player salaries, individual team profits, etc. However, it's quite likely that you would not have read much about a very significant group of professionals that would have been permanently impacted by a lost NFL season: the talented men and women who work hard to televise each game, bringing all of the hits, bombs, and blitzes into your living room or sports pub.

Those of us who work to televise live sports events are primarily paid by the game, on a freelance basis. It's a "no workee/no eatee" business...and most of us like to eatee.

Had the entire season been lost, some of the more fortunate television pros would have picked up other work on other sports events. The greater portion of us might have struggled to pick up part time work or drained our savings accounts, with those funds being lost forever.

So on behalf of all of my fellow sports TV pros, thanks to the players, league, and owners for working out a compromise and saving the 2011 NFL season. And thank you, the fans, for supporting your favorite teams and watching our hard work each week.