Bear in mind that this is coming from someone who only started following the league seriously 2-3 years ago - I don't get most of the Bettman hate that I see. Not to even remotely suggest that he doesn't fuck up (the whole disciplinary system with Shanahan last year turned out to be a joke), but by and large the stuff I've read about the last 20-ish years basically looks like him trying to drag this league and the players, kicking and screaming, towards mainstream relevance. It's why I have such a hard time getting behind the players on this, other than that the owners should be held fully accountable for all those ridiculous contracts signed over the summer. The league as a whole made slightly more last year than the value of the Redskins franchise. That's insane And even under this last CBA the players were extremely well compensated in terms of their slice of the pie versus the other leagues. It's like they're looking at player compensation in the big 3 but entirely ignoring how much more money those leagues are making. I understand with the league seemingly getting close to hitting it big they don't want to get suckered out of potential money a few years down, but they're acting like it's a sure thing and the money is already there. Whatever, there's obviously way more too it than that, but the players just seem to be incredibly short-sighted here, and I honestly think that Fehr would be more than happy to just burn the whole thing down if the players let him. Here's hoping the mediators actually help.