NFL Owners Caught In A Big Fucking Lie

I'm stunned this didn't get more attention. From the Associated Press:

Figures obtained by The Associated Press underscore the substantial divide between the NFL and the locked-out players on a core issue: What portion of additional revenue goes to players.

Players' share of incremental increases to all revenues under the NFL's expired contract was about 53 percent from 2006-09, according to calculations by the accounting firm that audited the collective bargaining agreement for both sides.

The NFL has repeatedly said that 70 percent of extra revenue went to players, a main justification for changing the sport's economic system. The league's numbers remove the portion of revenues — about $1 billion a year — taken off the top for owners to spend on expenses.

Data prepared in 2010 by PricewaterhouseCoopers and obtained Monday by the AP show that about $3.8 billion of the $7.2 billion in incremental revenue over those four years — 52.9 percent — went toward players' salaries and benefits.

The league and players agree on the $3.8 billion; they disagree on how to look at revenues. Setting aside the off-the-top expense credits — for things such as stadium improvements or NFL Network — makes the players' take a higher percentage.

The figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers — calculated last year at the request of the NFL Players Association — include that upfront money, because it is part of the league's gross revenue.

"The NFL wants to artificially inflate the percentage of incremental revenue going to players by excluding revenues that never go to players," NFLPA spokesman George Atallah said. "League officials ... have been selling a lockout to owners based on misleading and incomplete financial information. They excluded the cost credits to be able to tell owners that player costs are rising faster than all revenues. This is not true."

. . .

Just before last month's Super Bowl, NFL general counsel Jeff Pash — the league's lead labor negotiator — said: "The players have gotten 70 percent of the incremental revenue that the NFL clubs have generated since 2006. They know that's not a sustainable model."


A year earlier, Commissioner Roger Goodell made a similar point during his annual Super Bowl news conference.

That 70 percent figure not only made an impression on owners — it also made players wonder whether there was, indeed, an adjustment that needed to be made.

"One of the owners' big problems with the deal, as they reported from 2006 forward, is they had the argument that player cost was north of 70 percent, say. When that number was first presented, it caused everyone on our side of the table to sit down. It caught our attention: 'If it is 70 percent, we need to address it,'" said former player Pete Kendall, who has been advising the NFLPA during negotiations.

There was a caltuclated effort to get that 70% figure out there by the owners, and it was just complete bullshit. The different between 70% percent and 53% is fucking enormous, especially when the owners have been hammering that number over and over again as one of the main reasons for the lockout.

The question I have is about how many of the owners were aware that this number was bullshit. There's already been talk of dissent among owners who didn't want this to go to court, so I wonder how they feel about being led into a lockout on completely made up information.

Of course they wouldn't let the players see the NFL's books! If they're lying about something this big, who knows what else they're lying about!