Heard it all before...Part1

The NFL season is quickly entering a critical playoff push run, while at the same time, someone needs to use the defibrillator on the negotiations for the new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) . In order to accurately explain today's CBA, we must first go back into the NFLPA (NFL Players Association) vs NFL archives. This isn't the 1st major squabble between the players and the owners. That happened in 1982 when the NFL players wanted a piece of the revenue the owners were making. One of the ways they sought to do this was through free agency. Owners wanted to ensure there players only played for their teams for the player entire career. So they made it extremely difficult for players to move around the league. The Owners would require cash, player compensation and draft picks in order to agree to trades. Due to this fact, players couldn't move around and thus played for the same teams for their entire careers. This was great for the Owners and fans but greatly crippled the players ability to have any leverage in negotiating a new contract. Also, Teams had revenue sharing, which meant whether you win the Superbowl or lose every game, the billion dollar TV deals were split evenly throughout all NFL teams. The Players on the other hand, didn't receive any portion of this money. All of this caused the 1982 strike. The looming lockout has some of the usual issues and suspects currently involved. This is Part 1 of a 3 part series, read next weeks issue for Part 2. Kevin Lewis is an retired NFL linebacker who now does motivational speaking, complete athletic training, coaching and football seminars. If you have comments or inquiries contact via his website www.klew59.com.