“Any short-term pain [from the lockout] is going to be trumped many times over. . . . In terms of delivering big audiences to their advertisers, there’s no reason to believe anything that has happened with the labor situation will harm that,” Carter said.
In fact, Carter said the NFL’s biggest financial obstacle at this point isn’t fallout from the offseason shutdown but the condition of the national economy.
“Those people who need to stand down, to keep their wallets in their pockets, that’s most likely from the economy, not due to any effects of the lockout,” Carter said.
One of the most promising signs for the NFL’s long-term growth was the way that Goodell and DeMaurice Smith, the players’ union’s executive director, came to work in concert to resolve troublesome issues. They oversaw a dispute that gave the NFL its first taste of labor strife in more than two decades. But they eventually found a way to minimize the economic damage and may have taken a first step toward forming the kind of smooth working relationship once enjoyed by Gene Upshaw, the union’s late executive director, and former commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
“I’m not sure that any two people have ever come together in a more compressed, public, interesting time than Roger and I,” Smith said soon after the deal was completed. “But I’m proud to say that our relationship has grown. I can tell you that even up to the last minute. . . it required both of us coming together, taking stock of what’s important [to] get the job done.”
Kraft said then: “The commissioner has to deal with 32 tough and demanding owners, and he’s been able to keep that balance. DeMaurice Smith has come in and he’s managing 1,900 players, a bunch of different professionals. It’s a new CBA with tricky language and he was able to keep those things going and come up with an agreement that he and Roger did together with their [negotiating] teams.”
The focus is back to on-the-field developments, with some analysts saying those teams with new head coaches or rookie quarterbacks will be hurt the most by an offseason that didn’t include the usual practice time. Teams were assembled on the run after the lockout, with hundreds of free agent players scurrying to find jobs and then waiting for the final approval of the labor deal before they could practice. But Baltimore Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth, a member of the union’s executive committee, said during training camp that he expects the quality of play to be normal.
“I’m pretty sure Week 1 is going to be good football,” Foxworth said. “I’ll be proud of the product we put out.”
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