I always love it when people quote that 18% bull crap without thinking. Because they prove with just two words that they’re too busy brown-nosing the NFLPA to actually engage their brains. Not that you’re stupid, you aren’t, but you are forgetting to USE the brain you have. And when those people slam somebody else for being an idiot at the same time, the irony is just too delicious to ignore.

Do the math and think about it again. Currently the NFLPA get 53.6% of ACTUAL revenue, based on the 10-billion estimate and 1 billion taken off the top for ownership expenses. (They get 59.6% of the “adjusted” revenue, or 536.4 million.)

In the owners proposal, the players would still get 59.6% of what is now 8 billion instead. That’s not even an 18% adjustment to the size of the pool, that’s a 12% adjustment. This would leave them getting 47.7% of the ACTUAL revenue, which is a 5% actual reduction, and again a 12% adjustment rate. NO calculation of these numbers can come up with the mythical 18% “pay cut”. The only way you can come up with 18% is to try to pretend that the players originally got 60% of ALL revenues, and then now that they are getting 49% of ALL revenues. The second part is at least somewhat close to accurate, but the first is a blatant misrepresentation of reality.

And even if you could make the numbers work out, it STILL wouldn’t be right, because it’s all-but guaranteed that not one player under contract would have his salary adjusted one single penny! At least not directly by the CBA. Some overpaid players, like Reggie, for example, will be asked to adjust their pay or be cut… but this would have happened anyway!, absolutely regardless of whether there was a new CBA or not. So even those players who are asked to renegotiate STILL won’t be taking an 18% pay cut — they’ll likely take a lot more, like a 30% or even 100% cut, but they are also players who needed to do so already regardless of the CBA situation. And other players will actually get raises, because they have been deserving them all along as well. The CBA will merely determine the size of the pie, not directly cut any one person’s salary. And even if THAT can be considered a “pay cut” by twisting the concept into a pretzel, it STILL isn’t an 18% pay cut, it’s a 12% cut.

So no, Lynell won’t take an 18% pay cut. Nor will ANY other player take one directly from the CBA, because even if the CBA actually did adjust existing contracts (which is almost certainly impossible and probably illegal), it still wouldn’t be an 18% adjustment.

Next time you slam somebody else for being an idiot, look in the mirror first.

What does any of that have to do with me? Why should I support either side in a argument of millionaires vs. billionaires when I know that if the defense contracting industry were in a similar situation, no NFL players would be writing their congressmen or starting petitions to help me out. I enjoy watching what they do. I even think some of them are good people (some aren’t). But what does that have to do with me supporting them continuing to enjoy one of the most generous collective bargaining agreements in sports?