The NFL and the players union are at the negotiating tables, working on hammering out a deal to make every one happy. Revenue sharing is at the heart of the latest dispute. It would seem that the owners do not want to give up any more money than they already do. At stake is $9 billion in revenue and no one can agree on how to split that between the owners and players. Talks are being extended week by week as no one wants to see a shutdown of the season, but things are balancing delicately on a knife’s edge.

The numbers involved in this are amazingly outrageous. In the current agreement that is about to expire, owners put aside $1 billion to cover operating costs. After that amount is taken out, the rest is used to calculate players salaries. When thinking about it, is the game of football earning more than it should? Has the game gotten so astronomical that it takes every last dollar to feed egos of both owners and players? And when it comes down to it, the people who suffer are the fans.

No football in 2011 would have a major economic impact all around, that is a given. Cities would lose the revenue that fans bring with them. Television would lose advertising monies. Merchandisers lose money because no one is buying team jerseys. Having no football creates a major ripple effect for those who depend on it for a living. One thing is for sure. The players and owners will only suffer from not having to play a season. Certainly their bills will have to be paid, but they are in their own economic microcosm and will weather the problems just fine.

Putting football onto such a pedestal places it in an economic stratosphere that is akin to a major manufacturing company like GM. But what value, apart from entertainment, does football really deliver? Maybe it is time to let the pigskin deflate.