Sure, but (this is where I reveal my own preferences), if the NFLPA is weak because of structural issues that are no one's fault, they just exist because of the nature of the game, then I don't really care if the NFLPA ever gets any stronger.

But it isn't weak just because it is weak. It is weak because the resolve of the players to use the one tool at their disposal, striking, was weak. Expectations can be set however they want to be, ultimately if the players have to hold out for X number of games to get everything they want, then whether the union…

I think Marvin Miller would have had a much harder time in the modern NFL, because I suspect that the interests of the players are much less homogeneous than they were during his era.

I mean, yes, I think all of those things are probably true, though I'd love to see evidence that this is what has driven a weaker union. Things like, voting records stratified by players' base salary, for example, to see if the notion that players who are marginal, and thus have lower base salaries, tend to be more…

They get a larger piece of the revenue pie, but I think on a dollars of revenue gained per player basis, the NBA soundly outperforms the NFL, due to the fact that there are 5 times as many NFL players on a given team.

I don't necessarily disagree, though all that proves is that the NFLPA is weaker than other sports unions. The question in my original comment acknowledged that, and asked "Why?"

I don't think it's bad satire. I think it's subtle.

Do we really hark all the way back to 1987 in order to explain why, almost 30 years later, the NFLPA is so much weaker than other professional unions?

We also find this subtle.

Well, highly unsubtle satire anyways.

In the midst of all this satire and snark, I'd really like someone to provide some meatier discussion of why the NFLPA clearly has less power than the MLBPA and the NBPA.

I'm not sure that a stronger union would necessarily help Lynch here. Lynch may be a highly skilled professional, but it's probably worth remember that his profession is as an entertainer, who just happens to entertain with his athletic prowess. The media doing the normal media thing and asking the same inane and…

Which just goes to show that even people who get satire can still have a bad sense of humor.

I tend to think that players unions are as effective as either the players or the people players trust to give them advice about things like contracts and unions are. I also think the overall shorter playing career of your average voting NFLPA member makes it harder for the players union to take strong collective…

Maybe it's taken so long to happen because it has already happened?

It's a quick jump from chainsaws and talking to your children about race to advice about how to fence.

The NFL is a non-profit because money is passed through to the franchises, which are taxable entities.

What?

I don't think it is any great virtue. The issue is that until the NFL fans punish the NFL for employing someone who is an asshole, it will pay to employ an asshole. You forget that a great many fans buy into the sort of bullshit logic Goodell uses in his complaints about NFL employees to the hilt.