Originally Posted by
steelreserve
Well, I don't see anyone else trying to change the current state of things, so Jones is what I've got to work with. When it comes down to it, do we really think he'll get rid of the commissioner and then everyone else will go "OK Jerry, now go ahead and do whatever you want! We won't hold a search or vote on it or anything, just ... you do you!" I mean, it's common knowledge that he's not the most well-liked guy among the owners and there's no reason anyone has to go along with him. A temporary alliance like this for one common goal might actually come to some good, and tbh worrying about Jerry Jones becoming the undisputed king of the league is a bit far-fetched.
As far as labor relations, protests, and so on go ... well, there's plenty of political bullshit spouting from the NBA, just not that one particular protest. I really think the kneeling thing is just more prominent in the NFL because it was an NFL player who started it and it became a thing there, and never really was a thing in other leagues.
Labor relations in the NBA have been a mess though; they had a lockout that lasted half a season just a few years ago and the fighting is as bad as anywhere else. Some of that is probably mitigated by the fact that on average, even the scrubs at the end of the bench are making as much as the top 15% of NFL players, and with 12 guys to a team it's a lot easier for everyone to be friends with everyone else, have honest discussions with each other or with the coach, and generally it's probably a more pleasant atmosphere. The real difference, though, is that the commissioner is much less of an idiot.
Goodell just runs around knee-jerking to every sensationalist story that the media comes up with. They put out The Narrative and he unwittingly goes along with it. Player safety? Button-mashing that leaves neither the fans nor the players happy. The image of the league? Button-mashing that pisses off the players and draws the fans' attention to the negative. Politics on the field? Dicking around and allowing 50 different unofficial ways of dealing with it, until the fans are pissed off and the players are pissed off too. Meanwhile, the same shit happens in the NBA, and you get a short, no-nonsense response: "here's our policy, maybe we'll review it in the offseason, thanks for your concern but we're in charge, not you." And generally the other leagues come to smarter conclusions because they aren't chasing every single smokestack that the media throws up on the horizon.
So the short version of that is that while yes, the other leagues have better labor relations, that's partly because they have smarter people in charge. And from Goodell, you cannot go anywhere but up. And I don't think, once that's done, that everyone is going to just get behind Jerry Jones because he kicked out the dumb ape in the suit. He's in for a rude awakening if he thinks that.
I totally agree with dumping the Thursday night games, by the way, they are crap to watch and just way over the limit of football fatigue as a potential viewer.