Sportsiology

I was glad to hear this afternoon that 24 hours were added to the NFL labor talks. Like most other sports fans, I wait anxiously every year for football to come back and a stall in labor negotiations, a NFLPA decertification and/or a player lockout would get in the way of that. For me, this process has made me realize that there is no neutral party when it comes to the NFL. The NFL, as I assume other sports do, has a legitimation crisis. Externally, we see the commissioner as upholding football, doing what is in the best interests of the sport for its present and its future. However, the person who holds this authority is also an employee of the owners. It is close to impossible to serve both masters and the legitimacy of the institution is challenged by claiming that a commissioner can. I don’t know if the various sports bodies have ever advertised the lack of separation of commish and owner or whether the general public has ever questioned it but I definitely have concerns now, as I didn’t before, when judgments are made that are supposed to make the league better. But maybe I’m the only one who didn’t realize what the score was…