NFL Team Owners: blackmailing greedheads

I heard a story this morning on the National Football League that I think too many people will have overlooked or disregarded. Normally I don't spend too much time on or thinking about sports in America--either your team is winning or it's not, that's the long and short of it, to me. But when it comes to major league teams and how they get and spend tax money, then I'm paying attention. The issue is this: you know how the Major League Baseball and National Football League team owners "shake down" each city they're in by going to each city and saying "Gosh, folks, if you don't give us the (tax) money to build a bigger and/or better stadium, we may have to move our team to city that will"? You remember that ploy? Sure you do. They all do it. Our two teams shook down our city for $675 million recently so they could have bigger, better, prettier venues to play their little games. And they got it, suckers that we are. Well, the reason I bring this up is because the NFL team owners have now found another, new organization to go to and do the same darn thing. It's nearly unbelievable. What a beauty. The rich, fatcat, uber-wealthy, likely multi-billionaire owners are now, well, read for yourself: What the owners want to do is they basically want a $1 billion credit from the players, to say that in essence we have invested all of this money in these stadiums and you need to help us. You know, we need to take some of the money that we put and we divide between players and owners and give it all to the owners, just because you're benefiting from all these new stadiums, too. Stunning, isn't it? Stunning in its simplicity. Stunning in its chutzpah, nerve and guts. This is, as I suggested in the title above, more blackmail from these bizarrely-wealthy owners, just as they've blackmailed all these cities in the country. They saw one last rich group--the players--and now they're going after their money, too. And you know what? I bet it works. Try to have a great weekend, y'all. Link to original story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130080798