Aimless thoughts while watching the pilot episode of 'Lost'

You may not care about the NFL CBA negotiations, and their impending potential to bring down western civilization, but the more I read on this subject the more willing I am to support owners who are preventing a new CBA from being negotiated. (Prepare for me to pull a complete 180 from the position I took yesterday.)

The sticking point in the negotiations has been the issue of greater revenue sharing among the owners. Since the last CBA was negotiated some owners have found more creative ways to squeeze money out of their home towns, for example by selling stadium naming rights or building stadiums with more luxury boxes. Currently, none of these stadium revenues are shared.

On the other side have been owners who have lacked the creativity or initiative to generate more revenue from their stadium deals. These more short-sighted owners are demanding that these additional stadium revenues be split equally among all 32 teams, which has prompted the creation of a so-called "Gang of Nine" opposed to additional revenue sharing (since only nine owners are needed to block a new CBA). The "Gang of Nine" are believed to be made up of the Redskins, Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, Jets, Panthers, Broncos, Patriots, and Texans.

And good for the "Gang of Nine", they found additional ways to generate profits from their investments. That boys and girls, is called capitalism.

Now one of the greater ironies of the NFL's success is that is has come after the league adopted the Soviet Russia model. It appears communism did not die off after the Berlin Wall fell, it only moved to Cleveland, Boston and Tampa. But now, after the playing field has been leveled by revenue sharing, some owners want to stiffle any further entrepreneurial efforts. Because, the more revenue sharing the owners demand the more likely the NFL will become Soviet Russia.

And this isn't Soviet Russia, Danny.

The other completely unrelated story I wanted to touch on is the news that Carl Crawford wants to be the best fantasy player he can be.

"Nobody recognizes me. Ninety percent of the guys who picked me first in their drafts don't even know what I look like. But you know what? Putting up big fantasy numbers is part of what motivates me out there. That's another thing to play for."

And if making some fantasy geek in Oklahoma City happier motivates Crawford, well then more power to him. As long as Crawford plays for the DRays, and as long as the DRays spend $35 million to the Yankees $208 million, there is not much else to motivate Crawford to play hard every day.

In fact, I would like to see more players on losing teams take this attitude. I want Steve McNair or David Carr, when their teams have a 3-7 record and are down by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, to think of me and the thousands of other fantasy geeks around the country. I want McNair or Carr to remember the fantasy geeks, suck it up, go back into the game, and score another touchdown or two. Is that too much to ask?