Prior to the Super Bowl, NFL Players Association chief DeMaurice Smith accused the league’s owners of planning for a lockout in 2011 and among the evidence was his claim that their television deals pay owners “a guarantee†of $5 billion “not to play.†League spokesman Greg Aiello told the Herald in an e-mail that the TV money culled from deals with DirecTV, NBC, CBS and ESPN is “money (that) has to be repaid. Whatever we receive from the TV networks is essentially a loan and not money we just keep. The notion that the TV networks are giving us billions of dollars without regard to whether any games are played is completely inaccurate,†Aiello said. He also disputed that the lockout benefits owners: “The clubs will lose millions of dollars in a work stoppage.†Source: Boston Herald
Nobody wins if there's a lockout. DeMaurice Smith needs to get his facts straight before he puts his foot in his mouth!
