Column: Pothole Prairie

Here is my solution for the National Football League’s coming labor issues: Keep things just the way they are for at least one more year. Avoid the possible catastrophe of upsetting the most loyal fans in all of pro sports and just go sign a one-year collective bargaining agreement that maintains the present number of games and keeps the present revenue structure.

I am a diehard Vikings fanatic and a true NFL junkie. I don’t follow merely my Vikings; I watch NFL games just because they are on television. I read NFL news on my cell phone every day. I don’t do fantasy football, but I do like to read stories about what’s happening off the field, about the business of football and how things are structured, from the rules to the scheduling to the draft to how the league, its teams and other aspects came to be. I believe that the first requirement for a winning NFL franchise is having the right owner, and I feel the owners do not get enough scrutiny — credit or blame — in the success and failures of teams.

The owners of the NFL clearly deserve credit in the league’s success. Sharing revenue and having a salary cap makes the league more fair than any other pro sports league. It is why the NFL gets such high TV ratings. It is why I watch even the games that have no impact on the Vikings. The “any given Sunday” still holds true for pro football in this day and age when so many other sports seem to work so hard at disappointing fans, mainly through unfair situations. In baseball, there are rich teams and poor teams. In basketball, the best players pretty much pick which teams they will play for, grouping the talent. Hockey indeed has revenue sharing, but it isn’t quite fair. Hockey’s biggest problem right now is that it has too many teams in too many non-hockey places (Florida, seriously?), which has hurt its fan base and lowered its status. Can you find pro hockey broadcast nationally anymore?

So now this collective bargaining agreement threatens to derail the NFL’s status as the only league that does things right.

The NFL owners want to expand the product, as any rightfully business does. There are four main ways to grow: 1. Expand the fan base, particularly to countries like Mexico and the United Kingdom. 2. Expand the number of teams, such as getting one in Los Angeles. 3. Building new stadiums, such as what has happened in nearly every NFL market except Minneapolis. 4. Play more games.

The NFL owners in recent years have worked on three of the four ways. Now they want two more games. Presently, there are 16 regular-season games and four preseason games. The owners want to have two preseason games and 18 regular-season games. The players are concerned about more injuries, which can shorten their football careers. This in a league where careers average four years.

That’s the major sticking point. There are others. The owners want to change the revenue structure so players get a small percentage of total revenue but argue that with more games revenue will go up and so they, in the end, still will earn more money. The players union is suspicious of this because they aren’t so sure more games will expand the sport. Some sportswriters explain this by noting that it will lead to more meaningless games and players not playing as hard as they seek to stay healthy for the season. In other words, will a supposedly watered-down product provide more revenue?

And the owners want to pay rookies less and pay top players more. The players union again notes the shortness of NFL careers and all the hard work and risk the players put in just to make it to level where they actually get paid to play the sport. This, they say, justifies the pay rookies get.

How do I feel?

I think the owners are right about playing two more games. People don’t watch the preseason games. And the rosters have legions of players that rotate in and out all the time anyway, not like in the olden days. The teams will just have to play more of their other guys. More games will result in more for the fans, the owners and players.

The players are right about percentage of revenue and rookie pay. These are the guys who bring the audiences, working from their childhood years to achieve the top levels in the sport. Give them their due. The owners still are reeling in the cash. If someone died and bequeathed an NFL franchise to me tomorrow, I would be quite happy with my income.

All that said, if the two sides cannot come to an agreement by March 4 — and everyone says if it doesn’t happen by March 4, the official business end of the NFL season, the likelihood of a stoppage goes way up — they all should agree to continue things as they presently are for just the 2011-2012 season. One year. Just give this thing one more year.

This gives the sides 365 days to work things out, and it let’s fans know that the players and owners have the fans’ primary interest — that there will be NFL football next season — at heart.

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every other Tuesday.