Beyond players, owners
THE OWNERS and players are on opposite sides of the barbed-wire fence of the NFL's labor chasm. But a whole lot of other people are caught in the middle. Not all are year-round, full-timers, but all are in no man's land as the lockout clock ticks down to all zeros. A quick look at the Eagles' media guide offers insight:
THE OWNERS and players are on opposite sides of the barbed-wire fence of the NFL's labor chasm. But a whole lot of other people are caught in the middle. Not all are year-round, full-timers, but all are in no man's land as the lockout clock ticks down to all zeros. A quick look at the Eagles' media guide offers insight:
Five women work as assistants to the Jeffrey Luries and Joe Banners of the Eagles food chain. After Andy Reid and Howie Roseman, 15 others work in football operations, including Edward Miller, an equipment assistant. Five people work on the coaches' support staff, 13 in the scouting department, 14 in legal/accounting/human resources, 11 for the Eagles Television Network. There are nine information technology guys. If the Eagles are anything like the Daily News, the IT guys are more important than Michael Vick and Bill Conlin put together.
The marketing, ticket operations and sales and service teams have 38 on staff. Dave Spadaro is among five people who take care of the team's website. Eleven are in merchandising, five are on the grounds crew, and six are in event operations and guest services. Five work in public affairs/media relations, and the team employs three photographers.
It takes 25 people to take care of the facilities and stadium operations, mostly blue-collar jobs such as carpenters, steamfitters and electricians.
We can hope that as those on both sides of the bargaining table twist themselves into knots with rhetoric, they'll take a second to think about the secretaries and the plumbers.
Then, maybe they'll multiply those thoughts by 32, to include all the NFL's teams, and get a deal done sooner rather than later.
Triviality
NBA leading rebounder Kevin Love and the Timberwolves come to town tomorrow. We put aside political correctness and ask: Who was the last white guy to lead the league in rebounds for the season? Detroit's Bill Laimbeer, in 1985-86, with 1,075. In the last 50 years, only two white guys have done it: Laimbeer (also in 1983-84, 1,003) and Swen Nater (1979-80, 1,215). *
- Ed Barkowitz