AMERICA AT LARGE:The widespread reaction of the public to the escalation in the dispute was, as the two sides expected it might be, 'a pox on both their houses'

SHAKESPEARE’S ADVICE in these situations – “the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” – remains prescient, though it was offered in an earlier, more innocent age. Had he been addressing the principals in the labour dispute that seriously imperils the 2011 National Football League season, The Bard might have reordered his priorities, as in: first, don’t let any of these idiots anywhere near an open microphone.

Next, confiscate their mobile phones and freeze their Twitter accounts.

Then kill all the lawyers.

When the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and the league’s owners extended their drop-dead date two weeks ago, allegedly to pursue further negotiations in their impasse, many non-vested onlookers interpreted it as a hopeful sign.

They were clearly deluding themselves. A week ago, shortly after Cowboys owner Jerry Jones concluded a lecture to assembled players by banging his fists together and walking out of the room, both sides trotted out the heavy artillery.

As we had anticipated it might a few weeks ago, the NFLPA last Friday filed papers which officially decertified its status as a union, thus opening the door for a class-action lawsuit filed in a Minneapolis federal court, charging the owners with multiple violations of the Sherman (antitrust) Act.

That same day the owners responded by imposing a lockout, effective at midnight.

The widespread reaction of the public was, as both sides expected it might be, “a pox on both their houses”.

Clearly, the battle plan of each side in the dispute incorporated a long-term strategy that involved winning the hearts and minds of the ticket-buying public in the months the court cases are expected to consume.

Such strategies assume a certain degree of discipline within the ranks, but the first salvo had barely been fired before rogue elements in each camp leapt to the fore.

Jones, for instance, in what was presumably a grandiose play for sympathy, offered his don’t-blame-me explanation: “I just spent a billion dollars on a new stadium, and I didn’t plan on not playing football in it.”

The price tag on the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington was indeed over a billion dollars, but, as some were quick to point out, much of that cost was borne by taxpayer funding – in other words, by the same public whose opinion Jones and his fellow owners were now casually thumbing their noses at.

“Now, that’s a funny thing for Jones to say,” noted the Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins, “because as it happens, he doesn’t actually own Cowboys Stadium. The city of Arlington does. And Jones didn’t spend a billion dollars to build it. Arlington taxpayers passed a bond issue and wrote him a check for $325 million. City sales tax increased by one-half a per cent, the hotel occupancy tax by 2 per cent, and car rental tax by 5 per cent, all of which may hurt the local economy. Jones is merely a tenant, with a lease.”

Not to be outdone, Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson, whose contract will pay him $10.72 million (€7.7m) for the 2011 season, if there is one, described the NFL salary structure as “modern-day slavery”.

Peterson’s statement was so outrageous even fellow players took exception. On Twitter, Green Bay running back Ryan Grant called it “very misinformed”, particularly since slavery still exists in parts of the modern world.

Peterson responded with a tweet suggesting his remarks had been taken out of context.

To put them in context, here’s exactly what Peterson said in his interview with YahooSports: “It’s modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money . . . the owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money. I understand that; these are business-minded people. Of course this is what they are going to want to do. I understand that; it’s how they got to where they are now. But as players, we have to stand our ground and say, ‘Hey – without us, there’s no football’.”

“The players are getting robbed,” he added elsewhere in the Yahoo interview. “The owners are making so much money off of us to begin with.”

In fairness, it should be noted Peterson’s wasn’t even close to being the week’s dumbest public statement by a professional athlete. That honour single-handedly belonged to Cappie Poindexter of the WNBA’s New York Liberty, who suggested on Twitter that the tsunami-wrought tragedy in Japan was the result of divine intervention (“What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in there [sic] own country? Idk guys he makes no mistakes.”

“Idk”, in the age of the fully-formed 140-character thought, is Twitter shorthand for “I don’t know”.

Ms Poindexter went on to suggest the Almighty might have unleashed the tragedy on Japan in response to that country’s bombing of Pearl Harbor 70 years ago: “U just never knw. They did pearl harbor so u can’t expect anything less”.

The battle lines, in any case, are already being drawn for the next phase in the struggle for public support. The NFL has in recent years managed to transform its annual college draft into a televised spectacle.

The top collegians are invited to New York, and as each of the top prospects is chosen he is trotted out on stage to shake hands with commissioner Roger Goodell and presented with the jersey of his new team.

The league apparently intends to maintain that tradition in 2011, even though, as the NFLPA points out, the players drafted next month won’t be allowed to sign contracts, work out, or even wear the uniforms of their new employers as long as the lockout remains in place.

The former union apparently plans to conduct its own televised draft-day festivities on April 28th, at a New York location other than Radio City Music Hall.

Goodell’s office charged that the NFLPA was attempting to submarine its draft-day show by asking the prospective rookies to boycott the official proceedings.

In what would appear to be a case of semantic hair-splitting, NFLPA spokesman George Atallah denied that inviting this year’s rookies to the former union’s alternative draft day party constituted a “boycott”, but at the same time offered this tweeted explanation: “The NFL Draft is special. Players and their families will be in NYC. It just may be different. We will provide details when we can.”