Power Rankings: Laboring to use their heads

Morons. Fools. Idiots.
Take your pick. Use any one of those words if the men getting ready to sit down and hammer out a new CBA for the NFL don't get a deal done.
They can't be that dumb, can they?

Most likely to be overexposed this offseason? Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith. (Getty Images)

The NFL is more popular than ever. Sunday's Super Bowl XLV was the most-watched television show of all time, which is saying something since it earned those numbers in an era of cable, satellite-TV and the millions of channels viewers have available to them.
The players are millionaires and the owners are billionaires. The networks love the games and the fans have to go to rehab the Monday after the Super Bowl for detoxing.
The players and owners can't be that dumb, can they?
As we turn the page on the 2010 season, with our final Power Rankings, capped with the Packers' wonderfully entertaining 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night, it's time to turn our attention to the buzzword of the month: Lockout.
If there is not a new agreement by March 3, we will have a lockout. I'm not sure there will be an agreement before then, but this much I will say: There will be one before the summer. There will not be missed games.
Call me an optimist, but this is the way I see it: Players need to play and owners need to play.
The players want to get paid. Why blaze a trail for others down the road at the expense of getting yours now? Did you know that league players are due roster/option/workout bonuses totaling $200 million on the first day of the league year?
Wait until the wives and girlfriends find out that money isn't coming. There are also roughly 500 players who could be missing their chance at free-agency paydays.
Why would they want to miss that, so others down the road can benefit? I know union chief DeMaurice Smith portrays a united front, but in my talks with the players, I don't sense that.
This is what I sense from them: I have to get mine.
As for the owners, many of the so-called power owners, Jerry Jones, Bob Kraft, Dan Snyder and others, have plenty of debt service on their glitzy new stadiums. Some have 10-year leases coming up for renewal.
You think they can handle a work stoppage and miss games?
I believe all the issues can be worked out. The league wants 18 games. Give the players two months off during the summer in exchange, cutting down on their wear-and-tear on their bodies. Players I talk to would take the two months off to play two more games in an instant.
The league can also create more roster spots for an 18-game season, make vesting easier and make health care better for the players.
The rookie salary cap is an easy one. Vets won't mind signing off on that at all.
The hard part is the cut in percentage of the gross. The owners want to cut the percentage the players get by 18 percent, down from 59.6 percent. OK, that's a starting point. Negotiate it down. How about 10 percent? No good. How about 12 percent? Anybody who has ever done a deal for a car knows how that game works.
There's too much at stake to risk a work stoppage. Who says the NFL will be this popular 10 years from now?
Cash in. Go along for the ride.
They can't be that dumb, can they?