There are some things even football fans won’t stand for. I think.
It was Week #3 of the NFL season, and there is a growing consensus that the replacement referees, the consequence of the NFL’s labor dispute with its regular refs, are making, if not a mockery of the game, a mess of it. The ethics issue: at what point is the quality of the NFL’s product so compromised by sub-professional officiating that the league is cheating the public by presenting it at all?
Airlines don’t use replacement pilots when pilots go on strike; they wouldn’t dare. Chicago didn’t hire street mimes to stand in for the striking teachers. In the NFL’s case, it is making the calculation that football fans will put up with lousy officiating if the alternative is no games at all on Sunday. Meanwhile, the NFL still charges the same outrageous prices for its tickets and still collects full value in merchandising and TV revenue. Translation: It is getting full price for a less than complete product. Is that ethical?
Normally, it is not. This is, however, an ethical dilemma, in which a strong non-ethical consideration, a.k.a. money, is pitted against crucial ethical considerations for any business or sport: integrity, fairness, honesty. The ethical values operate in relation to the consumers of the NFL’s product; they don’t affect anyone else. The games could be officiated by meercats as far as I’m concerned.
It is not as if the NFL is hiding the fact that it has the Not Ready For Prime Time Refs running its games. The fans have apparently assented to these conditions, and at least so far, are accepting them. Ethical obligations satisfied. But the consumers can withdraw their waiver of the previous levels of game integrity and quality officiating at any time. If I ran the NFL, I wouldn’t push my luck.
No meercats.
___________________________________
Facts: NFL
Graphic: Perfect Africa
Ethics Alarms 
Judging from the “manure chant” (as one of the TV announcers called it) by fans in Baltimore at last night’s Baltimore Ravens-New England Patriots game, those replacement refs had better already have secured some sweet life insurance policies (from some real suckers for insurers).
The fans have apparently assented to these conditions, and at least so far, are accepting them.
Really? The refs are being complatined about constantly. That’s clearly not assent, and when you have a monopoly product that is desired, acceptance is one way. Any issues I have with my cell phone carrier are subject to arbitration. Do I find this ethically wrong? Yes, but if I want to be able to communicate with business and people I know, I don’t really have a choice.
They are still filling the stadiums, and tuning into the games. It’s not a monopoly—there are plenty of other forms of entertainment, other sports. If the NFL ratings were cut in half, sponsors would scream, and then the NFL would have to do the right thing—not that I’m sure what that would be.
It’s not a monopoly—there are plenty of other forms of entertainment, other sports.
Therefore, it’s cool if one person owns and controls all cow production. It’s not a monopoly, there are other meats.
If that’s not clear enough, how about football’s anti-trust exemption?
tgt, football doesn’t have an antitrust exemption. Only baseball, of all the sports, does. Look it up.
Did you follow the standoff in Spring of 2011? The one where all the court cases were in favor of the League being exempt from the anti-trust suits? The one where the League made out like bandits? I know the district court level isn’t the national level, but the suit settled as it was clear the way it was going.
That the courts didn’t allow challenges based on a theory of monopoly doesn’t mean that the NFL is Anti-trust exempt. It does not have a Congress-sanctioned anti-trust exemption. Baseball, anomalously, does.
Granted. No congress sanctioned exemption… just a court sanctioned exemption.
Not a general court-sanctioned exemption, though, I assure you. The NFL may have ducked a bullet in that case, but it violates anti-trust laws at its peril.
It was a bullet neither side was willing to take. Also, the NFL does have limited federal antitrust exemptions by law, at least as applies to broadcast rights.
“It’s not a monopoly—there are plenty of other forms of entertainment, other sports.”
I must have missed all the other pro football leagues out there.
And if you have bought season tickets and dont go you are out a lot of money.
Personally the NFL has been losing my intrest for years, even more so since we got baseball back in DC. Too many drunks at the stadium to go to a game and the product on TV is just boring.
Personally, I think every fan that goes to a stadium should wear either a referee shirt or All black. Not settling this labor dispute is a black mark on the NFL and its standards.
From Packer country…you should have have waited one more day to post this.