Gridiron is booming, but a row between players and owners threatens the unthinkable.
A mighty battle threatens the fabric of US life. No, it's not the Obama health care plan. It's not about the right to carry guns – and it is certainly not the thus-far tepid contest for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. This dispute is different. It involves the country's most popular sport, booming as never before. But for how much longer? As a modern reincarnation of Rupert Brooke might put it: "Stands America's clock at ten to three, and will there still be football on TV?"
At first glance, the very notion makes no sense. The National Football League (NFL) – that brilliantly marketed athletic equivalent of war, featuring helmeted 20-stone warriors, juddering collisions and tactics of mindboggling complexity – is the richest sports league on earth, with revenues of more than $9bn a year.
Its owners are billionaires, its players millionaires. Its 32 teams are worth an average $1bn apiece and every one of them is profitable. Last month's Super Bowl, the NFL's marquee event and as important a date on the American calendar as Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July, was the most watched single programme on television here ever.
At first glance, the very notion makes no sense. The National Football League (NFL) – that brilliantly marketed athletic equivalent of war, featuring helmeted 20-stone warriors, juddering collisions and tactics of mindboggling complexity – is the richest sports league on earth, with revenues of more than $9bn a year.
Its owners are billionaires, its players millionaires. Its 32 teams are worth an average $1bn apiece and every one of them is profitable. Last month's Super Bowl, the NFL's marquee event and as important a date on the American calendar as Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July, was the most watched single programme on television here ever.
