The look on the players faces in a couple of years when the salary cap plunges is going to be priceless...never a good idea to keep pushing the people who are ultimately paying your bills and your salaries.
The networks pay roughly 3.5 billion a year from advertising revenue to the NFL, and it gets dispersed out to the teams. If the networks lose one-third of the viewers (now likely)...the check will shrink to 2.5 billion...that has to be shared out between NFL management and the 32 teams.
No one talks over the fan paraphernalia (jackets, hats, etc)...but the more popular teams probably make several hundred million a year. Toss in direct-TV arrangements, stadium deals with the beer and hamburger crowd, and stadium tickets....it’s a hefty amount of money prior to 2017.
My guess is that an emergency meeting will occur by mid-November to discuss the lesser attendance and dramatic fall in viewership on TV. The fan paraphernalia expert for the NFL will spell out the issue of Christmas season and a big drop in sales.
I would go and speculate that expenditures will be discussed and clubs will go to lesser contracts already in the spring of 2018. That deal with union and NFL on 55-percent of media profits going to the players? When the union announces a one-third drop in money off that deal...players, retired players, and agents are all going to ask what’s going on? Disbelief? People actually stopped watching NFL action and declined to buy the stupid $400 leather jackets made in China? Oh my.