The NFL has locked out their referees over what amounts to chump change compared to the overall NFL revenue and profits. The product is being ruined by referees far out of their depth. If this were a private property that people choose to buy or not to buy, it would be the NFL’s prerogative to do what they want with it. But the NFL itself has extracted public money to pay for their stadiums, all under the premise that the game is a public good. We fans spend a lot of time and money investing in this supposedly “public good,” and it’s disgraceful that the NFL is busy throwing that investment in our faces with the garbage they are airing. NFL players are fined heavily any time they create even the perception of tarnishing the league’s image. Well it’s time to hold the NFL to it’s own standards.

How can we do this? The NFL doesn’t care if you shout at the TV, or call in to your local sports radio show, or even if you turn off the game. TV contracts are already signed and sealed, ads bought and paid for, and nothing on sports radio impacts anyone’s bottom line. The only way to the NFL is through their sponsors. Not just any sponsors, but the one’s who can feel the burn from a week-to-week change in their sales. Boycotting trucks and cable television providers is meaningless, but there’s one official sponsor whose products we choose to buy (or not) every week: Beer. Anheuser-Busch just paid millions of dollars to be the “Official Beer Sponsor” of the NFL. If they’re the official sponsor, then they are partially responsible for the product. Only be pressuring them can we apply pressure to the NFL to end this lockout.

Like this post or better yet, click the link to sign a petition at change.org. Either way, don’t buy any Budweiser products until the lockout is ended (even if you wouldn’t anyway, sign the petition).