The NFL On Welfare Incentives & Credible Threats

A lot of good economic intuition coming out of the Super Bowl coverage in the shadow of the lockout:

Steelers veteran safety Ryan Clark also was critical of this week's special masters ruling not to stop millions in guaranteed money from television networks going to the owners if there is a lockout.

"If no football is played next year, the networks will have no games to show but are going to pay [the NFL] still," Clark said. "You don't put a contingency plan like that into place if you don't plan on using it. If someone told you this week, 'I will pay you a million dollars to not go to work, what incentive do you have to go to work?'"

Well said.