While the NFL and the NFL Players' Association are attempting sue each other into submission and have placed the 2011 National Football League season in jeopardy with their labour wrangling, Major League Baseball and its Players' Association did something constructive recently.
The sides got together and hammered out an increase in pensions for retired players, improving the lot of the men who played the game before salaries skyrocketed.
Details were incomplete, but indications were that the changes would impact players who participated before 1980 with less than four years of major league service.
Currently, players who have been in the major leagues for 10 or more years are eligible for annual pensions of US$195,000 (Dh716,000), the maximum allowed under US law, starting at age 62.
Players from earlier eras, however, have not been so fortunate and many are in need of assistance in their old age.
To address some of these issues, the Baseball Assistance Team was created to help retired players with medical care and other problems.
But the improvements in pensions will be a big boost for such players who had the misfortune of playing when the average annual salary was $143,000 (in 1980) compared to the $3 million average salary players earned last season.
The move is a nice acknowledgement by current players - and their representatives - that the game was built by those who came before them and that those contributions should not be forgotten.