BEAUMONT — Editor’s Note: The following column from the Best of West Collection was originally published in the Port Arthur News on Oct. 18, 1987.

Well, boys and girls, if you were paying close attention while the National Football League strike unraveled, you should have come away with new respect for the golden rule. No, not that golden rule. The one that says he who has the gold makes the rules.

NFL owners have the gold, so much of it in fact that six of them are on the latest Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest people in the United States. They were wealthy enough and powerful enough to play by their own rules, which is exactly what they did in squashing an overmatched group of football players.

Want to know something else, boys and girls? A lot of the relative little guys out there, people like your mommies and daddies, cheered and whistled and stomped their feet when the owners pounded the players into submission.

They thought it was pretty neat seeing those greedy football players get their comeuppance.

Such freedom of choice, of course, is one of the joys of being an American. Farmers are entitled to vote for Republicans before and after the foreclosure, trusting souls may send as much of their hard-earned money to Jim Baker as they like and fans have every right to cheer for owners who have only slightly less contempt for them than they do the players.

Yes, I know, it can get pretty confusing, but our forefathers laid down their lives so we’d be able to make our own choices. Think about it a minute, now. If this wasn’t the land of the free and the home of the brave, people wouldn’t have been able to stand up and cheer for scabs — aka replacement players — the owners so generously provided to fill the breach.

Those scabs really deserved to be cheered, too. Without them, the fat cat owners wouldn’t have had the leverage to play hardball.

So what if the scabs weren’t good enough to earn a job in the real NFL? So what if their only ticket in was through the back door? So what if they undermined the cause real players made supreme sacrifices to try and achieve?

Hey, if you’ve got a dream follow it. Don’t let a trifling matter like the fact you’re stealing another man’s job get in the way. After all, it’s only temporary. And if you’re lucky enough to land somewhere like Dallas, you’ve got a chance to be a certified hero.

Plus, you’re probably naive enough to think you can count on Massah Tex Schramm to give you every consideration, after he’s through using you as a pawn.

Goodness gracious, there was just so much to learn about this land we live in from the strike, boys and girls.

Like, for instance, it’s okay for the independently rich to be greedy, conniving, manipulating and whatever else you care to call an NFL owner, but it’s not acceptable for a football player to want to improve his conditions because he’s making good money.

Now this lesson’s really important because it’s sort of the definitive statement on American hypocrisy. The message, I think, is that if you’re a professional athlete your salary level disqualifies you from having the right to push for a say in where you work or what your benefits are.

In order words, once you reach a certain income tax bracket, you’re supposed to quit wanting more and better. After all, look at how many doctors, politicians and lawyers who, after they reach a certain plateau, feel guilty about what they’re earning and refuse to further exploit their particular gift.

Oh, yes, and as an NFL player you must accept that adults will make  fools of themselves getting your name on a piece of paper, that a visit from you can mean everything to a hospitalized or handicapped child, but that you’re resented because of what you make.

You must also accept that nobody wants to be confused with facts about a career expectancy of 3.5 years, constant pain or the chance it could all end on one play.

It’s expected you be a role model, and perfectly accepted for you to provide the kind of entertainment that causes adults to behave like adolescents, but don’t take that to mean you’re anything special. If you were you’d be less demanding, so more owners could be on that Forbes list the next time it comes out.

Okay, boys and girls, we’re going to wrap up today’s lecture with a couple of points for you to ponder, as the farce of an NFL season continues with scab results counting in the standings. Keep them in mind while you’re bombarded with comments about player stupidity and how much money the players lost without gaining any concessions.

An awful lot of players with virtually nothing to gain from a strike, players in their last season and those at the top end of the salary spectrum, sacrificed dearly to help teammates on the other end of the wage scale.

Jim Kelly lost $270,000 during the strike, Dan Marino wasn’t far behind and neither were guys like Warren Moon, John Elway and Brian Bosworth.

These people aren’t stupid, aren’t dumb jocks. Neither is Dallas linebacker Jeff Rohrer, the Yale graduate who’s probably cut his own throat by being so outspoken about management and the issues. When people with so much to lose and so little to gain give so much of themselves, their message is worth hearing.

Finally, the owners may have stuffed the players in the short run, but they’re going to pay in the long run for their unbridled arrogance. By refusing to negotiate, by gutting the union, they’ve moved the battle into the courtroom. It’s the one arena where all the wealth in the world won’t help.

By the time judges are through, you’ll hardly recognize the socialistic society we know today as the NFL. Players will have free agency, and there won’t be a draft. No judge, without the constraints of a collective bargaining agreement, is going to uphold concepts that are out of bounds in the American business structure.

The owners, indeed, won the battle. But it’s possible they will end up losing the war because it will be fought in the one arena where the golden rule doesn’t always prevail.

Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net. His Sportsrap radio show airs Wednesdays at 8:05 p.m. on KLVI (560-AM).