While the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers were getting ready for today's Super Bowl, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) participated in several community service projects to help out the local community of the game's host city, New Orleans. The first event was "Feed the Children," where 14 current and former players, as well as other volunteers and community members, delivered much-needed care packages consisting of food and household supplies to families in need.

Football is a dangerous sport by nature, but it doesn't have to be as dangerous as it is today.

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) has awarded $100 million to Harvard Medical School for a 10-year study of player injuries and illnesses, including brain trauma. The study is funded under the collective bargaining agreement the players reached recently with the NFL. Its goal: to transform the health of current and retired players, whose lifespan averages 20 years less than men who are not professional football players.

Alex Morgan, one of the stars on the 2012 Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. women's soccer team, is on the verge of professional soccer stardom for a new team in Portland, Ore., as part of the new National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).  Morgan is advocating for strong collective bargaining rights for League players

Berry Craig, recording secretary for the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council and a professor of history at West Kentucky Community and Technical College, is a former daily newspaper and Associated Press columnist and currently a member of AFT Local 1360. Craig sends us this.

Pittsburgh Steelers partisan and union radio guy Charles Showalter is happy the union refs are back on the field.

But Showalter thinks unions should use the lockout as a teaching moment. So does Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO. Says Showalter, host of “The Union Edge: Labor’s Talk Radio” show:

The NFL’s lockout of its veteran and trained professional corps of referees is now over after the league and the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) reached a tentative eight-year agreement late Wednesday night. The referees will hold a ratification vote Friday and Saturday. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the end of the lockout means:

A football season, which started in disaster, can now get back on track. Not only toward fairness and integrity for the game, but ensuring the highest level of safety possible for the athletes who play the game.

The NFL referee lockout is a complete disaster—something that’s obvious to everyone except (supposedly) the people keeping the referees locked out. Much ink has been spent on decrying the replacement referees and how they’re ruining football (never mind how they’re putting players’ safety at risk). What hasn’t gotten much attention in this lockout is symbolic of a much bigger issue: Training for a high-performing workforce matters.

The union movement is the largest workforce trainer of adults outside the U.S. military.

This football season has become a disaster because of the greed of NFL management and team owners—who brought in more than $8.3 billion in revenue last year and who don't mind making a quick buck at the expense of NFL players’ safety, NFL fans and the integrity of America’s game, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in an e-mail to online activists. 

Since the botched call by a replacement referee cost the Green Bay Packers a win against the Seattle Seahawks Monday night, football fans all over the country are speaking out and demanding the NFL owners and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell end the referee lockout. (Read "Monday Night Football Disaster in Seattle Brings More Calls to End NFL Lockout of Refs.")

Sign the petition we’ve launched with our partner Daily Kos to NFL owners and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to demand they end the referee lockout.

If you were building a bridge, would you hire a work crew with a few hours of metal shop on their résumés, or trained and certified Ironworkers? Would you go into surgery with someone who only has a CPR certificate, or a real doctor with a medical degree?

If you’re NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, or one of the 32 NFL team owners, you'd go with the newbie—at least it seems that way, given their decision to lock out professional NFL officials and instead use untrained, unprepared and in-over-their-heads replacement referees.

If you’re watching NFL football on CBS this Sunday, watch for a new ad from the Electrical Workers (IBEW). The union’s 30-second commercial spotlighting IBEW members will air during the pre- and post-game shows and during the games. Says IBEW President Edwin Hill:

Our ad is a reminder that real people bring their skills to work every day to provide our nation with the power and the electrical and communications infrastructure that are often taken for granted. And in the case of our members, the people behind this success are making a decent living and are part of the fabric of their communities and the backbone of North America.

Want to help your favorite NFL player and member of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) fight against school dropout rates in your community?

Pledge to become a reader, tutor or mentor, along with the 30 football players and the United Way initiative.