When President Barack Obama framed an NFL lockout and the possible cancellation of the 2011 season as a quarrel between billionaires and millionaires, he missed the point, The Nation’s Dave Zirin told GRITtv.

“It’s the difference between 31 of the richest people in the United States, who have generational wealth, against a workforce that will work on average three and a half years and then have debilitating health problems for the rest of their lives,” Zirin says. “On top of all that, they tend to come from socioeconomic backgrounds the likes of which people in the owner’s box cannot imagine.”

For more on this issue, check out Zirin’s latest piece “Taking Sides in the Looming NFL Lockout.”

—Sara Jerving