The NFL owners don’t have their hands on the steering wheel anymore and the players don’t have their feet on the pedal today because both of them are out of the driver’s seat as the NFL Players Association decertified their union and turned their relationship with the owners over to the courts. The two parties will sit in the backseat from now on, while U.S. District Court Judge David Doty drives.
The owners can’t be comfortable in the backseat knowing that the driver has a history of agreeing with the players. It was an eventful Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C. to say the least.
Everything exploded yesterday at about five o’clock when the Collective Bargaining Agreement deadline neared then passed. The media outside the building where the negotiations were taking place went into a complete frenzy, as they looked for information about where this thing was headed.
People were asking questions and it took awhile before anybody would offer any answers.
NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith talked first and let everybody know that if the owners didn’t immediately release the last 10 years of financial records for the NFLPA to review, the mediation would be over because the process of decertification had already been started. The labor lawyer refused to answer any questions and headed back to his office.
The owners had made their final offer and they didn’t seem to have any desire to change it. When the witching hour came and went, I along with millions of NFL fans was waiting for a hero to come to the rescue but no hero ever came. I expected to hear and see something from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell because he’s supposed to be thinking of what is in the best interest of the game.
Remember how he had told us that he would punish anyone who damaged the NFL shield, but he has done nothing as the owners and the players have been doing major damage to the image of the league.
He sounded and looked like he had egg on his face when he stepped up to the mic and gave his perspective on the process. His 
volume was low and his tone was hushed.
Goodell knew full well that this break down in negotiations would go on his record. He tried to make it look like he’s in the middle or above the negotiations when in truth he is on the owners’ side because they pay him over $10 million dollars a year. He accused the players of walking away from the deal but refused to say anything about the owners wanting the players to give concessions without opening their books to prove that they’re having hard financial times.
I think the Commissioner has come up very small. He should have stopped the owners from putting together that scheme to build a $4 billion dollar war chest and lock the players out for two years. Remember Goodell is supposed to be looking out for the best interest of the game and there’s no way, he could explain why a work stoppage right now with the game exploding in popularity and finances, makes any sense.
The NFL owners lead lawyer Jeff Pash came to the mic after Goodell and seemed to be in a fighting move even though the fight was over. He continued pointing fingers at DeMaurice Smith and the players in much the same way he did on Thursday afternoon. Pash spoke about how the union had misrepresented their intentions by negotiating up until five o’clock even though they had put into motion the decertification at four o’clock. He offered this as proof that Smith and the union had no real intention of making a deal all along.
Pash went through the last offer that the NFL had made. Like a good lawyer who only talked about the side of the disagreement which made his clients look good, but of course he didn’t talk about those lockout plans, which he and the owners had plotted with the $4 billion dollar war chest.
Next up in front of the mic was NFLPA lawyer, Jim Quinn, who promptly called Pash “a liar”. He accused the owners of continuing to present the same offer time and time again. Quinn says the last offer was no different than a number of the others which the players association had shot down.
After Quinn finished, Smith went back up and talked about how the owners had destroyed any good faith in the negotiations . The NFLPA Executive Director said the owners were wasting their time asking for concessions from the players without opening their books.
Smith brought up memories of Reggie White and other great players who had fought for a better CBA for the players in the 1990’s and that’s where it ended or began depending on the way you look at it.
Now a day later, the NFLPA has applied for decertification and the owners have officially locked the players out.
Now, coaches and management can’t communicate with players, and players can’t be signed to contracts. In addition players have to pay for their own health insurance.
The draft will go on and teams will evaluate and prepare for the draft, but after they’re drafted players won’t be able to do anything with the team that drafts them.
After that who knows.
I would not care as much about the owners greed if they gave back the public funding they received. That’s about 4 billion they took from the public over the last 10 years. How many more pockets are they going to stick their hands in?
Their theme song should be that famous line from a Doors song, ” We want the world and we want it now!!!”
Goodell should resign. He has shown no leadership ability in his tenure. Everything he has done is just in reaction to what happens. He should be proactive instead of reactive. Look at the way the game is officiated. Several players get hurt and all of the sudden you have the Horse Collar penalty. Some players get concussed, all of the sudden there are new rules about that (forget the fact that many concussions were caused by the player’s heads hitting the ground or that they don’t wear mouthpieces.) There are no guidelines to punishments for poor conduct, he just makes decisions as he goes along. My biggest complaint, is that he spent the last several years worrying more about expanding the NFL into other countries and markets instead of trying to avoid a work stoppage.
How are you not placing any blame on De. Smith?!?!?!?!?
Both sides are equally to blame. Both sides are lying, sneaky, greedy and egotistic. Both Goodell and De. Smith should step down!
As far as I can see wild I dont know what they players have done for you to make that statement. Sometimes wrong is wrong and you have to pick a side. I have seen the union consistently make one request and that is for the owners to justify their demand for 1 billion by opening up the books. Yet we get the usual pompous run around from the owners, I could understand if the league was losing money or they were talking getting rid of some teams, but the fact is the league has never been better financially. So again what is so bad about asking the owners to see the books? All of it from the past ten years? Probably because there is and has been some badly mismanaged finances on behalf of the owners and now they want the players to pay for their mistakes. Thats crazy.
YNJ, I just cannot justify an employee telling their employer to open the books. If any of us did that, we would quickly be shown the door.
How they couldnt come to a compromise when everyone is getting paid an enormous amount of money is beyond me.
wild_bk – The point you may be missing is that the relationship between the NFLPA and the NFL Owners can in no way be compared to you or me and our employers. We have the ability to quit and go work for another organization and remain in our chosen profession. NFL players do not and the Owners operate and bargain, like the players, as the single entity that they are. Frankly, the NFL owners have, unjustifiably, the privilege of being exempt from the federal government’s anti-trust laws when in fact the NFL Owners are every bit a monopoly and should not be exempt. It is this very monopoly that I believe gives the players the right to see the books. The Owners want to operate as a monopoly but and selectively choose to leverage rights as though they are not.
I can understand your point, BUT do we make our bosses the money the players have made the owners? Really its not comparable and the players are entirely justified when they are being asked to give back 1 billion dollars ok fine we can do that just open the books and show us how and where you have lost money in this deal. Thats fair and justified on the part of the players and I would bet judge Doty feels the same way.Really its about being transparent and honest and frankly the owners dont want to do that.