ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported last week that the NFLPA will file a grievance against the Chiefs if running back Larry Johnson isn’t restored to his status as a starter after returning for his one-game suspension.
We reported recently that Larry Johnson and his agent, Peter Schaffer, are not expected to challenge the Chiefs in this regard.
On Sunday, Mort reiterated that the union is ready to file the grievance, but Mort also pointed out that Johnson is sending signals that he won’t fight it, attributing the posture to a general desire to not engage the team in any further fights.
But Mort is leaving out the most important point. Johnson most likely won’t be challenging any decision to bench him or not to add him to the game-day roster (which would cost Johnson more than $60,000 per week) because Johnson and his agent know they can’t win.
It’s one thing to send a player home with pay, which no longer is permitted by the CBA. It’s quite another to embrace him as part of the 53-man roster, to let him attend meetings and practices, and then to make a coaching decision not to put him in the starting lineup, or not to use him at all on game day.
Despite the rules and regulations imposed by a collective bargaining agreement, it’s still a team sport that, in the end, the head coach controls. Johnson seems to realize this; the union apparently doesn’t.
Though the goal might be to gin up some more leverage for the next round of CBA talks, the decision to leak a plan to file a grievance that the union should know that it can’t win risks creating the perception that the new union leadership doesn’t understand how the game of football really works.
I hope Jamaal Charles goes off today, just to stick it to Larry Johnson just a bit more!
this is no surprise. unions are outdated and unnecessary, so they use Sharptoning whenever they can. NFLPA, UAW – they all so the same thing: hurt and/or destroy the industry that employs them.
we don’t need these unions, what is it 1910?
“Despite the rules and regulations imposed by a collective bargaining agreement, it’s still a team sport that, in the end, the head coach controls. Johnson seems to realize this; the union apparently doesn’t.”
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Exactly. If the union EVER gets control over who plays, this game we all love is over as we know it.
Larry Johnson would probably prefer to be inactive than to risk injury for the rest of his remaining time with the bozo coach the Chiefs have.
The union would prefer that players are not disciplined for anything, and keep their starter spot.
Todd Haley would like all his players to kiss his a$$. Since LJ doesn’t do that, Haley won’t play him.
The Chiefs would prefer to spend as little as possible on Larry Johnson while preventing him from getting another paycheck. Thus, they will keep him on the roster, but make him inactive the rest of the way.
Larry Johnson will be cut or traded after the season.
LJ isnt committed to winning unless he is the main man. thanks, star system!
he is overrated and likely done as a force. his time as a force retired with some OL-men.
the union doesnt dictate who starts.
if they try that, a new union is needed.
“we don’t need these unions, what is it 1910?”
Actually we need them more than ever in this era of corporate fascism and ceos and boards firing 10s of thousands of people at a time to maintain their 50mil a year salaries while running companies into the ground.
Actually we need them more than ever in this era of corporate fascism and ceos and boards firing 10s of thousands of people at a time to maintain their 50mil a year salaries while running companies into the ground.
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I was once in a union for 14 years, and in that time we had 6 union reps, I’m not talking shop stewards, actual union representives, employed by my dues, and every last one of em thru the years was indicted for fraud or misrepresentation of funds, and all did jail time…. they are just as greedy as the facist ceo’s you speak of….The unions ran themselves into the ground, had they been honest, we’d still have employee’s with the rights they deserve……They built america, but destroyed themselves with personal greed…….
eskinsux – you have it correct.
the UAW is the most classic example. in all their “posturing” to get more money for the union members, ultimately every union member WAS overpaid, to the detriment of the companies that employ them.
of course, if our president was in the business of following the established bankruptcy laws of this country, all those union employees would be out of work right now. thankfully our president doesn’t follow the laws of the country. /sarcasm