Linebacker Mike Vrabel spent eight years playing for the New England Patriots, but as a member of the NFLPA’s executive committee, Vrabel says he doesn’t like the way Patriots owner Robert Kraft characterizes the relationship between the players and the owners.
Vrabel told the Boston Herald that Kraft “uses words like ‘partnership,’ and he throws the money and the dollars around,” but that Kraft isn’t accurately assessing the situation.
“What we have is not a partnership,” Vrabel said. “If we had a partnership, you would see what we made -- they know what we make -- and we would see what they made. We don’t have that. So don’t use the word ‘partnership’ or ‘bond’ and all that stuff.”
Vrabel, who was traded from the Patriots to the Chiefs last year, is about to become an unrestricted free agent, and he says he’ll play in 2010, although he doesn’t know where.
He does know, however, that he’ll be involved in the union’s efforts to get a deal done with the owners. And he seems to think those talks will take a long time.
“Is a lot getting done? No,” Vrabel said. “Right now there doesn’t seem to be, as you might say in coachspeak, a great sense of urgency to get anything done.”