How badly does the NFL want the players to do what many of them think will be a bad deal?
Badly enough to brag about the bad deal the NFL did in 2006.
After embracing comments from men like Kevin Mawae and Kurt Warner regarding the value to the players of the contract negotiated in 2006, the NFL has now wrapped its arms around the heavily tatted torso of Dolphins lineman Richie Incognito.
At NFLLabor.com (apparently, ProFootballPropaganda.com was taken), the league trumpets comments from Incognito regarding the recently-expired labor contract.
“We kicked their butts in the last negotiation so we’re not going to settle,” Incognito said in quotes given to ESPN.com and copied at NFLLabor.com. “This is our livelihood and as players we’re united. We’re sticking together 100 percent.”
The league embraces Incognito’s thoughts because they “demonstrate that collective bargaining by the players’ union has worked well for the players, whose compensation has doubled in the past decade.”
And, of course, the league wants to engage in collective bargaining now because the league knows that it will work well for the owners, with their ultimate collective bargaining weapon -- a lockout -- eventually causing the players to take the deal that the NFL is offering.
The league is so intent on making that happen that the NFL is willing to tell the world that we’re all currently in this mess because 30 billionaires blew it in 2006 by giving their blessing to a bad deal.