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No. The CBA had another two years to run but an opt-out clause allowed either party to nullify the agreement prior to expiration. The owners chose to exercise the clause and the sides were trying to negotiate a new agreement.

The lockout is a strategy, almost like an owners’ strike. It’s the owners’ way of playing hardball and forcing the players to capitulate to their demands. While it’s in effect, players receive no pay, no contact with coaches or trainers, cannot use team facilities, cannot continue team-sponsored drug-treatment programs, etc. No free-agent deals can be made. The owners hired Bob Batterman, the architect of the NHL’s lockout, to lead their team. And until they were stopped by federal court order, they were trying to improperly funnel TV revenues into a lockout fund to keep them flush in case the lockout canceled the season. So they’d been planning this strategy a long time.

The union decertified to try and stop the lockout. The existence of the union has allowed the 32 NFL clubs to operate as a single unit with certain anti-trust exemptions. By decertifying, the NFLPA hopes to argue that 32 separate companies are colluding to fix salaries. They’ve applied for an injunction to lift the lockout while the case is being decided.

- we are not making enough money, and the last deal was bad for us (owners)

- take our word for this, because we will not show you our financial statements (which would at least make their case more believable.

- we are locking you out, and not agreeing fulfill the contracts we signed. No pay, no benefits- the contract we signed is null and void.

How would you react if your boss told you this tomorrow morning? “all of you go home until you are willing to be paid less money, because I am not making enough. Take my word for it, even though I gave you my word on a contract, and on a collective bargaining agreement and then reneged on my word.” I don’t think I would take them at their word.

I wonder if the players have considered negotiating with the UFL. I bet they would be willing to give them a better offer….

Your envy of the players is palpable. If it were that easy to become an elite athlete and make millions of dollars, then why aren’t you doing it?

Those men have taken their natural gifts and worked to develop them since childhood–often despite growing up in conditions that weren’t exactly conducive to personal and physical development. Their entire lives have been spent in the quest to be better 1/10th of a second faster or to jump 1/8th of an inch higher than the next man. And they can’t let down for a second or they’ll be passed by the guy behind them. They didn’t just wake up one morning and say, “I believe I’ll play pro football.”

It’ll still be my team with UfL type players taking on someone else’s UFL type players. Maybe we could even get their wages to a 100,000 plus range and cut our ticket prices by half!
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But here is the thing replacement or otherwise ticket prices will remain the same, beer will still be $10 a go and your hotdogs will still be $6 a shot. This is simply a game of brinkmanship and you have to thing it will go down to the wire before it is resolved. For all the age of people involved here there is very little maturity on show. Both sides are to blame and neither side gives a damn about you the fan. Remember that next time you cheer on your team!

We’re talking about owners who are so rich their HOBBY is…OWNING A FOOTBALL TEAM.
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You have it all wrong.

Owning is a business, playing is a hobby.

Coordinating employment positions, generating development, funding billion dollar stadiums, and being 100% responsible for financial and legal hardships is not a hobby.

Carrying a ball up a field while other dudes try to tackle you, that is a hobby.

I thought they taught you that in preschool.

no. 8 can’t talk to your agent! roger pinnochio thinks he’s fidel castro, can you say more lawsuits?

the league is a ____ joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you kidding ? I know of at least a dozen companies locally that have done JUST THAT in the last few months. People are losing their jobs and homes all accross the nation, with the few job openings that are available, paying hardly enough to put food on the table. Welcome to the REAL world !!

Look disagree with the players all you want but the owners ARE the ones that walked out, for good reason but its fact. The owners NOT the players opted out of the CBA. The owners enforced a lockout, the players did not go on strike. And the owners would have enforced the lockout whether the union decertified or not. They have admitted as much.

Dont let dislike for the union* tactics gloss over the facts of what actually happened.

You think Cromartie makes 7 separate phone calls to HR for child support information or do you think he does it in one?

Don’t try to act smart, you lack the firepower.

We’re talking about owners who are so rich their HOBBY is…OWNING A FOOTBALL TEAM.

And you’re taking their side because the players, who are merely good enough to collectively earn 9 billion dollars in revenue, and who have spent most of their childhood and literally their entire adult life dedicating themselves to the sport YOU claim to love…want a fair deal?

Retarded.

I know we’re not supposed to use that word any more…but it’s the only that fits. You’re all retarded.

And the next time one of these million- or billionaires takes YOUR hard earned tax money to refurbish or build a stadium, THEN complains about paying his taxes…you’ll probably support that, too, huh?

It’s no wonder the rich in this country cornhole the poor without end. You LET them, then do their dirty work when someone stands up to it.

Make no mistake. If Dan Snyder and Jerry Jones thought they could make 9 billion by outsourcing the player jobs to India or hiring illegal Mexicans…they’d do it in a heartbeat.

And you’d probably buy Raj or Pedro’s jersey for $20 bucks because you’re Washington or Dallas’ “biggest fan.”

They want far too much off the top. Owners have been systematically destroying the game over the past few years. They’re all about building unnecessary new stadiums, forcing out fans who’ve had seats for decades, and attempting to make a buck ANY way they can.

Shame on these scumbag owners.

Or only if they talk to each other?

Or only if they talk to each other about football?

Either way had to be awkward.

But Brady, et al, didn’t decide to go for more gold. The owners decided to go for more gold. And the owners imposed the lockout.

You guys blow my mind. You’ve created a fantasy in your heads that the millionaire players you despise (so why do you watch this game anyway?) demanded more money and went on strike. But that’s not what happened. The owners demanded more money and shut down the league.

1. Continue current strategy
2. Elect new player representatives, hire new lawyers.
3. I am being pressured to vote #1, so I respectfully will not vote.

Maybe they need a sub-union of backups to audit the existing power hungry idiots.

It’ll still be my team with UfL type players taking on someone else’s UFL type players. Maybe we could even get their wages to a 100,000 plus range and cut our ticket prices by half!

If the players think that they are going to get Joe public to support them getting another million or two, they’re nuts. Thanks all for listening to my banter.

Oh! That’s right. You want us to feel sorry for the players even though their “leaders” are the ones who actually chose this path by walking out on the negotiations.

The owners just said don’t come to work and don’t call us, we’ll call you.

Nothing to get very excited about.

Unless you’re a plant.

I’m finding it hard to find any level of sympathy for a 3rd stringer making $300,000 to be on the practice squad let alone for a player making $5million a year, to play a GAME.

The outspoken millionaires are killing the careers of the guys who are just trying to get on a team. They actually need the offseason to prove themselves.