This is American capitalism at it’s best. God bless the USA. Both sides had a business agreement that ended. Both sides posturing for what they think they can get at the end of the day. Neither side believes they will alienate the fans to the point that we will stop spending.

Anyone who thinks the owners can ignore them is wrong. The owners know it. If they thought they could put a good product on the field without the star power that would sidelined, they would. They also know that canning them would present an opportunity for an upstart league. There are enough rich sport fan/businessmen in America to recognize an opportunity.

Personally, I begrudge no one who is trying to get the maximum of their market value (individually or as group). The trick is not to overplay your cards.

All big boys pursuing big money from a huge pot. Neither side is going to starve. Every move from both sides calculated to improve their end gain.

Let them have at it. I just hope they have underestimated the the third player in the poker game: the fans. There is a real possibility this goes too far for too long and both sides are revealed as too greedy and unempathetic. At which point they will need to make concessions (ticket prices, etc) to get us back.

I love a free market.

good luck with that.

Sadly, that means all the little folks will receive the same. Too bad greed on both sides hurts the innocent as well.

Sad Sad Sad

this is what most player backers think like. the majority of player backers are 13-19 years old. they love the players and think rich old dudes that run nfl teams arent as cool as the players. i know alot of philly people love the players too, but alot of patriot fans back the owners. sorry but philly fans never make any sense. and i am an eagle fan

“Then they filed a law suit, called the owners “slave owners”, ran an aggressive failure of a PR campaign and a true propaganda website with in an attempt to make the owners look like the villains trying to crush the little man. Ultimately the move convinced 3 people who comment on this site and one who runs it while the rest of the football world got the point”

that is so funny and true.

“…So how in the hell is that at the bottom of a Q&A column in the dot-com alphabet junkyard and not on the bottom of the ESPN ticker?”
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Mike, based on how you feel about this, why did you let this nugget drop from the top 10 or so articles on this site’s home page?

When push comes to shove the players are EMPLOYEES not employers. The sooner they realize that the better.

Basically, the NFL has kinda plateaued now. It’s gotten too big and ‘needs’ to die a lot to bring back the integrity again, but it’s also passed the point of no return too. Why a light at the end of the tunnel is always a new fledgling rival league that needs fans, bends backwards for fans, innovates, rules traditional and fan-geared, players appreciative of the chance and genuinely able to be taught in life and football, etc. Read Schottenheimer’s interviews on joining the UFL, how he hates the NFL now, players can’t be taught anymore, too much of a big business, players come and go, players all self-entitled, owners sweep out coaching staffs very quickly, etc.

Think back how the AFL forced the NFL to improve massively and dramatically at the time. Remember where the NFL was at the time, what the AFL did — innovations on and off-field, racial equality, etc etc. It was the catalyst for the merged NFL becoming the behemoth it is today. Once again, the cycle repeats tho. Where the game is now overall, in every area, is at another point of decay.

Thanks for that i was unaware. Good to know, I thought they were deleted simply because they didn’t like the content. Even still, if you gonna delete the links you could at least update the story since the information is clearly out there and from a reliable source.

This is why whenever a league is fledgling, and trying to make it, it’s always the salad days, a golden era. Like the AFL was. Like the XFL was. Like the UFL is now.

I guess they took De at his word when he sent then letter informing them that negotiation can occur … at their convenience. I suppose that a couple days before a law suit is not that convenient.

Isn’t this the modern age? Can’t the NFLPA* just send a counter offer via some type of electronic device?

Doesn’t the next offer need to come from the NFLPA* side? Do they really expect the NFL to negotioate against their own last offer without a counter offer on the table….errr… modern electronic device.

1. Expand the draft to 15 rounds for 2011

2. Open a FA signing period for 30 days after the draft.

3. Hold open tryouts

4. Give the current players an opportunity to return to work, under their current contracts, during the first week of August
(think you will be surprised how many come back)

5. Schedule camps, preseason, and regular season games as planed. Show the players that you are serious about moving on without them.

6. After 4 weeks of the season are in the books, give all remaining players 5 business days to return to work. If they choose not to, make it clear that this is their last chance to do so.

THE LEAGUE LIVES ON. For everyone that disagrees with this, keep in mind the average NFL career is 3.3 years.

It would only take a season or two of drafts and FA signings to get the NFL back to the standard.

Well 50% of every dollar a company makes is misleading considering that the NFL takes a billion off the top before they calculate the 50%. On top of that, the owners are asking for another billion off the top (although that number should come down when they enter serious negotiations). Then take into consideration that there are revenue streams out there that the owners collect that are not part of the collective bargaining agreement. So in reality, we’re talking somewhere closer to a 60 40 split in favor of the owners.
And finally, we’re talking about a cap, not a payroll minimum. No one’s putting a gun to the owner’s head and forcing them to use the whole cap. The spread between the lowest and highest payroll was around 60 million. So in reality, the 40% that the players are entitled to won’t be completely utilized.

And FWIW, why should the league meet and negotiate with a union pretending to not be a union for the sole purpose of breaking the league’s back? If the PA* wanted to keep negotiating they shouldn’t have gone through with the sham decertification. My guess is, the league thinks that even if Nelson rules for the players, they still have a great chance of winning in the appeals process.

Neither side is going to “win” the anti-trust lawsuit in terms of a trial verdict. This case will never, ever, see trial.

The players are not going to win and end the draft or restrictions on player movement.

The owners are not going to win and be able to impose any conditions they want on the players.

The key question is will the lockout stand or not. Once this is settled through the hearing beginning this week, negotiations will proceed with one side having considerable leverage over the other.

Whichever side has this leverage will get a deal more favorable to them.

This deal will then be entered with the court as the “settlement” of the lawsuit.

And all of this will happen within the next 4 months.

Trust me. I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

“The players opened this door.”

..right after the owners locked the doors.

—

The players walked out and the union was disbanded while their reps were still negotiating with the owners so they could go to court. 1. Walkout, then 2. Lockout.

Honestly, I wish they would all just sit down…no lawyers or NFLPA* morons on either side and just 5 owners and 5 players and let them hash it out. All this mess is doing is shoveling tons of cash in the lawyers’ pockets.

If so, I don’t blame them one bit for refusing to play right into the hands of this greedy power grab by DeSmith.

Since you are so smart you are fully aware that you can post from smart phones right? There is a PFT app and it is actually quite cool. For all you know I am on a flight, sitting in an airport, on the road, or doing some sort of work that doesn’t involve pushing papers across a desk like you.

Wow, I just typed a reply defending the author’s against multiple claims of bias and my links that are clearly relevant and published by the NFLPA are deleted???