Kansas City Chiefs players had planned to meet on Monday to discuss the lockout. An unexpected Indiana detour by linebacker Mike Vrabel apparently caused the meeting to be postponed by a day.
It’ll happen on Tuesday, with Vrabel, guard Brian Waters (pictured), and offensive lineman Rudy Niswanger leading the season, according to Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star.
“We want to make sure guys have an understanding of what the future weeks and months could look like,” Niswanger told Teicher. “We’ll go through the options of what’s going on, talk about our plans as players during this time, address the issues guys are having, get some information to the guys about the specifics of what went on in [labor negotiations].”
It’s not known how many of the players will show up.
“So far, the response has been good,” Vrabel said. “We’ll know Tuesday. I don’t think we’re going to get 100 percent. I can promise you we’re not. I think we’ll get between 50 and 75 percent. That’s pretty good.”
One thing that will come up is the type of work that players should be doing on their own.
“It’s good to get guys together,” Vrabel said. “I don’t think we should be doing any kind of field work. If guys want to run and lift, that’s good. But when you put guys on the field unsupervised . . . that’s like walking a tightrope without a net. The running and the lifting is great, but when you get out there and start throwing and covering receivers, you’re really taking a lot of risk.”
Vrabel is right. If a player suffers a serious injury, he could land on the non-football injury list, making him potentially ineligible for salary in 2011 if/when the lockout ends.
And, of course, there’s a chance that Vrabel will supplement the lockout talk with the tales of his time in a lockup. Here’s hoping he’ll say he claimed to be a karate man.