Thank you for the positive comments in your criticism. Although I support the players overall, I agree they’ve made major mistakes in their handling of the situation. De Smith is an accomplished attorney (despite his Huggy Bear vocabulary), so comments portraying him as stupid couldn’t be further from the truth. But he’s always struck me as antagonistic.

Litigators enjoy litigating–it’s what they’re best at. But Smith always seemed to be salivating for a court battle, and his rhetoric isn’t helpful. A less dramatic personality may have been able to work out a deal without taking it this far. I’m convinced the rank-and-file never wanted a league without rules or a draft, and that Brady and Manning allowed their names to be attached to the suit because the leadership convinced them their “wattage” was good for the cause. Few players fully understood the leadership’s strategy and are now wondering how they got themselves into this antitrust quagmire that’s threatening the league as they know it.

Unfortunately, De Smith on the players’ side and Goodell/the lockout on the owners’ side have created so much bad blood, all they seem willing to do is argue about the bad blood. I don’t know the answer, but you’re right … there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Can you please stop being a shill for the players? At least take a look at the other side and realize that both sides are killing the game. Seriously, you post intelligent and insightful comments on a football BLOG all the time, you’re smart enough to know that this isn’t a one way street.

If you are going to insult someones intelligence, it helps if you spell it right.

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It also helps if you at least try not to omit Grammatical pieces of the sentence when you insult someones’ intelligence for insulting someone elses’ intelligence.

“He does strike me as over paid , under educated moron”

Sound familiar? And it’s TOOMER, not TOMMER, ya schmuck.

To me Toomer gives the Commissioner too much credit in the process. Goodell works for the owners. Goodell represents how the owners wish to be seen. In short, look good and make stupid decisions.

Mr. Rooney, why did you fight so hard (5 votes) to make Goodell the Commissioner? Goodell is without a doubt the most anti-Steelers commissioner in the history of the NFL.

the fact you exist here and are allowed to talk at all undercuts your whole point.

Where did you get that the players got everything they wanted? The owners currently receive $1 billion off the top of the revenue pie to cover expenses before the pie is divided between owners and players. The owners’ chief reason for opting out of the current CBA was because they want an additional billion off the top before revenues are divided. That wasn’t even addressed in the last offer made prior to decertification.

The 18-game season and other issues were just a smokescreen thrown up during the season to distract the general public from the pertinent point that the owners were trying to skim an additional billion from the revenues. That way, they could “give” on those areas and people would think they’d been oh soooo generous. Obviously it worked.

What they should really be saying: “life is too hard making millions for playing a game.” These “tough” pros sound like melodramatic teenagers, and its disgusting that they are serious enough about their comments to show that they have absolutely no understanding of hardships others (past or present) have faced.

Toomer went to Michigan–I’m sure he’s more intelligant than 80% of you clowns.
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I guess you went to Michigan along with him. Its apparent, that Toomer is not a history major and you can’t spell worth a f###k!
If you are going to insult someones intelligence, it helps if you spell it right.

Tool!

He does strike me as over paid , under educated moron that would be working at the car wash if he wasn’t playing football.

Toomer went to Michigan–I’m sure he’s more intelligant than 80% of you clowns.
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Post of the year!

Thanks. Best laugh I’ve had in weeks!

This is why the owners are winning the war in the court of public opinion. They have said very little and are used to orders by their negogiators/ lawyers to keep their mouths shut because they’ve been in the business world. There are only 32 owners to keep track of by the owner’s negotiators while there are thousands of players to to deal with, most of whom have little education and can barely form two sentences.

Those aren’t gazpachos, those are gauchos.

I thought gaucho was one of the Marx brothers.

You mean like Lenin?

No, he was one of the Beatles, the one that got shot.

Wait, what was the question again?

its the players that are using the nuclear weapon…not the owners.
Its the players that went to litigation. NoT THE OWNERS.
ITs the players that wont negotiate, NOT THE OWNERS.

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What would’ve been a better alternative for you, *ahem* the players; have the owners bend them over just for the sake of football?

- It the owners that opted out of a CBA that they agreed to in the first place, and it’s not the players responsibility to appease the owners by agreeing to give up an extra billion dollars.

- It’s the owners that were proven in federal court to have set up a “lockout chest” from TV contract money, not the players.

- It’s the players who worked with the owners in the week of March 11th ( three or four days before, and before the owners committee halted negotiations ) to shrink the gap from $ 1 billion to $ 700 milion.

-It’s the owners who offered a laughable ‘last effort” proposal that was only $50 million dollars ( the final demand was $ 650 million) less than what was negotiated earlier in the week.

It was only applauded for its minor details ( that would’ve been agreed to anyway if the money was right ) and that’s what the NFL wants you to believe, that it was so good that the players are “bad guys” for turning it down.

It was fresh in my mind because they refer to him as that in “The Kings Speech”, which I just watched. It was a continuity problem in the movie because the refer to him as “Marshal” before he was named that rank in the Red Army.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1504320/goofs

Anachronisms: In the conversation with Bertie after delivering the Christmas proclamation, King George V refers to Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin as “Marshal Stalin”. In reality, Stalin was awarded the title of “Marshal of the Soviet Union” in March 1943 after the conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad and more than 7 years after the death of George V.

So yeah, I KNOW what I am talking about. So I apologize for the spelling error. But if that’s all you have then you have nothing …

Nice job digging up a bizarre link that may or may not even be legitimate purporting to be a Time Mag. article from 1955, which also appears to be a translation.

I still think you mixed-up Joseph Stalin with Marshal Tito. Your quest to manufacture an excuse notwithstanding. Do you also call George Washington “General Washington?”

Hitler had absolute power.

When it comes to disciplining players, Goodell has absolute power.

Now, Tumor compares Goodell to the Nazi secret police?

If any proof were needed that these drones never cracked a book, that question has been answered.