Making a bunch of stupid punitive rules will only open them up to more AT rulings. It will also cause the players to actually ask for complete free agency. Which they would get. And that would effectively kill the league for all but a few teams. At least Seahawk fans will finally be happy.

My instincts tell that the owners have pissed off a group of judges. By asking for Doty to be removed, they questioned the integrity of a judge. I’m sure the others in that building didn’t appreciate that either. The owners basically acted as if they owned the court. Anybody involved in the legal field will tell you not to screw with a judge. If they are doing something illegal, fine. But don’t question their integrity.

Go back to crying because you don’t have any unique skills and can’t earn big money for your work.

Any kid out of college could replace 90% of you tomorrow.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Is this a very crazy and unsettling offseason? Yes.

Will football be changed forever for the worse? I doubt it.

The players haven’t asked for complete free agency. If they wanted that they could have forced it after the Reggie White case. The players have made it clear that they wanted to stay with the current deal. The owners say they don’t make as much profit with that deal. But I bet they would have made a lot more if they had gotten all that they could from the network contracts. Considering that the network deals could have been worth as much as two billion more over the last two years, the least successful team would have made almost 20 million in profits. Think about that. The one billion additional the owners wanted off the top would have been there if they had gotten the best deal possible.

The biggest problem with the NFL right now is penis envy. The owners look at all of the money their rich friend steal in the market and their corporate jobs. And they want that too. And like those finance workers and corporate heads, they will squeeze it out of the American people by any means necessary.

So, teams could make some really hard rules, and other teams could have harder rules. I think that the Chiefs should make a rule right now that every player that plays in Arrowhead Stadium has to partake in a blood/hair/urine analysis drug test every time they take the field in KC. Then, I think the Cowboys should start charging parking fee’s to the players. Like about $500 per day. Tow their cars if they don’t play. Then, New England could make a rule stating that OTA’s start tomorrow, but are mandatory, and there is a $100k fine per day missed. Really start screwing with the guys until they come together as a group and start to negotiate. I also think that Scott Pioli should just go out to colleges and start signing guys right off the street. Not upper tier guys. Lower ones. Offer them half of what they are projected to get, and explain that there is no maximum or minimum and they are going to be paid less this year. That will get the mid-level guys all worked up.

“Nothing like an outspoken black man to make the racists come out of the woodwork.”

Don’t be so tough on ‘em.
They might just be Republicans.

..oh, uh, wait.

Requesting clarification is an awful lot like the legal equivalent of tattle telling.

If I were the owners I would keep the players locked out. Who cares about some judge’s ruling. A federal judge ruled that Obama care is unconstitutional in it’s entirety. Yet, the Obama Administration continues to implement it.
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Wrong. Yes, the federal courts made their ruling, but the Obama Administration is appealing. That hardly means that he’s doing it anyway despite the ruling. Get your political facts in order before coming onto a SPORTS page to make an argument.

Secondly, if the league defies the court order, then the league opens itself up to lawsuits from not only the players, but the individual cities each team resides in, the states of the teams, the fans, and punishment from the courts. If that were to happen, then TV companies will begin to withdraw their money from the NFL and essentially be the death knell.

This ruling could ultimately force both sides back to the negotiating table to come up with a new *CBA or set of new league rules that everyone can live by.

Also remember, as much as folks gripe about player salaries, keep in mind just how much more the owners make. It’s all about tempering EVERYONE’S greed at this point.

@thewhitestguyhere says:

“Letting the government decide what’s best for your business is like asking a toddler to do your taxes”

You mean, like when the government took over GM, turned the company around after a decade of horrible management, and put GM in position to re-take the #1 car producer title?

I wasn’t for the bailout because bad companies should fail, no matter what the size, but you can’t argue with the results. The Gov’t DID get GM back on track. Or to put it into football parlance: “SCOREBOARD!”

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The truth is that the government STOLE GM from the rightful owners, violated federal law by not paying secured creditors, and played funny accounting games to claim that GM made money.

You don’t think the owners’ should have been working on a plan on how to run the league in the absence of a CBA as soon as the union decertified? The court is tell the NFL to run their business legally. That’s not too much to ask.
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Actually, I do think the league should have been working on a plan but it is not as simple as you seem to think it is. Are all the contracts now void since they were borne from an agreement that was only “legal” when a union was actively involved? If a trade is made, is that an anti-trust violation? What are the rules and how will they be enforced? Are there standardized rules anymore or must they be agreed upon by the two teams that are playing the game? Are the collectively shared TV revenues even valid anymore because one entity no longer exists?

There are way too many questions and too many variables for the league to do anything at all. Many fans complain that the owners are “billionaires” and therefor should stop trying to hold down the “working man”. The fact that most of these guys are billionaires should give the players a moment of pause. Player salaries are based on game checks not showing up to work. The players chose to use the “nuclear option” in order to gain leverage. They assumed the owners’ nuclear option was the lockout…what if they are wrong? Wouldn’t it be safer for the league to not conduct any form of business at all until a new labor agreement can be reached? The league could easily stop locking the players out but not hold any practices or play any games. Not all of the players have a “workout” or “roster” bonus. The “nuclear option” for the league could be to simply suspend everything yet allow the players to show up for “work”.

Really? Is that why the US government is looking at massive losses on the sale of the stock it now holds in GM? If that’s your idea of a successful business venture, my guess is you’re one of those people who don’t pay any federal income taxes and don’t really care how much taxpayer money is flushed down the toilet.

It’s not posted here yet, but Goodell has a press release in which he whines that, if the players get their way, the NFL Draft will go away and that the game as we know it will be fundamentally changed.

Looks like he and the owners didn’t think things through too well before they opted out of a valid CBA and decided to play hardball with the players.
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So the players’ union sucker punches the NFL and you blame the NFL for not anticipating it?

De Moron uses the same playbook. Too bad for him most fans see right through it.

Really? The owners lied about needing $1B more, the players wanted to keep it as is.

The players want to play, the owners are stalling the season.

The players have the law on their side, the owners don’t.

This is a lockout. Not a strike.

Fear mongering, just like “Death Panels” and “GOP wants to end your Social Security”.

They take what the most motivated part of the base loves the most, and pretend it is in danger.

Useless hack. Empty suit. Tired strategy.

Losing.

Also, free agents won’t be able to get a new contract.

Oh, I think the owners have thought this through very well. Why do you think they hired David Boies? Simply to make a 40 minute presentation before this district court judge in Minneapolis? How foolish can you possibly be? Boies is known, well known, for his work on appeal. The owners, and most people with any clue whatsoever, knew that the Minneapolis court was home field advantage for the players and its union. That was a given. Why do you think the players always run to that very same court? The NFL went into this knowing full well that the first round would go to the union in Minnesota.

The union hacks and the racialists here harumphing the “win” yesterday, are akin to fans thinking the game is over after their team gets a first down on the opening drive of the first quarter. This thing is just getting started.

The league operates beyond the scope of nomal business law. Until there is a CBA that continues it, football runs the risk of becoming dominated by a few teams. That will be great for 2-3 years for fans of those few until you realize that half the teams in the league are not competitive and in jeopardy of folding or moving.

I don’t see how seeing Carson Palmer traded could be more important that having rules established that prevent the Brown family from saving their way into a perenially financially profitable 1-15 team that cannot or will not compete for top tier rookies (no draft) or free agents. And the Bengals won’t be the only ones in that boat.

It is the height of absurdity to expect the owners to operate in any way given that there is already one anti-trust lawsuit that has been filed and hundreds of others waiting in the wings. As has been mentioned here before, a finding of ant-trust brings treble damages. Simply conducting the draft could leave the 32 teams open to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. Operating this season, in any way, which shows any cooperation between any or all of the 32 teams leaves them open to the loss of hundreds of millions more.

The only way forward for the NFL is to follow the example of the NHL. Cancel the season, force the union to reinstate itself, and to force upon them a very severe CBA.

Were I a NFL owner, I would not consent to paying these guys hundreds of millions of dollars while the same guys are suing me for hundreds of millions more. There is no law in the US whereby the government can force a business to remain open and lose money.

Looks like he and the owners didn’t think things through too well before they opted out of a valid CBA and decided to play hardball with the players.