The career ends when his last team stops paying him and he stops working for them.

3.5 years average.

Well, I guess there’s possibilities on the plus and the minus for that one. On the one hand, you could say that by having the 435 idiots in Congress spend their time on the NFL could prohibit them from further screwing up our economy, not that they haven’t done a bang up job on that already, but on the other, having Congress “fix” the NFL could give us a NFL as disfunctional as the Postal Service, Amtrak, Public Education, or Public Health.

I’m not sure which would be the worse scenario.

Here are two groups of people who make more than I ever will, and they are just trying to figure out how to screw each other.

Goodell is the commissioner, and should be here for the good of the game. He shouldn’t be a shill for the owners, as he is.

Goodell should get the owners and De Smith together and lean on them to come up with something they can live with (which will be less than they want). Everybody is ripping Tagliabue for what the owners think is a bad deal. At least he got the owners to move significantly.

If any games are missed, something needs to be done to make sure that cannot happen again – and I mean Congress.

This is consistent with everything that has gone on before. They will keep suiing, suing, suing, until there is nothing else they can sue about. Unfortunately in this country you can sue anyone for anything, so they could tie up the NFL for a very long time. HOw does this help the players? It doesn’t. It does help attorneys such as Kessler and Olsen however. Kessler in particular is raking in millions so why would he stop suing and actually negotiate?

They apparently believe the stupid rich greedy providers of their living are drunk off their own fatcat money and have no heart, and will cave once the stadiums are empty on week 1.

Dumb strategy, but it looks like that’s what they’re doing.

As far as the player’s side caving because some guys will go bankrupt, think again. One mantra of the whole social warrior garbage is, “there are always necessary casualties in any social movement”.

You really think Smith cares at all about the group of players on the bottom third of the pole who won’t be able to handle this and will be hurt? No. Why? Because he apparently sees rather than doing a fair and honest deal some greater goal of sticking it to the owners deep as he can because that’s justice in thie world; and if there need be casualties of his own then so be it.

Open your eyes people.

I mean come on geez can’t they just make a decision and live with it…

I think any NFL fan, who has really enjoyed the last 12 years of the NFL, and who is following this closely without an ideological bent, would be leaning owners at this point.

I absolutely can see the players point of view on many things, but since they have been unwilling to compromise even slightest… I have no sympathy for them at the moment.

There, fixed it for you. Did that change anything in the statement about the age of the litigants? All that changed was that the average player would lose 1/2 to 1/3 of their career instead of 1/2 to 2/3 of their career. Still a heck of a sacrifice for them to willingly make, esp since this fight is mostly over the money paid to current employees. (probably a 5 year cba in the end)

Yes. my mistake was saying they took bailout money and I was wrong……but they did go to Washington and ask for money for the auto industry. Interconnectness of the BIG 3 and the suppliers and if one failed all would fail or something like that. I know you’re not a pro-owner shill, you live in “B-more” and hang with Fat Curt, Bunchie and the boys on The Corner….Gotta go folks, have a meeting to attend. Stick to facts people.

Unions. Screwing the many for the benefit of the few.

I hope that the Federal Govt does not get involved any more than they are through the courts. If the politicians, congress and the president, get involved, the mess that exists right now will be nothing compared to the cluster **** that will exist by the time they “fix” it.

Commissioner Roger Goodell clarified a myth about the average career length of an NFL player during a recent conference call with season ticket holders of the San Diego Chargers.

One fan on the conference call said she has read many times that the average career length of an NFL player is about three years, adding it seemed so many played much longer than that. She asked Commissioner Goodell about his knowledge of NFL career length.

“There is a little bit of a misrepresentation or a misunderstanding on that. Frequently, it is said that the average career is about 3.5 years. In fact, if a player makes an opening day roster, his career is very close to six years,” Commissioner Goodell said. “If you are a first-round draft choice, the average career is close to nine years. That 3.5-year average is really a misrepresentation. What it adds is a lot of players who don’t make an NFL roster and it brings down the average.”

According to a recent NFL Management Council analysis of players who entered the NFL between 1993 and 2002, the average career length for a player who is on his club’s opening-day roster as a rookie is 6.0 years.

You are crazy if you think these guys can afford to not receive an a season’s worth of game checks.

I also would not rule out the Federal Govt. getting involved based on the negative economic/unemployment impact a lost season would have on 31 major metro metro areas around the country.

http://www.cbssports.com/#!/nfl/story/15192190/miles-left-to-travel-but-real-progress-made-in-nfl-talks

Dont let this be your only source for NFL news, this site is filled with team employees and NFL shills. PFT is as balanced as they can be, but no way any site can cover every angle of this story.

The term for SCOTUS starts in October. I would guess that the docket is pretty much set for next year. IF this case is appealed to SCOTUS, it would be a minimum of October before it is heard, then a probably a couple months before an opinion is rendered.
Looks like the players (again only because their attorney is quoted) are willing to miss two, maybe three seasons to get this issue resolved. By then, half the named litigants are in their late thirties and retired from the league. Doesn’t look like even a win for them is a win, since the average NFL career is supposedly 3.5 -4 years.

Where are you getting those quotes from?

A deal will get done, because football players want to play and owners can not miss the revenue the game/players generate. So much for the owners “have other business’s that they make money on” LOL.