If the person I am interviewing is smart enough to negotiate and ask for better terms, I usualy agree. If they accept the first thing I hand them, well thats what they get. Its pretty much the rule for anyone thats had any sort of business management schooling.

As a member of management who negotiates with unions all the time, I find it surprising that 60% or more on this site are pushing for union members to just roll over. If I was the one in the room with them that had made the offer, and they just accepted straight away, I would say are you sure about this? Why don’t you take the weekend and think it over. I alway advise new hires to take at least 24 hours and talk it over with their wives or signifigant others (yes I know I am a college grad that cannot spell without a spell checker, most times I am in word or dictating to my office manager).

Honestly, I think the this gets accepeted with some modifications sometime this week. It was the three days to negotiate certain parts of the contract or it falls back to the old rules that I think was the sticking point.

I do think people on this board are amazingly pro management and I wish I people were all like that were I work. Most of the people we have, put in their 40 hours, with the minimum of work to keep their jobs and call it a week.

People on this board seem to advocate the players should sacrifice life and limb for whatever the Gods of the NFL deem fair to give them (yes I know they get big paychecks but so do all other entertainers. Does Jonny Depp really deserve 25 million each time he plays Captian Jack?).

I know, I’ve been far too lax and haven’t made an attempt to hide my true identity. PS, I actually am guilty of what I’ve been accused of in the past. I did it.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

Best Wishes,

Ben

Looks also like 99% of the fans are now against the players on this. Nice job D Smith.

Real bush league move by the owners. So all of you union bashers got a decent excuse for this? Is this looking after the game or Jerry Richardson’s bottom line? To spend weeks negotiating an agreement and then try to slip things past your opponent that weren’t agreed is seriously low (would Judge Boylan be all that impressed by this?). This was supposed to be the start of a ten year labour peace and the owners pull this. I am disgusted.

The owners started the lockout and now are screwing up the season.

Please, enlighten us…what is this bush league move the owners made ?? What are these things that the owners are trying to slip past the players ?? Why hasn’t De Smith stepped up and explained these points ?? Why is it that every time things blow up for the NFLPA, De Smith disappears ?? His answer is to get the lawyers involved and litigate another law suit. If he’d had been doing his job, this probably wouldn’t have happened….

Look, in any labor contract, everything that is agreed on by the respective councils won’t please every member of the rank and file, that’s a given, but De Smith’s job is to sell what he’s spent the last several months negotiating with the owners to his constituents….how does he respond…he disappears…let’s his (at this point) uninformed player reps spew garbage to the public that may or may not be accurate…

Very disappointing because I was really beginning to warm up to Smith and the work he was doing to keep these negotiations on track…

I want to know what happened. Is it as simple as they players not knowing that revenue sharing would be in the CBA they got? And mistaking it for something entirely new?

Seriously, they need to get some journalists in at ESPN.

I’m confused as to how a 72 hour window to sign your own players can start before the union is re-certified.
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My inexpert guess is that it has something to do with the 8th circuit ruling that any players not under contract may not be subject to the lockout.

I am not sure that the NFLPA’s bee in the bonnet is about the PROCESS of re certifying but my guess is that it has something to do with setting a precedent for guys to be able to report and play or stat team activities sans union but with an agreement. Thereby insuring that in the future the owners can’t claim that a CBA has to be in place for players to report. Or it could have to do with the “looking like a sham decert” thing. Either way I have a hard time believing that this drama over the date and method of re certifying isn’t more about the future precedent than it is about anything now.

I had a bad feeling yesterday when “measured and reasonable sounding De” reverted to “angry pugilstic sounding De”.

Then why is it in the agreement that the players need to approve?

Not challenging you, this just confuses me. I agree, seems like none of their business…but it is somehow in an agreement for them to approve?

1) The above comment is ridiculous. The owners are trying to push some stuff in at the last minute that easily could have been discussed in the MONTHS leading up to this day.
2) The players are NOT employees, they are partners in a revenue sharing agreement, something Joe Fan doesn’t understand.
3) The OWNERS led to this problem, by locking the players out. The OWNERS now tried some last-minute crap to buffalo fans who think this is a simply employee-employee deal, which it isn’t.

1) What is it that the owners “tried to push through” that wasn’t agreed upon before the proposal ?? Wasn’t De Smith and his team involved in this ?? What responsibility do they have to the players ?? Nothing important, but keeping them informed….Seems someone dropped the ball.

2) Wait, what players put up the money to purchase a franchise, provide a venue for the games and organize the league ?? They are NOT partners…they are employees. Partners implies they supplied money/services/venues to start the business…that isn’t the case here.

3) The owners locked-out the players AFTER the players walked out of negotiations and had to lockout to protect themselves from anti-trust violations. The players decided to de-shamify before the lockout commenced or was announced…

The owners are not squeaky clean in all of this, but the NFLPA is as dirty as it can possibly be in all this. They have, through either ignorance or poor planning, done everything to hold up an agreement in this particular case. Shame (not sham) on De Smith and his council for not keeping his constituents abreast of the negotiations…

They voted with a few minor details that hadn’t been negotiated or taken up with the players. They basically threw in the resolution to these details in the outcome favorable to the owners and then voted, knowing that it would make the players look like the bad guys for not signing the deal when they were so close to having football back.

I don’t blame the players one bit for being upset. Imagine if the players voted with the minor details in their favor and then asking the owners to sign off. Same thing would’ve happened and everyone would be crying that the owners were being babies.

I read a lot of opinions on here and it seems no one understands how complicated a new CBA is. comments like ‘just sign it or it shows you don’t care about the fans’ give me a break.

They are creating a CBA for the next 10 years, I’d say they better get it right instead of giving in to every owners demands.

NFLPA* “I’m enraged! How could you?! I’m telling the press you guys voting on it already before us is your fault! Yeah, we’ll vote on it tomorrow.”

Revenue sharing “supplemental”
Workman’s Comp

Two I heard…and I haven’t seen all the accounts. It’s there if you pay attention with an open mind.

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The Revenue sharing is between the OWNERS – Does not affect the cap talks or flippin floor.

The Workmens comp was addressed by the owners as not being part of the agreement and that state law would control what they called a “complicated situation”

The frikkin players were manipulating the workers comp laws to say if they played a game in state X they could go by those laws as the most favorable ones. Either way that is decided by the states.

The players clearly stated they had not been able to see the agreement. So tell me sir how could they say the owners did anything shifty?

It is BS the players are stalling because their leadership did not communicate to them well and they are trying to blame that on the owners who seem to have their act together.

Two I heard…and I haven’t seen all the accounts. It’s there if you pay attention with an open mind.

Perfectly said

And are you telling me the NFLPA attorneys didn’t have a hand in “drawing up the deal” and know the EXACT verbage of the agreement??? ……. riiiiiiiight!!

Now they say the owners slipped them some changes? The VERY same changes they had no interest in being a part of, because it delt with the owners revenue sharing?? …..riiiiight!!

…. and on top of that, they say they didn’t have a copy of the deal?? …..riiiiight!! (what’s next? My dog ate the only copy??)

Just who is running the show for these clowns?? If the NFLPA is making millions why didn’t they have the foresight to have contingency plans in place. … these guys have planned for, and projected scenarios for EVERYTHING from the get-go….

…. and now we’re supposed to buy the fact that they’re simply unorganized??? …..riiiiiight!!

Tell the truth (for once) you bastards…. you’re stalling. The reason will come out soon enough, but for now, each one of you has a different story.. and we’re supposed to believe you’re faultless? Riiiiiight.

I hope to GOD, that if you continue to play your little (transparent) games beyond the week-end …. the owners pull the plug on the whole thing and start over next year with ALL ROOKIES. (The Bucs proved that it can still be an exciting brand of football, without the “entitled” group of vetrans….. and in 2 or 3 seasons, noone will even remember who you were, only the fact that you were jackasses throughout the process.)

I’m sure the fans will only ask one question….. “WAS IT WORTH IT”??

….and regardless of your answer, the only logical response from me will be: “GOOD RIDDANCE”!!

/rant

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Says who? The players said they haven’t seen the deal…

They also said the “owners are trying to slip something in it”

How would they know that if they had not seen the deal. Get your facts straight…..

What goes around comes around.

If there was something it would have been leaked by now. With public opinion turning on the players someone would have said something.

That made no sense, was a poor analogy and is just plain not true. Remember that the owners couldn’t lift the lock out if they wanted to. They would be prone to anti trust litigation. I’m not saying that the owners are not at some fault, but the players are just being stubborn. Also, I don’t believe for one minute that the players wouldn’t have went on strike if the owners hadn’t locked them out.

Who’s kidding who…De Smith and his team looks more and more inept as time goes on during this thing. Certainly, they have to go thru the process of de-shamification, that’s a given but if there was an agreement with the owners by the NFLPA team, they should be out there selling it hard and there shouldn’t be any holdups in this…

And what are these issues that the owners “slipped” into the deal ?? Lots of talk about this but no proof of anything by anyone ?? I just find it very hard to believe that the owners went to the trouble to put the timetable in with this letter and not have reviewed that timetable with the NFLPA council ?? Unless the NFLPA was baiting the owners into a version of “coercing” the players to unionize, which I think any judge would see thru… The NFLPA has been wrong on many points during this process, and this is just one more way of showing their ineptitude…