As the powers-that-be with the NFLPA* meet in Washington to digest the proposed labor deal and as the owners prepare to do so tomorrow, Don Banks of SI.com has sprayed some cold water, Javon Walker style, on the optimism that the agreement will be approved.
Banks reports that the status of the deal is more “tenuous” than widely believed. He also reports that it’s too early to know whether the players will vote on the proposed agreement on Wednesday.
Many think that the folks who have something to say at the meeting in D.C. will say what they have to say, and that the players then will vote to approve the deal. If the guy they hired to negotiate the deal, NFLPA* executive director DeMaurice Smith, recommends the proposed package, then there’s no reason to reject his advice.
But not every NFL player is logical and rational, especially once they’ve been worked up by months of rhetoric from Smith and others who are leading the charge. Some players want a fight, and Smith’s challenge will be to persuade them that a fight was indeed waged, and that by preserving a 48-cents-per-dollar cut of an ever-growing revenue pie, the players have won.
Smith also needs to be able to remind the players how much they’ll lose once preseason games, and the revenue they generate, begin to evaporate.