During a Wednesday conference call introducing the new personal conduct policy, NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent dismissed criticism from the NFLPA of the revised standards.
“People who don’t like discipline are those who have committed a criminal act,” Vincent said.
NFLPA spokesman George Atallah appeared on Thursday’s PFT Live to discuss the new policy. Asked for a response to Vincent’s comments, here’s what Atallah had to say in response to the former player and former NFLPA president.
“It doesn’t even warrant a response,” Atallah said. “I mean, that’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. That doesn’t even warrant a response. I don’t even know how you could come up and say that as a former union president. The facts are way different than what he’s portraying them to be, and it’s really, really disappointing that somebody’s who’s in that position, as a former player, would say something like that. . . . Talk about antagonizing the majority of our players who do good things in the community, do great things off the field, and he’s out here saying that players who want a fair process are only perpetrators? I mean, what is there to say? It goes to show you the heart of how they view players in general and, frankly, it’s despicable.”
Here’s the full interview with Atallah, which includes a response to the NFL’s belief that, if the players didn’t like the personal conduct policy, they should have insisted on making changes during the 2011 CBA negotiations.
We’ve invited the NFL to make someone available to address the situation on Friday’s PFT Live.