• March 29, 2024

Bogus NFL Labor Talks Continue As Deadline Approaches

I don’t know what the percentage is, but there are quite a few NFL players who live over their heads from a financial perspective. Players are paid every week of the season, so they are required to properly manage their money so that it will at least support them throughout the year.

Despite making millions of dollars, many players mismanage their money are unable to make it to the next season without borrowing money from a bank or from the team. Many of NFL players are supporting their parents, siblings and others.

You can believe that they’re going to face tremendous pressure if there’s a lockout.

In addition players are now making hundreds of thousands to workout at the team facility during the off season. Although the workout money isn’t at the same level as their salaries, players will miss it severely if it’s cut off.

That report about a teammate asking Eagles rookie defensive end Brandon Graham for $100,000 dollars because the player didn’t have the money to survive a lockout is the reality of the situation.

The players who aren’t prepared for a lockout have nobody to blame but themselves because they’ve been forewarned by the NFLPA for years to put money away in case there was a lockout.

Of course the owners are aware of the financial habits of their players and they were probably emailing the story about Graham to each other. That’s why I think these current talks are bogus. They’re being done by the owners for public relations and public relations alone. Yesterday, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, New England Patriots owner Robert Craft, New York Giants owner John Mara, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson and a number of other NFL owners made sure they showed their faces at the meetings in Chantilly, Virginia as a way of saying to the nation, “We’re trying”.

As I see it, there’s little chance of the owners and players coming to an agreement before the lockout begins at midnight tonight.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, and a number of NFL owners and players met yesterday with federal mediator George Cohen but they remain at an impasse. They’ve got 15 hours to get a deal done or the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires.

The main sticking point is the battle over how the $9 billion dollars of revenue which the NFL brings in each year, will be split up. Of course the owners want more of the pie. They feel the deal that they agreed to in 2006 isn’t fair. They want the players to contribute to the monies needed to build new stadiums.

The word on the street is that the owners know that the revenue is going to get much higher than it is now because of advancements in technology, namely cellphones, so they want to put themselves in position to rake in those extra dollars. They don’t want to share that windfall with the players.

About eight years ago, I remember Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie telling a group of reporters that he could see the day when 4 billion Chinese football fans were looking at NFL games on their cellphones.

Imagine if the NFL was getting a dollar from each of those fans. That’s where the NFL is headed. Plus they’re planning on expanding to other countries. A number of owners said publicly they were willing to sacrifice this season in order to change the CBA.

The players on the other hand would have no problem if everything stayed as it is, but they’re going to have to stand strong and battle in order to keep things status quo.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge David Doty was a win for the players, but the judge still has to rule on what needs to be done with the $4 billion dollars which the owners are supposed to receive from the networks if there’s a lockout. He could force the owners to share those monies with the players.

The players association is also considering decertifying their union, as a way to attack the NFL’s vulnerability to anti-trust legislation.

GCOBB

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drummerwinslow
drummerwinslow
March 3, 2011 9:35 am

I’ve got two words: “Greedy owners.”

paulman
paulman
March 3, 2011 9:50 am

No sympathy from me for any of these players who many have been spoiled
and over-hyped since they were teenagers from their families,coaches,colleges,etc,etc.. The NFL has rookie meetings and off-season conferences about managining your $$$ and many players simply don’t take advantage or follow thru on good practices to save and protect your $$$..
It’s part of the American Culture in today’s society where younger people don’t value much of anything, from hard work, accountability, to elders, to authority all the way to the value of a Dollar.. Many of these young Athletes,Entertainment,Politicans live in and surround themselves in such a Fish Bowl that they don’t know even the difference between fantasy and reality.. Just another example of the “Pussyfication of these United States” where our Society has become Soft,Stupid and Weak..

ozzman
ozzman
March 3, 2011 9:52 am

Well said Paulman.

drummerwinslow
drummerwinslow
March 3, 2011 10:39 am

And yet, you support them, Paul.

Tberry4
Tberry4
March 3, 2011 10:41 am

@Paulman – I agree with everything you’re saying but that has nothing to do with fairly slicing up a 9 Billion dollar pie. What the players choose to do with the money they earned shouldn’t affect the future of football. It’s all about the owners trying to strong arm the players. The reality is the owners want a larger slice so that most of these owners/franchise can continue to put mediocrity on the field without suffering in there pockets. Teams like AZ, Cin, Car are notorious for being cheap and not making the necessary financial commitments to produce a satisfactory product. All you have to do is point to the comments made by Dan Rooney regarding the CBA –

“We should have a deal,” Rooney said. “We should not let the disruption of next season happen because of a lockout, a strike, or whatever. . . . It’s in everybody’s best interest to get a deal. The players, of course, want to play, and that’s what should happen.

“The games this year couldn’t be better. The ratings are high. So why would you step back?”

You see that the winning franchises aren’t the ones b*tching and complaining about the CBA. Whose the ring leader making all the noise for the owners? Jerry Richardson of Carolina the same guy that aloud Peppers to walk Scott free. Why? Because he wouldn’t pay the money to keep him.

Rasheed1
Rasheed1
March 3, 2011 10:43 am

Paulman

what does any of that have to do with the current labor situation? Sounds like jealous rant to me….

nobody wants or needs your sympathy..there needs to be a real resolution to the labor situation so these folks can get back to work..

DixieFan
DixieFan
March 3, 2011 10:48 am

The ONLY way the players win this is to get this into the courts. If they can’t get their day in court, they would be well advised to get the best deal they can NOW and move on. The owners can afford to lose a year (or two), but the players will never get those paychecks back and I doubt the deal they get next fall is any better than the deal they will get next week.There are 500 players (free agents)on the verge of receiving their big pay-days.

drummerwinslow
drummerwinslow
March 3, 2011 10:58 am

I hope the judge orders the $4 billion to be shared with the players. That would certainly make things interesting.

DixieFan
DixieFan
March 3, 2011 11:06 am

If the judge orders the $4 billion to be shared, the lock out will go on much longer. How do feel about NO football next season? Personally, I don’t give a damn for either side. A pox on both their houses. I just want football and an active off-season.

paulman
paulman
March 3, 2011 11:07 am

After many teams place these restictive tenders on their best of the Free-Agents.. There will be in reality about 150 players who become true Free-Agents and most of them will be older players who are past their prime or have history with injuried and a lot young players who are back-up material..
There is going to be very little player movement before the Summer and until
a new CBA is in place.. which by the way is one of the key goals of the Owners which limited player movement.. I am sure the players unions and their agents will try to fight some of these restirctive tenders, but who knows how long that process takes.. Time is clearly on the Owners side and not the players who average 4 year careers of playing in the NFL to begin with

jroc757
jroc757
March 3, 2011 11:33 am

@paulman…… A lot of rookie players come up from nothing……. A Majority of them come from a hood environment and they just lack knowledge on handling there finances….. I dont feel sorry for them as well but I can understand that money can bring pleasure if handled in a proper manner……. a 5th 6th and 7th round pick they recieve the league minimum with little or no bonus money……… I do understand where you come from…….

@Drummer…… It would be a good thing that the owners split the 4billion$ with the players……. That will piss the owners off………

Should the Eagles sign A.J. Hawk????????

paulman
paulman
March 3, 2011 12:39 pm

I agree jroc757 that many pro athletes have come from poor backgrounds where Athletes were not really exposed to the business end of things..but even many of these 5th/7th Rounders and undrafted players were all supreme atletes in their local Communities,High Schools and heavily recruited during their College days and yaers.. I just hate reading about how young men (22-25 years old) that can’t seem to overcome their situations or
upbringins and still use that as a crutch once they become Professionals..
They are young men now and not naive,gullible teenagers..
Look at the Military Branches or the Business world, if your 22-25 years old and in that career path, your bosses and employers don’t want to hear how you had a rough childhood, or grew up in a 1 parent household or were poor as a child… It’s what you do to improve,learn and how to not only adapt but to excel that matters once given the opportunity..

rastadoc
rastadoc
March 3, 2011 8:57 pm

Interesting Paulman, most players who pass through the NFL never see big lifelong money. These owners are mostly billionaires who should not be focused on making MORE money in their lives. These owners are the ones responsible for the $7 beer and the $5 hotdog, The personal seat licenses and the sky high ticket prices. All while already being worth more than they could ever spend already. And you are upset with the PLAYERS!! These 32 wealthy men should be thanking their collective lucky stars and not rocking the boat. They deserve to have a year of no fans and see how that feels. They are the ones sticking it to us. Have you heard the owners refer to the nearly $4 billion contributed by public funds towards their stadiums in the last decade? I thought not! People like you are amazing, but this is an example of the thinking of some people who enable the filthy rich to get richer.

paulman
paulman
March 3, 2011 9:07 pm

If these 32 Sport Franchise Owners weren’t around, there would be no
NFL in General.. 90% of Sport Owners didn’t make their wealth from owning a team.. It’s a fantasy.ego trip for many of them, but again, without them,
there would be no NFL as we have come to know, follow and love it..

jakedog
jakedog
March 3, 2011 9:10 pm

Little shriveled up old man paulie, you have no idea what these young men have been through before someone decided to offer them a scholarship, then they go to school, enormous pressure to compete and win, then lucky enough to be NFL players, physically one of the most demanding jobs, concussions, death, disability, and you, the biggest pussy on this board, have the unmitigated guts to refer to them as wussies , you are a punk, a wimp, who wouldn’t have the guts to crawl out of your Carolina hole.

paulman
paulman
March 3, 2011 9:23 pm

No one has put a gun to their heads Jake…
Stop making it sound like these players are modern day Gladiators..
Maybe if you lifted some weights and got out of your mom’s basement and into the real world once in a while you would see that these players have it pretty damn good… Football is a Sport, a Business and Entertainment like all Pro Sports have become..This is these players chosen Profession.. Everyone for 2 years has been talking about a potential lockout/work stoppage, if you failed to plan for it, than it’s you own damn fault.

YouNeedJesus
YouNeedJesus
March 4, 2011 6:29 am

Without the players their is no NFL. Its that simple no pays to see Lurie or Mara or Jones. Like any other job its based on supply and demand. The players and their physical abilities have made the NFL what it is. The Networks like CBS,FOX and ESPN are more important to the league than the owners. In fact I think they should pay the players directly, The networks and the sponsors.