Anyone who has seen how the Philadelphia Eagles react when players turn down their contract offers will not be surprised that team president Joe Banner is miffed at the failure of the CBA talks.
“Our players, I hope, will really understand the offer that they walked away from,” Banner said, per Jonathan Tamari of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I don’t know what the league could have done more . . . that would have proved how badly [the owners] would have wanted to get a deal done and keep the game going forward.”
Owners were originally asking for $1 billion from the players to pay for league investments. But that supposedly dropped significantly as talks went on. That is, if you believe anything coming out of the mouths of either side today.
“We got to the point where there was a significant gap. We made an offer that reduced that gap all the way to $320 million and asked them to meet us,” Banner said. “And they said no.”
Of course, the player’s union doesn’t seem to care as much about that as they did about the owners’ lack of willingness to disclose their financial data. As I said before, the players can get used to that. Regardless of your take on it, these owners did not make their fortunes in worlds where the boss shows the employees what he makes.
DeMaurice Smith said that the union was offering the owners savings of up to $550 million over the course of four years, while the owners wanted $5 billion. But, Banner said that the owners had come off that proposal and offered the players significantly better benefits and a 16-game season for at least the next two years. The latter part isn’t that big of a deal since the 18-game season wouldn’t have started until 2013 anyway.
“You’d think that would be received as a pretty significant step on our part,” Banner said. “When the league has been talking about the skepticism that the union was sincerely there to try to make a deal, this is why.”
You’ll be shocked to know that Smith disagrees.
“For them to say that our path was always decertification, and that we did not engage in good-faith negotiation, and that we did not budge flies in the face of reason, flies in the face of facts, and is simply untrue,” Smith said.
I’m not sure how much more of this I can stand, and it’s only day 1 of post-decertification football. I think it’s in everyone’s best interests to not listen to any of the public posturing and just let the courts rule on it. Call me when football is back on.
I bet Joe is so pissed that he will go over Kicker Dave Akers house and
“call him out” right there in front of his house out on the driveway..
Maybe someone can follow him around today with a video camera
Not to change the Subject,
but if anyone recalls the signings and pick-ups with familiar players right after the Season like AQ Shipley, F Topou, D Reynolds, M Martell, C Ingram, etc,etc was a good move by the Eagles to have players who are familiar with the Eagles system if they reached a settlement in the late summer and the training period becomes very short to get a squad together…
The owners have no defensible stance unless they can justify why they need or want money back. That is the essence of the problem, why do they need money back? raise your hand if you think their profit margin is decreasing. They should have just waited a few years until the agreement expired at it’s original date. The fact that they cancelled the deal, tried to hoard money, then became sanctimonious stating that the union wasn’t bargaining in good faith is disingenuous. Of course, the owners set the bar for not honoring their contracts.
And Joe is telling it like it isn’t? What a money mongering nerd andf a crock of bull.
Why cant the billionaires show the thousandaires their books? Seems so simple to me, what are they hiding?
Both sides are playing hardball. Ownership always does, and the unions always do as well. Mr.TellingthePeopleWhatTheyNeed: The players aren’t thousandaires, and the owner’s books are none of their business or anyone elses business except for the IRS should they be audited. You want to show anybody your books?
Has anyone ever went into their bosses’ office & asked to see the companies books ? I would just love to know the WHOLE Truth on “Why there is no Football?” No he said they said . Who is telling the truth ?
Mr Fan1960 The avg player is not even a thousandaire and thats just a fact. Dont get fooled by the brady’s and the brees of the world.The billionaire owners are going to come clean with the books and you can huff and puff all you like its not going to change a thing. Judge Doty has always sided with players because he knows the owners are just greedy. Btw the way its “YouNeedJesus” and obviously you do.
I don’t need Jesus, Buddha, or Zoroaster, thank you. I am not a hater like you who has to impose his religious feelings on others. I don’t hate or like people based on class, religion, or race. I don’t hate Lurie because he is a billionaire, or Kolb because he is a honky, or Joe because he has bad hair and looks nerdier than other failures. I full-time support freedom of religion, to practice it without using it to hurt, ostracize, or discriminate against others. I like religious people, unless they try to get in my face about whoever their religious leader is AND WHAT I HAVE TO DO OR NEED!
I never said a thing about religion. I said you need Jesus in other words a relationship.
LMAO @ Fan
I don’t hate Joe because he has bad hair