Eagles fans I encourage you to enjoy the upcoming draft because that’s all the football you’re going to see for a while because I think we’re headed for a lengthy lockout.
When John Harbaugh was with the Eagles special teams coaches, he was one of the more honest coaches in the league. That continues because Harbaugh all but let the cat out of the bag earlier this week when talking to a radio station about the Ravens contract negotiations with Pro Bowl defensive tackle Haloti Ngata.
“We’re on record and everybody knows that we want Haloti to be a Raven for life”, Harbaugh said. “I’m sure we’re going to get it done. There are some reasons why we can’t do it here before the lockout. It’s really unfortunate. Because if it was possible to do it, I’m pretty sure we’d have it done.”
He commented about the lockout as if it were a foregone conclusion. I think it’s a done deal as far as the lockout is concerned. I’ve read reports where owner’s meetings about the lockout have been uncovered.
I told you last week that these meetings were nothing but public relations cover for the owners because they’re intent on getting a larger percentage of the dollars coming into the league. The owners have let greed dominate their thinking and that’s why they want to increase the season to 18 games at the same time players are falling like flies from concussion injuries.
As if everyone on this site didn’t already know, I’m 100% pro player. They deserve every dime they get, and then some.
I think the 18 Game schedule is simply a negoitiating tool to create more leverage by Commish Goodell and the OWners..
Even these stupid ass Owners realize that with adding 2 more regular games, You would have to expand the Rosters and add more Practice Squads and play the top PLayers even more $$$ which will only add to their Costs..
I think they get a new CBA in place by late May at the earliest…
No Trades, No Free-Agent signings or losing any free-agent players.. When a new CBA comes back into place, there will be a very short time for players
TO check out other teams and get used to a new system,team,coaches and teammates, I expect 85% of Free-Agent players to sign 1 year deals with
their current Teams and then re-test the market in 2012. This is a bad year to be a Free-Agent as teams will address most of their needs with th Draft
or picking up some Tier II players that are on the streets now and sign them before Wed 3/3..
Sounds good Drummer,
Maybe the players can start their own league… Both sides need to give in and work together to get this done..
Players give in to reduced Rookie Contracts, Different Free-Agent Parameters
Owners give in and expand player Rosters and Practice Squads, and pay more into Health Care for players and ditch the proposed 18 game schedule
Players should get a bigger % of the NFL Memorabilia/Merchandise Revenue
If I was D Smith I would attack the owners with this very simple fact that more than half of them are simply not committed to fielding competitive teams year after year. They have no desire to win. Cincinnati, Arizona, Carolina have no desire to spend the money that is necessary to be competitive. Guess what those are the owners that are making the most noise. Just read what Rooney a winning owner has said about this process.
The crowd at this website is the “bite the hand that feeds you” type. Always hating on ownership. Always protective of the multi-millionaire downtrodden players. I’d rather be an owner; they are the smart guys. They are the ones that make multi-millionaires out of athletes who otherwise might not be making quite as much money if they couldn’t run, catch and smash.
I agree with fan, what makes these players so great that they can make 10 times my lifetimes pay in one year. They could still make a lot of money but they shouldnt have the power to ask for big bucks. Somebody has to knock some sense into them, $300,000 a year is similar to that of a doctor. Who could complain with that and its the worst players in the nfl. All of these selfish players that skip practices for bigger paydays are the biggest idiots on this planet. Do you know the amount of hard work id put into something if they were willing to pay over a million a year? If someone finds the cure for cancer they would get around 2 million dollars total because of the patent being given to the one who funds the scientist. This should just end now im going to flyers news only mode
Fan, you are one fun guy, rooting for Lurie on Sundays
Philly, it’s a free market economy, if you don’t like it, go to China, and most everyone can be a millionaire in this country if they want to, it’s not that difficult
Jake, if its so easy to become a millionare, then wheres your ferrari?
If actors couldn’t act, they’d be working at McDonald’s. Instead, they make millions of dollars, although many are on drugs/alcohol and are just not very nice people. Yet, no one ever complains about them.
Some of these players are dying 20-30 years before their time, and a great many more can barely walk after retirement.
A doctors can work 30-50 years, but a football player averages only 3-5 years. This is not a normal job and, in my humble opinion, can’t be compared to one.
Don’t let misinformation could your judgment. The facts in this article are undeniable.
Blame the owners in NFL labor impasse
By Phil Sheridan
Inquirer Sports Columnist
Hilarious.
One minute, you get an e-mail from the league’s PR officials trumpeting the enormous success of the league: Highest-rated this! Most popular that! The next minute, you get somber word that the owners are really, really hurting because of the onerous collective bargaining agreement with the players.
Knee-slapping.
If you’re having trouble following the intricacies of this latest sports labor brouhaha, here are the essentials.
The owners voted, 30-2, for the CBA extension that was ratified in 2006. The owners, for whom a contract is sacred when some player decides he’s underpaid and wants to renegotiate, decided in 2008 to opt out of that same deal, forcing the deadline that looms now at the beginning of March.
The owners hired the outside attorney who steered the NHL’s 2004 lockout of its players. The owners arranged to have their broadcast partners pay them their fees even if there are no games. The owners demanded that discussions on a new deal begin with roughly a billion-dollar-a-year giveback by the players.
The owners whine about the debts they’ve taken on to build the new stadiums they insisted they had to have, but never mention the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars invested in those same facilities.
If you’re having any trouble spotting the bad guy in this, here’s a clue: It’s the owners.
In fairness, there probably is no graceful way to shove your so-called “partners” to the side while you command a larger place at the trough. Those who see the NFL’s annual revenues of about $9 billion and figure there ought to be enough for everyone are missing the bigger picture.
Goodell and the owners believe revenues are going to expand exponentially over the next 20 years. There will be an 18-game regular season. There will be expansion. There will be games in London and Japan and Mexico. Eventually, there will be franchises on other continents. There will be another explosion in income from new technologies.
This is a league that sold $200 tickets for fans to stand outside Cowboys Stadium and watch the Super Bowl on a large screen. Think there may be some new apps available for your iPads and smartphones?
These future billions are the real issue here. It isn’t that the owners can’t grow their profits while paying players the percentages spelled out in the expiring agreement. It’s that the future profits are so enormous, the owners can’t bear the idea of the players getting that big a share.
It’s where the unintentional comedy comes in. It sounds like something out of Dr. Strangelove when Goodell gets going on the potential billions out there. His swagger short-circuits the part of his brain in charge of crying poor on behalf of his billionaire constituents. He can’t help himself.
There was a fascinating bit of coincidence on Friday:
In Washington, the league and the union held their first meeting under the guidance of George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
In Indianapolis, the Colts released one of the best defensive players in their history, safety Bob Sanders, because his body was too broken down for him to play effectively anymore.
In Miami, former NFL safety Dave Duerson was found dead. He was 50. While the cause of death was not immediately known, it was impossible not to reflect on how many former NFL players die well before their time.
It is often said that this labor battle pits billionaires against millionaires, and that is partly true. But most NFL players are not, and never will be, millionaires. Most of them make very good money, by any standard, for a few short years. Some are able to live off those earnings, or parlay them into business ventures. The one dividend that keeps paying all of them is physical pain from the brutal sport they played.
That’s their choice, to play the game. No one is suggesting that you feel sorry for the players. Just know that it was the owners who tore up the deal they’d agreed to and started the clock ticking on a lockout. It is the owners who couldn’t abide seeing the players get the same cut of what they believe will be a much larger, richer pie.
Maybe, with a grown-up in the room in Washington, a fair deal can be struck without a labor stoppage. Let’s hope so, because the alternative just isn’t as funny as the jokers who started this.
what I have is irrelevant Philly, why care what another dude gets, to paraphrase mr. Pw, but if your gig is to make money, in this country you can if you half half a brain and are very persistent
And drummer, don’t feel sorry for these guys, feel for the coal miners, et. al,
I never said that they should be getting minimum wage. I never argued about them receiving millions of dollars but what i do feel is that they shouldnt have any room to ask for more. If you offer me the money that they get i would work 365 days a year and go in from 6 to 6. Instead, you find players earning 10 million a year and are not at facilities until it is mandatory. They should in fact be paid millions because it is the entertainment business which is among the top gross economies. But the idea that they could argue for more money without putting in effort is beyond me. I also think rookie cap is needed because it makes the worst teams that draft terribly have the worst cap. Eagles are top five in cap space because they tend to draft late and in previous years they traded away their first picks.
jake i care because we might not be able to watch any football for 6 months and if you want to talk irrelevant then your comment toward anyone making millions has no place for a sports site.
Jake
I don’t feel sorry for the players, any more than I feel sorry for the Beatles, Charlie Sheen or any other entertainer who’s been grossly over paid for possessing a talent.
I just feel that the owners are already making way too much. And they are the ones crying for a larger piece of the pie, not the players. It’s the owners who feel that the existing agreement is too player friendly.
Perhaps, you shouldn’t check your support of the owners. After all, they are the ones driving your prices higher and higher. And it’s the owners’ greed that might prevent you from having football for 6 months.
Jake
Don’t the players have that same right to “make money?” Shouldn’t they also use their brains to make more money? Why is that philosophy okay for the owners, but not the players?
This paragraph illuminates the misconceptions of many:
It is often said that this labor battle pits billionaires against millionaires, and that is partly true. But most NFL players are not, and never will be, millionaires. Most of them make very good money, by any standard, for a few short years. Some are able to live off those earnings, or parlay them into business ventures. The one dividend that keeps paying all of them is physical pain from the brutal sport they played.
I agree with FanSince1960, I too would rather be an owner than a player, making money hand-over-fist while doing very little real work. Of course, I might have a hard time sleeping knowing that I’m a blue-blooded bourgeois pig.
PhillySupremacy, some of the things you say make no sense at all. “what makes these players so great that they can make 10 times my lifetimes pay in one year.” Come on dude, this is simple economics. Somebody is willing to pay them. If you had a special talent that made you one of the best 1500 people at your position AND you were in an industry that made 9 billion dollars a year, maybe you could earn that kind of money. “They could still make a lot of money but they shouldnt have the power to ask for big bucks” Sorry bro, this is America, you can ask for whatever the hell you want. It doesn’t mean that somebody is going to give it to you, but at least you’re allowed to ask, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Ask yourself the same questions about the owners. What make Jeff Lurie so special that he should get to earn billions a year? Is it because he came from wealth and inherited his money? Does he have some special talent that the world is craving for?
I’m always amazed when working class guys side with ownership. It really shows a lack of smarts.
e-money if you don’t understand what i said then you shouldnt pretend like you teach economics at Penn. I never said they shouldnt get millions so stop saying that i did. I said they shouldnt complain that they deserve any more
PhillySupremacy, you said “they shouldnt have the power to ask for big bucks”. You also said “$300,000 a year is similar to that of a doctor. Who could complain with that and its the worst players in the nfl”. Don’t change your tune now and start deflecting on me. You have a big issue with players making what they do, and that’s fine. But you need to realize that not all players are lazy, many of them work their asses off to be where they are. You also need to realize that they aren’t comparable to doctors. There are far fewer people that can play NFL football than people that can become doctors. They also have a very short period of time that they can earn this money because they ruin their bodies playing a sport that we both obviously enjoy.
Again, I find it odd that you vent your frustrations at guys who put their minds and bodies on the line for our entertainment, but say nothing about uber-wealthy owners who earn a thousand times more than their employees, yet do very little real work.
drummer, I have no love for owners, nor do I care how much they make, same with the players, same with the jags in my neighborhood
You also need to understand that the owners are planning to lock the players out because they are not happy with a financial arrangement that 30 out of 32 owners agreed to just a few years ago. In essence, the billionaires NFL owners club is going to hold us all hostage so they can get a bigger piece of the pie.
e money, you have pretty much figured it out
Dear Comrade E-money, I’d rather be a bourgeois pig. So would all the players you idolize. America is about the ability to ascend from the streets and become a bourgeois pig when your parents were working stiffs. I guess what I was inferring in my comments was how so many of you guys just “hate” the man. God forbid you guys be in charge. You’d be the most ruthless lot around! Money talks, BS walks, and quit the hatin’. Who at this site digs Charlie Sheen? I didn’t think so. And I don’t root for the owner on Sundays; I root for the Eagles players. And I don’t sit there and hate anybody.
FanSince1960, I know exactly what you were inferring, thus my post about agreeing with you. Of course we’d all rather be the owner bees rather than the worker bees. As Paul Simon said, “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail”. As far as hating on the owners go, I believe it’s deserved in this situation. Greedy uber-wealthy billionaires club reneging on an agreement because they want a bigger piece of the pie. And who suffers? Me and you when we lose a season.
So enjoy dreaming about becoming Marie Antoinette, but don’t be surprised when the huddled masses want to cut your head off.
Good one, E-money. At least you have a sense of humor. Me, I’d rather be Marie Antoinette without the attitude. But I’ll tell you this, I’ve already had people try to take the short route to my $$$ and be off with my head. It sucks. That’s why I don’t cheer for bad guys anymore.
As far as the Eagles go, I don’t think they don’t win the big one because they are cheap. They don’t win the big one because they are stubborn. They are guided by a philosophy that hasn’t worked and they stick to it.
As far as lock outs go. Who at this site would want to own a company and pay out over 50% to the employees? Not me! I want the dough for me!
I think the players should stick to their guns. I as a fan can watch high school football and college and be happy, love the NFL but I get sick and tired of Goodell thinking he is the reason I watch the game. Stick to your guns players as a fellow unionite I am with you 100% more work for less money? Child please!
If the players don’t hold strong they’re going to get their clocks cleaned by the owners. There were couple of owners who spoke out early that they wanted to get rid of the current CBA and that they were willing to sacrifice the upcoming season to do it. That’s still the way they feel.
Yes Indeed G-Man…
Several owners are willing to take the short-team hit for long-term sanity of their cost structure.. The line in the sand has been drawn…
You all nuts – its not about the players or the owners – the fools are the fans… We pay both the owners and the players. The cost of going to a game for a family of 4 is how much? The commercials every 15 secs during the game, how much money for an authentic Philly #7 Vick jersey, how much does a hot dog cost at the Linc – how much is parking????
And stupidly – as I have seen many times in my life, we will all get pissed before and during the strike, but we will quickly welcome the teams back when football finally does return.
As for this situation, the owners will clean the players clocks. Sorry guys but it is simple economics. The majority of football players are well paid but also have expensive tastes in cars, houses, and often take care of family members. They can’t afford to not work. Take a look at the bankruptcy rate of pro athletes (basketball especially) within a few years of leaving the pros. While we read about the multi-millions, many players are in the 1 and 2 million area, and most of it came in one shot (look at all the lottery winners now broke). The players will fold becuase the 75% that need the money to maintain that ‘pro’ lifestyle
Nah Fans are not nuts its entertainment and in tough times people want to be entertained nothing wrong with that. The players should hang tough and stay strong start a fund so guys who make minimum can make it heck go play in canada if necessary. Just dont give in the owners are crazy to ask guys to play 2 more games and then tell them to take a pay cut? No where would a union go for that let me say it again in caps NO WHERE!
I was wondering if Harbaugh has tried to go back on what he said. He might have gotten a call from his owner telling him to keep his mouth shut.
The NFL should be careful walsing around like they are, both players and owners. I can remember when i left my dear baseball, I have returned years later. I can remember when it was that basketball as a league turned me off, and I have not returned. Though I love my sixers I don’t much care for the league.
All great down falls be they nations, teams, politics whatever start with arrogance, self importance and/ or greed.
I fully understand the arguements of both the players and the owners, i get it. They need to work it out but how. I can imagine the meetings going on becasue one day I am for the owners, the next the players and the next I regret both of them. Damn what a mess uh! And I am just a fan.
Well its like they tell us this is more than a game, its grown folks business, for grown folks money, with grown folks issues and problems.
One actor goes bonkers (Two and half men) and 420 people are out of work. Its more than us fans, those players and them there owners.
Work the damn thing out NFL. If you wait to long someone will fill your void and seize your place, just ask baseball.
Navy, very good insight on the player situation, ya might just be right on that one brother.
@YNL, yes brother Unions would go for that, and in fact are falling for it all over the world. Private sector unions for a period bleed the host, now they are learning to keep the host alive so they can survive, or face being treated by strong medicine that will leave them dead and the host free and healthy. Public sector unions all over the world and now in the USA are starting to learn the same lessons.
It is sad to say but whenever the vast portion of the businese expense or profit goes toward payroll, the host will (The business) will suffer.
Mono – I don’t want to be right – I hope like Hades they work it out. Honestly, I feel worse for the old timers suffering with the results of playing in the 60 and 70s then I do today’s current players.
The owners will screw over the public and the players….
I am on the owners side. Sorry, but they are in the business of making money, and if they ain’t making as much money as expected then they would get out of it. That is how they got to become billionaires. They are smart businessmen. It sucks because we love our teams and we take it personal, but you have to understand the business side.
And before you come on here and say that them teams should just sell then, the ones that aren’t making the profit they expected…… That would be all fine and dandy, but if they aren’t making a profit, and the CBA is made to where they will continually have trouble making a profit, then they won’t be able to sell them. And they wouldn’t just remove certain teams from the NFL, the ones that can’t make the profit, because that would affect the players too. You think the players would want there to be less teams to employ all these players. That would be good for neither side.
Also, please stop with the millionaires vs. billionaires argument. I see that drummer keeps bringing up about not all NFL players are millionaires, but you know what…… NFL owners became billionaires from their other ventures, not because of the NFL. Should they be penalized because they are smart businessmen and make billions in every other aspects of their life? You can’t use that excuse about NFL players being millionaires because of investments then totally discount how the billionaire owners got their money. That is hypocritical.
The owners don’t make billions of dollars from the NFL. Just to break it down to you…….
There is 9 billion in revenue, the players under the old CBA gets about 60% of 8 billion (the owners cut 1 billion off the top before the split). The owners get 40%. That means that they get 4.2 billion of the revenue with the 1 billion off the top. That gives them 131 million to split among the 32 teams. About half the teams are owned by more than 1 person, which would cut into their 131 million portion. Not to mention that this figure is before Coaches, General Managers, Team Presidents (for instance Joe Banner for the Eagles), other FO staff, stadium upkeep (grounds keepers/maintenance, any cost of fixes etc.) and whoever else take their cut. The truth of the matter is, the highest profited teams probably (this is just my guess from calculations that I concluded) make around 50 million a year. That is for the single person owned teams. It is not totally unbelievable that there are quite a few owners out there that might be breaking even if that.
Now, I know that is a lot, but like I stated before. Owners of these teams are businessmen, and businessmen are out to make a profit and maximize their profit, and in no other business does the company’s employees make this close to the amount that the owners make. Not even in the entertainment business. Just ask Lurie who became a billionaire being a producer, where the highest paid actors or actresses pull in on average 20 mill per year. They made hundreds of millions of dollars more than their employees. Some NFL owners might only make 10s of millions more.
Obviously the NFL is a lot different than most jobs, but I understand business, and it isn’t like the players are hurting. If you are that distraught over these billionaire owners arguing for more of a piece of the pie, then you should really be pissed at all these owners of these fortune 500 companies (like Walmart), because their gross highly outweighs its employees grosses. Might want to start your protests now.
The people saying NFL players should voluntarily create a ceiling of $300k for themselves thus handing over the other HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS the NFL generates to the owners is off his rocker. Owners already pocket more in profit than the highest paid player on their…in some cases twice or more. The owners problem is the want to make significantly more than the entire roster of players combined and then some. That formula works for a business like a movie theater where the employees can be fairly easily replaced, BUT ultimately it’s been said many times the players in the NFL are the product which entitles them to their “employee salary” PLUS a significant portion of the revenue. I view it this way, relative to a movie theater scenario the owners want to either pay the employees or pay for the films, but not both. Have you ever thought the idea of going to a movie theater that either has no employees or has no movies?
The 18 game schedule is already a lock. The owners and league officials want the SuperBowl to be played over Presidents weekend in February, with many (not me however) having the following Monday off. If you don’t think so, go look at NASCAR’s schedule for next year. They have moved the traditional day for the Daytona 500 because they do not want to go up against the SuperBowl.
I’m always amazed at the amount of greed you have here in the states. I look at our President who encourages these unions in Wisconsin and I am amazed at the lack of knowledge from the media and supporters of these unions. If you don’t know history you are bound to repeat it. Nobody can guarantee anything in life except death. Not even taxes. Gramsci prison notebooks have invaded this great country in the 60’s and it is no different than marxism and workers of the world unite. This is the same bullshit that was sold to my home country and people believed in it but it was cloaked and you knew it as the Soviet Union. You know the time when our leader killed 20 million of my people. I only tell you this because I say these football players and teachers and any other union members need to lay it down. Lay it down. It is not worth it. Evil things come from greed and from demanding and you people who do not see the connections should talk to my grandfather who did not see. Socialism and unions are death to freedoms. I don’t like where this country is heading and the person behind the wheel. Obama. Very scary times.
I want to say one last thing……..
In business, these smart businessmen rarely suffer, or I should say they are not the most suffering.
For instance, look at this past economy downfall. Sure, companies were affected, but they were affected by not pulling as big of a profit as normal. I am not talking about these small companies by the way, that went out of business. These fortune 500 companies had tons of layoffs, and cutbacks so that they can continue to generate close to normal revenue. The ones that were affected were the employees, the ones that got laid off.
The reason I bring this up is because, in the NFL……. The owners are not gonna be the ones affected by the players asking for more money. With the players asking for more money, and if they were to happen to get it. Do you know how the ownership is gonna try to make up for it? Raise ticket prices, and other prices that will ultimately affect the fan. We are the ones that will suffer from the players getting more money. These billionaires went to school for years learning about business and that is how they became rich, because they learned that you should never take a hit. If the profit is not worth it, get out. The problem is, in the NFL……. They need as many teams as possible to generate revenue, so the teams won’t leave the league entirely. They might relocate, which will affect the fans, or they will raise prices to try to keep revenues coming in. Of course they can’t raise prices too high, to the point they can’t sell tickets, but if teams are really being affected like they say……. Raising the players share or keeping it is high as it is, is ultimately gonna bring down the NFL anyway.
I don’t feel sorry for any side by how much money they make because they all have more money than me, but if I am pulling for any side…… It would be the owners.
Hey I believe in the free market, capitalism, blah blah, yes I really do. As for the NFL as a business I think that the players should get paid money for they can agree on to play with certain limits on rookies, and a percentage of the gate (And perhaps TV money), everything else such as merchandise, etc, they shold not get a cut.
They are employees not partners, if the want to be partners then the should pay a cut when a team gets sued, or take a cut when a marketing contract is lost. They should shsre in the lost if ticket sells dip in their individual markets.
Noop that is not going to happen, why? Becasue they are employees not owners, not partners. They are profit sharers though and that is the owners fault whether they were pushed that way or not, now they are pushingback.
I if I had a business there is no way I would let my employees take it over from me and be my equal. On the other side of the token I am not going to let my employer dog me and treat me crazy.
The problem is the owners have been making money and the players are beter trested and caredfor than anytime in the history of the game.
My point is damn it play dang gone football already and stop acting like you guys are not happy, and don’t get ahead of yourselve.