NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith convinced NFL players that he was the guy they needed to stop the league’s owners from ripping up the current collective bargaining agreement and taking money out of their pockets. He defeated the guy, former Eagles Troy Vincent, who everybody thought was the favorite to be the next NFLPA executive director.
Smith showed off his legal back ground and make an impressive presentation to convince the players that he would humble the owners and get the players a deal that was at least as good as the one they presently have. It’s time for him to put that plan to work right now.
I’m not going to say it’s fourth down, but it’s definitely third down and Smith must make a play to get a first down, so he can prevent players from starting to cave. He’s got some time, before players start missing checks but he had better have a game plan already crafted for losing the case in the 8th District Court.
I don’t there’s very much of a chance that the 8th District Court rules in the players favor on June 3rd hearing.
Some way or another, Smith is going to have to get Judge David Doty back involved or the players are going to take a bath. Judge Doty is in the process of making a decision about how much of a penalty to levy against the owners for their breaking of the CBA when they took less money from the television networks in order to get $4 billion dollars from them whether or not the 2011 season was played.
Smith and the players need Doty to reward them a good part of the $707 million that they requested in damages. They also need him to not allow the owners to use the $4 billion to operate with during the lockout.
I don’t currently see how Smith is able to lead the players to any type of success without Doty playing a major role. So I guess Smith is the quarterback for the players, but he must find a way to get the ball into the hands of the players’ number one playmaker, Judge Doty.
It was reported that the Owners had made an offer to the players recently right? Until the players come up with a counter offer, then Smith and the rest of them can shut up. If they are committed to negotiation, then put your money where your mouth is.
Since the players voted to Decertify the Players Association,
D Smith is no longer the Executive Director of the NFLPA, (since their is technically no players union) He is a lead Lawyer on the Player’s side and their general spokesman .. I have a feeling he may not last too much longer if he continues to act smarter than everyone else in the room as their have been more and more rumblings from players about how he has handled things so far.. It’s definitely 3rd & Long and he needs to make a play..
Firing him would be a drastic move made under stress and would be counter productive.That is a panic move. if im a player i say we’re sticking with our guy. it’s not a Dairy Quenn Paul.
I heard a great quote from the Colts owner . He basically was saying everyone needs to get together for a weekend,week,and chill and hang out.Sounds stupid right? At 1st im thinking,no get a deal done and keep at it. But they need to remember the one basic principle here,they all wanna make money and there is no goddamn way you can not have a season. These guys are all too damn serious…look at the owners invovled.Stiffs. They need to crack a brew,play a round of golf, eat some crabs together.Remember that in the end they are friends and close biz associates. All trying to gain the same thing and come out clean in the media and to the fans.
As it looks if theres shortened camp i think the Birds are in the best postiion inthe East. Every other team is chasing us.F the Cowboys.
Redskins-qb questions/o-line still lacking/ who is the rb?
Giants-aging o-line/Smith FA?injured?/rooks must stay healthy/love there d-line/still don’t think they have enough d too stop us all game
Dallas-breaking in a new d-cord who’s new to team/Romo,regardless of media ego stroking,needs to prove himself again/ bryant?head case/secondary is more suspect then ours,Newman is old.
Good article, and I second your thoughts on De Smith running out of time. But Judge Doty and the “war chest” case is going to have little impact on the league’s standpoint in negotiations. Even if the players are awarded the $700 million they’re asking for, the owners will immediately appeal the verdict and the funds will be tied up in legal escrow for months, if not longer.
I actually did a pretty detailed Smith piece for my own Philly blog last night. You can check it out at insidetheiggles.com
Like I said though, good article. Glad I’m not the only one who sees DeMaurice as the key factor in all of this madness.
The NFC East is pretty weak right now and in transition, Whoever comes out on top won’t beat the Clubs from the NFC South or North Divisions…
Packers,Bears,Falcons,Saints,Bucs are all better teams and have more talented players and have better coaching than the NFC East Teams
I heard that too Rock and I think that it is a great idea. Some of these owners and players actually like each other. Well, at least respect each other.
Once you lawyer up you lose the ability to just talk things out. They should be able to go into a room with no phones, no cameras and just air out everything and solve it like the men that they claim to be.
How many major league squables have you had in your life that couldnt be solved over 12 beers and friends cursing and yelling at each other till one guy says…ALRIGHT…IM WRONG.And the other guy says…IM WRONG TOO.I know its money…but its a game and there acting liek its Saudi oil reserves.
Paul my friend, listen here good buddy…. The Bucs, Bears, Falcons are not better than us nor will they be. The Saints are with us, the Team that can boast you claim is the Packers with a Championship team and injured starters coming back who can argue with that, but the other teams you mentioned nah…stop the madness.
The Giants can beat any team on your list, and so can the Eagles. I like you Paul but sometimes your like the guy who can’t understand why some many guys things his sister is hot. Well brother let me break it to you, our Eagles team in comparison to all other teams in the NFC when you include everyones goods and bads is a pretty hot babe.
Erock, brother this buds for you, or bull, hennessy, giner ale, rootbeer or whatever it is you want to drink, good point brother.
To Mono,
Tell me who this Eagles Defense stops on a consistent basis..
They will have problems with every team I mentioned… Any team can beat any team on a give day, but face it, the NFC East is not what it used to be and hasn’t been for the last couple of seasons.
I try to go be the facts.. Falcons,Bears,Bucs all had similar to better records than the Eagles, These teams play ball-control and don’t throw the ball 40-50 tiumes a game, these teams have physical runners and physical D..Plus I think these teams all improved with excellent Drafts last month…
Did the Eagles not give the eventually SB champs the most sh!t from any team in the p-offs? Did i miss something. yeah they gave up allota td passes and yes they need improvement but there are studs on the D that need will step up.
Our dynamic offense with Vick,Mccoy,Jax,Maclin,Cooper,Avant,and Celek…with a upgraded o-line this offeseaon scores on anyone next year.
Sign an agent and we’re playing GB at Tundra or Linc in Jan. My word.Paul…the Bucs are warm weather and a year away,Bears are suspect,Falcons got BLOWN OUT by the Pack and traded up for a reciver to play defense?
The Birds didnt have an excellent draft?
Paulman,
I gotta disagree with you. The Bears have a horrible offensive line on top of a QB who folds and will always ruin morale. The Bucs have young talented QB but little else on offense. The Eagles have the number two ranked offense in the NFL and also one of the youngest teams. I also think the Giants and Cowboys will be better than the Bucs and the Bears this next season. The Falcons, who we DESTROYED last year are frauds.
Sounds good Fran,
Is this the same Bear team that dominated the Eagles D in last seasons match-up giving up 31 points and made QB Cutler look like a HOF QB throwing 4 TD passes and a QB Rating of 146. and RB M Forte had 114 yaers on 14 carries (8.5 yd average behinf that shitty Bear OL that you mentioned).. The Bears added a a top OL in Cabe Carimi and DT in Steven Paea.. Teams that play a physical style of Ball beat the Eagles..
All why Asante Samuel sat the bench. Bears are nice but Paul your talent eval is suspect if you think the Bears are a better football team then the Eagles.
Paul, yeah, the Bears playd an injury ridden, bad Eagles defense and dominated them last year, wining by a whopping 5 points. And cutler threw 16 ints last year. 16! Vick threw 6! In the past 2 years, Cutler has thrown 42 picks! His career int total is 104, compared to Vick’s 58. You can discount stats, but I’d say those are major telling stats right there. You’re worried about a team with a QB that threw 42 picks in the past two seasons!? That’s just plain silly.
You do this every year Paul, you pick some teams who you say will be better than the Eagles, to play your little prediction games while trying to rile up Eagles fans…. we’ve seen this trick before and you’re almost always WAY off.
Cheers Erock, you tell em
Of all saesons, Paul, this is the WORST time to try to make predictions. Nobody knows anything about wether/how long camps, training camp, preseason will be. There’s no FA yet, so team rosters will get some significant changes. And we don’t even know how many games will be played this year. But you’re sitting here telling everyone what’s going to happen.
The Bucs have some of best young Skill players that many never have heard of.
RB L Blount an undrafted free-agent lead all Rookie rushers with 1000 yards and a 5 yd avg and he didn’t start playing to about week #5-#6
Young WR’s in M Williams, A Benn, & S Stroughter to go along with TE Winslow Jr. give young QB J Freeman lots of weapons to grow with..
and their Defense will be only better this year with the Additions of DE Clayborn and Bowers in this years draft to go with top Draft picks last year in F McCoy and Price to give the Bucs a D/Line to rival any in the NFL within the next 2 years time… They need some help at CB with pendling legal troubles of A Talib who faces serious weapaons and assualt charges and will probably get real jail time..
The Falcons are not frauds and I think they finished with the best record in the NFC last Season at 13-3, but were manhandled in the playoffs by the PAckers and need serious help on the Defensive side of the ball. Their Draft strategy and selections were a little odd to me, but adding WR Julius Jones and RB/Returnman Jacquiz Rodgers gives this team a whole lot more spped which they really haven’t had.. Who is going to stop their Offense..
Or the Bucs.Are you forgetting we have two of the 5 most feared offensive players in the game? Dsnacks and Vick? Or are you gonna deny that as well…ill bump Jax down outta the top 6 maybe. But Vick alone with the upgrade on the line pushes us too #2 in my opinion in the NFC. Saints? Giants? They’re up there.
Bears went to the Super Bowl 3 years ago and the NFC Championship game last Year.. It doesn’t matter if I think the Eagles are more talented or not (which they are) but come the end of the Season and Playoff time, the Bears have had more succes than the Dink & Dink Eagles who don’t play well in the cold anymore, who don’t play well at home any longer and who don’t play well come Playoff time when I look at recent history like the last 2-3 Seasons
I am not downgrading the Eagles offense or teir ability to be exciting and make big plays.. but before everyone goes ga-ga over them again, there are several teams thatt all improved too and let’s be honest, The Eagles Defense scares,intimidates and stops no one…
here we go with your Buc jock riding….
He’s Paulmandomis Shill…it will never stop….he’ll predict St. Peters assesment of his life while he’s in line in heaven. Dude behind him will tell him too shut up.
Good one Erock
I am not predicting anything at this time for it would be silly to do so, but I want to point out how some tthe Eagles Competition have improved their teams
And for all the Vick/D-Jax lovers out there.. What did this vaunted Eagle Offense do the last few weeks of the Season… Not much when teams caught onto VIck, hit him around some and kept him in the pocket…
14 pts, 13 pts and 16 pts their final 3 games at Home which were all losses by the way..
DeMaurice Smith has the most annoying face and voice I ever seen. I dont know whos worse him or 6ABC’s Rick Williams. Its like cmon man your black your voice should not sound like that. Every time he talks it looks like his lips are about to fall off. kendrick perkins too has an annoying face
Ok,defensive improvments and attitude with anger needed.I think this is the best offensive unit the Birds have ever fielded.No reason not too sweat it. D needs to become solid.
Rick Wiliams is annoying.Thats great dude.hahahahaha.Your black …your voice should not sound like that…hahahaha.
Tell the stiffs to work a deal out.I cant cancell a trip too Lehigh!!!
SUmmer Camp will be at the Nova Center, there will be no Lehigh this Summer.. About 75% of theam have already stated that they will hold Summer CAmps at their own team facilities to cut down the costs,logisitics and just simply the time and manpower that’s invovled..
Peoples who’s faces annoy me…feel free to add to the list.
Tony Romo
Joe Carter
Warren Sapp
Joe Jeravicous
Santa Clause
my hippie neighbor
Paulman if i met him
They said they’re planning on possibly having it there…DAMN YOU PAULMAN!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Is your hippie neighbor named “Shaggy” and has a pretty smart brown dog named “Scoobie” ..
I would have to add Newt Gingrinch, Maria Shriver, Gary Busey, Meatloaf,
& Ed Snider…
my list of annoying faces
sean salisbury
justin bieber
david bowie
jay-z
tom petty
jafar from walt disneys aladdin
shame on us all for having this list this long with out mentioning the ever so worthless excuse for a human being:
Joe (f? b? I can never be sure about the first letter…)uck
Here’s a prediction that may make NFC up for grabs. The Detroit Lions defensice front play Green Bay 2 times. It knocked Rodgers out last year. If it happens again this year Rodgers may have head problems long term. Suh has to be double teamed, if Fairley is a stud, he may a big year.
Jay Cutler may get knocked out with his offensive line. Minn also has an old offensive line whoever is going to play QB.
a Couple of other local Ugly Mugs to add to the list
Howard Eskin
John DeBella
Andre Iglouada
g, its 4th and long and the players need a hail mary. Players are borrowing $ from banks and groups and it wont be long till this thing caves in. DSmith made a huge mistake by not trying to work wth the owners. His plan failed.
I agree Stevo,
I think he was banking the Lawsuit and the ability to “decertify” with the big name players (Brady,Brees,Manning, out in front ) would get a lot of fan & media sympathy and support to give the Players Union the upper hand which it failed to do..Now it appears to me that D Smith really didn’t have much of a back-up plan, I think he gets replaced by July 1st with a new spokesman for the Players Union..(maybe a Troy Vincent, Kevin Mawhe or someone like that)
Jimmy Lynam
Ellis Hobbs
Frank Rizzo’s Brother, Ross Lonsberry,Wayne Twitchell, Tim Rossovich,
Richie Kotite, Leonard Tose, Joe Kuharick,
Mickey Morandini,Cookie Rojas,Bob Walk,
Norm Bulash,Gary Dornhofer,Leroy Harris,Bobby Jones, Tyrone Hill
the backup plan it seems will be to have every single player file a lawsuit against the league. Get ready folks- round 2 is about to begin.
If that happens Stevo,
The Owners will do what I wish they would do,
Have Open Tryouts June 1st and build a squad from there and what former players want to come out and play and sign a new Contract then so be it.. It would take a year or 2, but 95% of the Players would come back under new rules,contracts and everything else… most players in the NFL have a very short time to “make it” This is how I would Roll, if I was an Owner…
The only ball DeMaurice is playing with are his own. From where I sit he hasn’t done jack for the players yet except get them locked out and go 1 win, 1 loss in court, losing the more important of the two.
paulman yessss tyrone hill has one ugly annoying face
Am I the only one that thinks that Iguodala looks like Pete Puma from Bugs Bunny with that horrible under bite. God he’s beat. I want to punch D. Smith in the mug. Dumb jack wad.