NFL Offseason 2011 - The Longest Yard?

[Timby]

The NFLPA has decertified.

Edit: Jesus CHRIST. The NFLPA demanded, in exchange for another CBA extension, ten years of audited financial statements.

The IRS only requires businesses to keep records for seven years. And they only need to be audited if you're a public company. (So, the Packers.)

Christ. DeMaurice Smith really walked out on a plank, here. Welcome to labor armageddon.

Edit: George Cohen, of the federal mediation service: "No constructive purpose would be served by requesting the parties continue mediation at this time."

That's it. Welcome to court, ladies and gentlemen. And the NFL really shot itself in the foot, here, by demanding more money due to financial trouble. You can guarantee the players will get everything they wanted in discovery. (I'm pretty sure that the documents used to prove their case -- essentially their books -- can only be kept secret in the case of trade secrets. As the NFL essentially competes with precisely no one, good luck on getting a judge to agree to that.)

 

[archeryguy1701]

It's disappointing, but I'm not surprised that it ended up going this direction. The teams were never going to willingly open their books, and the players weren't going to give up anymore money without the books. I don't think it would have mattered how many years worth of records the players would have asked for, I think we would have still ended up at this point.

 

[Roger Wilco]

It's disappointing, but I'm not surprised that it ended up going this direction. The teams were never going to willingly open their books, and the players weren't going to give up anymore money without the books. I don't think it would have mattered how many years worth of records the players would have asked for, I think we would have still ended up at this point.

That's because the NFL owners are full of shit and opening the records would prove it.

 

[archeryguy1701]

^Oh, I agree completely that opening the books would do nothing except prove that the need the owners keep claiming doesn't actually exist, at least not in the amounts they claim. But the fact that the owners refused to give up the ruse and the players refused to take them at their word created an impassible road block.

 

[SmoothieX]

OK, they never exactly taught collective bargaining in engineering school, so I'm not a labor expert. Now that the union decertified, how will the players represent themselves at future negotiations. Can Smith and Mawae and player reps and the lawyer still represent the players as organized labor? Or is it essentially in the hands of the courts right now?

 

[Timby]

What was the NFLPA is now, essentially, a trade organization that advocates for the players. They can still negotiate, but they are no longer an elected union, which now exposes the NFL to antitrust lawsuits.

 

[Starbreaker]

Why can't these morons save up enough money to pay for insurance? I have insurance and I don't make anywhere near LEAGUE MINIMUM. These guys need to stop whining.

 

[Yoda]

NFL players are kind of like lottery winners. There are lots of stupid people among them who will squander it all, not plan at all for the future, and end up worse off than if they never had any significant money to begin with. They should start paying out contracts as annuities or something to save these idiots from themselves.

Though, I suppose a lot of the 'legacy' players that have been having problems were from an era before the megacontracts of today, and it would probably nice, and good PR, if the NFL took care of them a bit better at least on medical issues and the like that can be traced back to the abuse their bodies took playing the game. But really I don't see any reason why that shouldn't come out of the NFLPA's end.

I think it'd be kind of stupid for any fan to get too behind either side in this debacle, seeing as it's all greed over riches the likes of which most of us will never see. The NFL is lying through their teeth about their financial woes. The NFLPA decertifying is pretty much a sham. It's not like the fans positions matter at all. If they did they'd be negotiating for lower pay for players, smaller profits for teams, fewer commercials during broadcasts, lower ticket prices, etc..

 

[Timby]

Why can't these morons save up enough money to pay for insurance? I have insurance and I don't make anywhere near LEAGUE MINIMUM. These guys need to stop whining.

I highly doubt you work in a job with such a short career expectancy (3.5 years) due to the frequency of devastating injuries. It's insanely expensive to insure football players.

 

[Starbreaker]

I still believe a guy can pay his insurance premiums for 4 years.

 

[Timby]

The sticking point isn't health insurance for active players -- it's for retired ones.

 

[nevermore]

And I'm pretty sure being a former NFL player qualifies as a pre-existing condition.

 

[Marten]

Now when it seems the courts will decide this, is there any chance that they will be done in time for the next seasons, with appeals and everything?

 

[SmoothieX]

The first scheduled court appearance is April 6 to hear the now defunct player's association's antitrust case against the league.

Since the NFLPA has decertified and is no longer a 'union,' technically it's illegal for them to be locked out. So they are suing for court to issue an injunction forcing the owners to open the doors again.

The owners would like agree to the rules of either the 09 or 10 seasons, which were collectively bargained with the NFLPA. Somehow this benefits them in the long run. And that's where my knowledge of labor law ends.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110314/sp_afp/amfootnflunion_20110314231635

 

[Aragorn]

Holy crap! Former Houston Oilers wide receiver Drew Hill died Friday at age 54 after suffering two massive strokes.

 

[Timby]

Good grief. As though his 2010 suspension wasn't bad enough, Green Bay D-lineman Johnny Jolly got arrested again for drug possession.

Jolly was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
Senties said the former Houston high school star gave the arresting officers a state identification card instead of a driver's license. After a background check, police discovered Jolly's license had been suspended in 2007 and was ineligible for renewal.


A Packers spokesman said the team would have no comment. Jolly's agent didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.


Jolly was suspended by the NFL without pay for all of last season for violating the league's substance abuse policy. The ban stemmed from a separate drug arrest.


In July 2008, Jolly was arrested in Houston for possession of at least 200 grams of codeine, a second-degree felony.


Jolly could've faced up to 20 years in prison. But he was given pretrial diversion, a form of probation that would've had the charge against him dismissed if he didn't break the law over the next year. Part of the sentence was 160 hours of community service, which included 10 speaking engagements where he was supposed to talk to children and others about the dangers of drug use.

Lay off the purple drank, dude.

 

[SmoothieX]

^Maybe the codeine is what makes him so Jolly?

 

[Aragorn]

Chad Ochocinco (when is he supposed to change his name back to Johnson like he said he would?) made the reserve team of Kansas City in MLS, which basically means he gets to practice with them and they don't pay him.

 

[tomalak301]

Are we approching D-Day with the whole trial and talk in the Labor issue starting tomorrow? I'm still pissed that they wanted to change everything when the sport was the highest it's ever been. Of course it's all about money and I'm not surprised, but it still sucks.

 

[SmoothieX]

^And the better question is will the lead plaintiff, Tom Brady, cut his European-soccer-like locks before then.