10 things you need to know right now about the CBA situation

[PQ]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

If the players don't feel like they are getting paid enough they can strike, therefore we would see replacement players...hence not the best players on the field.

Agreed.

BUT, if the owners told the current players to go F themselves, and had a veteran draft and subsequent rookie draft, then within a year or so, MANY lower players would start to scab. And the prima donna pukes, like Peyton Manning and Drew Breeze would have to. Or stay away. And good ridance.

Think Jake Locker, Andrew Luck, Ryan Malett, or Mark Ingram will miss Peyton Manning, Drew Breeze, or Adrian Peterson?

Psh...........

Breeze is now the biggest poser hypocrite there is, to me. So are the rest, but what a hack.

[PQ]

Oh, it would never happen. The owners would have to all agree to release their rights to the players and their contracts. But I am an avid and hardcore NFL fan and I would LITERALLY pay one thousand dollars cash money right now (I'm by no means rich) to see the owners dump the union on their asses.

[PoorMansCamaro]

I believe there is currently no union. They decertified already...

[PQ]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

I believe there is currently no union. They decertified already...

Right.

I wish there were a way to keep them decertified. But it's only a formality and technicallity so that the union can persue legal actions.

THUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish some of the players would step up while they are decertified and declare themselves non-union for good.

[CJ Man]

Originally Posted by PQ

Right.

I wish there were a way to keep them decertified. But it's only a formality and technicallity so that the union can persue legal actions.

THUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish some of the players would step up while they are decertified and declare themselves non-union for good.

Antonio Cromartie ?

[PQ]

Originally Posted by CJ Man

Antonio Cromartie ?

[PoorMansCamaro]

UPDATE!

10 more things you should know about the CBA right now...

1. April 6 looms large.
On March 11, the NFLPA decertified, and the NFL responded by locking out the players. Decertification included a lawsuit aimed at blocking the lockout, specifically with a request that the court lift the lockout now, while the lawsuit unfolds. The hearing will happen on April 6, in a Minnesota federal court. At some point after the hearing ends, Judge Susan Nelson will issue a ruling. The party that loses will file an emergency appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court. At some point, likely before June 1, the process will be finalized. If the players win, the lockout will end. If the league wins, the lockout will continue. Though it’s in the fans’ interests for the players’ position to prevail, a far better outcome would be a negotiated compromise that lays the foundation for a return to long-term labor peace.

2. League apparently doesn’t want to negotiate
(Gee, there's a shocker...)

3. The core of the problem.
The parties disagree primarily regarding revenue. The heart of the revenue debate arises from the fact that the players have been receiving roughly 50 cents of every dollar that goes through the cash register — and that the owners have decided that, as the dollars reach ten billion annually, the rent is too damn high.
Recently, we offered some suggestions for bridging the gap. Regardless of whether the parties use one or more (or none) of our ideas, the goal will be to find a way to make both sides happy.
Or, at a minimum, equally unhappy.

4. The role of NFL Alumni.
(really isn't important right now)

5. The lawyers take over.

6-10 to be continued in next post...

[PoorMansCamaro]

6. The Brady case could change the game dramatically.
The players generally believe that the antitrust lawsuit filed with men like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees serving as named plaintiffs has one primary goal — to end the lockout. And they’re right.
But.
The allegations in the lawsuit also attack time-honored tools for ensuring competitive balance, like the salary cap, the franchise tag, and even the draft.
Let’s assume, then, that the lawyers continue to drive this bus toward the cliff, earning hundreds of dollars per hour along the way. If the players’ lawyers prevail, the end result will be an NFL with no rules of any kind that apply to the 32 teams.
No draft. No limits on free agency. No limits on compensation.
That comes with a risk. With no union to protect their rights — and no mandatory minimum salaries — certain players will be paid peanuts. Long snappers will be lucky to get six figures. Punters, kickers, and plenty of second-stringers will see their total dollars go down.
Stars, on the other hand, will make even more. Eventually, five percent of the players could be making 95 percent of the money as teams budget to pay their big-ticket players and make up the difference by squeeze the vast majority of lunchpail guys who have benefited from collective bargaining.
Thus, if the players win the battle on April 6, the players and the fans will benefit. If the players win the war, however, everyone will lose. Except for the star players, and their agents.
And the lawyers.

7. “Family” will take on new importance for the rookies.
Two weeks ago, a report emerged that the NFLPA* wants incoming rookies to “boycott” the draft. The NFLPA* insists that no “boycott” is planned.
Still, the NFLPA* and several high-profile players have made their feelings known. Rookies shouldn’t support an event conducted by the entity that’s locking out the rookies and every other player.
It’s unfortunate, given that several veteran players haven’t batted an eye when it comes to getting some lockout face time on the league-owned broadcast operation. But the incoming players seem to be taking heed of the not-so-subtle admonition, which could morph into a full-blown problem once they join their teammates in the locker room, and their foes on the field.
So look for plenty of players to choose to spend the day with family, in lieu of going to New York and finding themselves in the middle of a tug-o-war between the draft and whatever competing event the NFLPA* may be contemplating. It’s the safest approach under the circumstances and, in the end, there’s a chance that only a handful of players will show up.

8. Why the players deserve blame.
Some fans blame the players for the mess we’re all currently in. Some fans blame the owners. Others blame both.
Put us down for both.
The players pulled the plug on negotiations and opted for litigation even though the owners put on the table an offer that provided a reasonable starting point for further talks. Though it wasn’t “fair” in the sense that the players should have accepted it, we think the offer provided a “fair” framework for further talks.
That’s why NFLPA* executive director DeMaurice Smith repeatedly has called the offer “the worst deal in the history of sports.” He and the players needed to justify the decision to short-circuit the bargaining process and to initiate the litigation option. The best way to do so was to call the offer a horribly, and historically, bad one.
It wasn’t. The NFL made multiple key concessions on non-economic terms. Though the revenue side of the deal needed work, the players could have kept working. Instead, they apparently had already decided to decertify and sue.
As to the lawsuit, and as mentioned above, it could dramatically change the sport as we know it. The paperwork filed by the players pushes for an end to the draft and a scuttling of all restrictions on free agency. Though the players may have included those allegations for leverage only at this point, the claims can take on a life of their own. In time, if the players have some success, they could push for an NFL in which there are no rules from team to team, which potentially will strip from the sport the sense that, in any given year, any given team can win it all.
And that could diminish the overall interest in the league. Which could decrease the popularity of the sport, along with the revenue it generates.
All because the players decided not to keep talking.
9. Why the owners deserve blame.
Of course, the players decided not to keep talking in large part because they believed that the owners were disrespecting them at the bargaining table and beyond. From the antics of the two Jerrys — Richardson and Jones — to the long stretches of thumb twiddling that, amazingly, mediator George Cohen didn’t notice and/or didn’t explain and/or didn’t try to remedy to the “lockout insurance” case, the owners accomplished their goal of frustrating the players too well.
It never should have been that way. The owners should have treated the players like men, giving them the face time with the key decision makers that they wanted, and at all times treating them with dignity and respect.
The owners also shouldn’t have allowed themselves five years ago to be bullied into doing what turned out to be a bad deal. But with teams pressed tightly at the time against the salary cap as the onerous rules of the last capped year were approaching and with the late Gene Upshaw proclaiming that, if in 2007 the salary cap went away it would never return, the league blinked, buying time via a bad deal that, as legend has it, former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue wanted to do so that he could retire.
But it’s not fair to blame Tagliabue. In the end, 30 owners agreed with the former Commissioner, whose successor was in the thick of the last CBA, but who somehow has avoided any blame for the bad deal the NFL did.
Bizarrely, the league instead seems to be angry at the players for getting a good deal for themselves, and some owners appear to be hell bent on tilting the scales sharply in the owners’ direction. Though the league claims that it merely wants to do a deal with which everyone can be happy over the long haul, we get the feeling that the league also wants to determine for the players the terms of their happiness.
“Trust us” simply doesn’t fly in any sophisticated, high-stakes relationship. The league claims its not as profitable as it would like to be. Fine, then open the books. It’s that simple.
No one believes that anyone who has a spoon in the $9.3 billion stew is hurting in any way financially. If the owners want the players to believe it, the owners have to prove it.
Instead, the owners believe they can shut down the sport until the players don’t care about the owners’ finances. Come September, the players will be sufficiently worried about their own.
And that’s really what the league is up to here. The players get paid too much and their careers are too short to skip a year entirely. So the NFL wants to twist their arms until they cry, “Uncle.” Moving forward, it won’t be a matter of the players being “happy” with the deal. It’ll be a matter of the players realizing that they’re making good money, and that the consequence of taking a stand means they’ll be making none.
10. The fans are being taken for granted by both sides.
Both sides desperately want the fans to be on their side. Thus, both sides will say how much they care about the fans.
Previously, we’ve said that they don’t care about us. We need to revise that a bit. They do care; how can they have no affection for a group that gives them so much money?
The better description is that they’re taking us all for granted.
They, the owners and the players, quietly assume that, when it’s all over, we’ll be back. Some may even assume based on record ratings that absence will make the heart grow even fonder.
Either way, the parties currently have no fear that the fans will abandon the game. And they’re probably right. But that doesn’t make it OK for the two parties to presume that we’ll be here waiting with our cold, wet noses pressed against the window, periodically wagging our tails at signs that our master could be home soon — and periodically yelping at the fact that he hasn’t arrived yet.

[PoorMansCamaro]

looks like they are getting close!!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6687485

[PQ]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

looks like they are getting close!!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6687485

Like I said, the owners have been getting BFed for a long time. It's good to see things seeming to swing in their favor.

This line from the previous post made me seriously LMAO......

The owners should have treated the players like men, giving them the face time with the key decision makers that they wanted, and at all times treating them with dignity and respect.

[3 SS's]

deal to be done in 48-72 hrs,

[CJ Man]

Let the free agent frenzy begin! Reggie bush to phins. You heard it here first

[PoorMansCamaro]

Actually I didnt. Heard it on espn boards already. Lol

[CJ Man]

I specifically said HERE first!!!