Thread: Chicago meetings pivotal for Goodell

Need to tell those few owners to stand down or sell...F 'em. It was stupid to try to plan to break the union when they didn't end the CBA or let it end naturally. Sounds like cooler heads are finally prevailing, get the deal done, don't screw the players for the sake of "breaking them". That can happen in 4-5 years when the CBA lapses under mutual agreement or the Union wants out early.

Get the deal done, make sure it's more fair for both parties, b/c right now it's not for the owners. And lets get to FA and training camp ASAP!

Originally Posted by soulman

My only comments, besides the fact that I'm glad the moderates are gaining control, is that this article bears out most of the facts about these negotiations that I've been basing my opinions on all along. The NFL "hardliners" were never bargaining with an eye to the present and the future but rather with an eye toward undoing the past 2006 CBA and it's major points of concession regarding revenue sharing. Their insistence on a "rollback" from the former CBA's basic sharing agreement contributed more than anything to a breakdown in the March negotiations and their last minute attempt at a settlement looked like they were playing the NFLPA for a fool.

Now let's get this thing over and done. There seems to me more of a mutual respect between the parties than there has been for quite sometime and DB you were 100% right. Once they told the lawyers to sit down, shut up, and stay out of it the wheels of progress began to turn. The big losers in all of this may be Goddell and Pash who've been exposed for the more or less powerless puppets they were and I wouldn't bet a buck towards their longevity in their present positions. I think they both lost a tremendous amount of respect from everyone including the owners and the fans through this whole process. To me they handled things very clumsily and accomplished little or nothing of what the owners expected of them.

In the long run it seems that it will be settled around some basic principals of fairness after all. The owners will get some breathing space and the players still retain their rights to a significant percentage of revenues and a share of the future increases as well. If this was on the table in March it's news to me and if it had been I don't think we'd have seen happen what has been going on for over three months now.

LOL yep, lawyers do nothing but screw the pooch : )

and think Smith also in trouble, though just IMO i never thought he was in the job long term, and using it as a "launching point" for a political career. so doesn't hurt him as much as will not be around for the long term effects... andin march the last proposal had everythign talking about EXCEPT the bigger split down the line- which IMO was something the owner's waiting on the counter-proposal from union that never came, on what % they wanted.. Nobody offerers that to beginf with, you make Counter AFTER the union says its demand.. and they never did and went the court route instead..

But all that is water under the bridge now.. and time to cross the T's and dot the "I"'s and keep a lid on crazies like al davis and dan synder.. : )

You ignore the fact that the players had already decided they were going to decertify, any proposal wouldn't have been voted on, b/c w/4 to 5 hrs left they couldn't have digested any proposal in that amt of time.

The players new this scham of a decert was what they wanted to do, and they were going to do it. Nothing other then something equal to or better then what they had was going to be accepted by them.

Originally Posted by soulman

But you overlook the fact that the owners final proposal was not delivered until about 4 or 5 hours before the dealine for decertification and was less generous then previous proposals. That hardly gave the NFLPA time to digest it and respond before the deadline. The owners painted everyone into a corner when they did that and the players called their bluff. I've said all along that this wasn't exactly good faith bargaining on the part of the owners and this article more or less supports that point of view. How can you call a last minute offer which is worse than the previous as being anything but bad faith?

I simply accept the fact that this was a collision of points of view which was bound to happen. The "hardliners" among the owners were not ever gonna be happy with anything but a rollback from the 2006 CBA which they never liked from the start and the NFLPA took and equally hardline stance against it. Had the moderates prevailed to begin with or had some other the more influential fence sitters like Bob Kraft softened their stance earlier all this might have been avoided.

Whatever it was is far less imprtant than what it is today. The owners don't want to risk an anti-trust suit and the players want to play football and collect their paychecks and so long as it continues along these lines we'll get an agreement by early July and the season will go on as planned. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish or not accomplish in FA so we can start bitching about that instead of this crap.

Hahaha.

we will never agree about this soul :).. and think the union was going the Court route no matter what, and heck if their last proposal had eve given them everything, they still where going the court route IMO.. so don't think that last offer meant a thing.

but as sad "water under the bridge", and hopefully we do get an agreement soona nd can talk REAL FOOTBLL and trades, cap, depth, performance etc

as said from the beginning 95% "bluster" on both sides and "if" get deal before mid july NOTHING is lost or would have mattered, except all the waste of time,lawyer fee's and hot air.. and right on schedule for that : )

NFL, players bring labor momentum to the owner meetings in Chicago

It's not quite make or break time in the NFL's months-long labor fight, but that critical point figures to be clearly visible from where the league owners stand once they convene in Chicago for one or perhaps two days of meetings that start Tuesday near O'Hare International Airport.


This isn't the week a long-awaited deal gets done between the league and its players, but it is the week a potential agreement could be undone if enough owners don't like the details that come forth in what is expected to be a full-throated hearing on where the labor negotiations stand and where they're headed.

As one league source put it last week: "It's a very important meeting, but not because a deal's going to be voted on. There's no deal. But this is one of the final steps to getting a deal. It's sort of the cards being put on the table.''

In other words, the framework of a new labor agreement will be presented to the full ownership for the first time, and then all 32 clubs will be allowed to pick it apart for potential problems, dive into the details in depth, and propose changes they view as pivotal to their support. How long that crucial process takes is anyone's guess, which is why the league has asked all owners to be prepared to go into Tuesday evening and even stay over until Wednesday to continue the discussion and debate.

Though the progress that has been made in recent negotiation sessions with the players is still described as "fragile'' by a league source, the makings of a deal that would allow for free agency to start in July and salvage the entire preseason schedule continues to incubate. But this week poses a major hurdle to those hopes and that timetable because all 32 owners will have the opportunity to examine the facts and perhaps read the fine print that they hurriedly skipped over in 2006, at the close of the last CBA negotiation.

There's cautious optimism within the league and among the players because the weeks and months of trying to score debating points in the eyes of the fans and media appear over, and the practice of tough, give-and-take negotiating has replaced it. That's progress, and the hope is that this week's confab can move the ball forward and produce some kind of consensus among the owners as to what a final deal will look like.

"People are starting to ask questions and say things like, 'If I'm going to do this, I'm going to need this or that,' or 'Can we do this, because of that?'' 'the league source said. "So when you start getting to those kind of questions, that's a good sign. This is a chance for everyone to have their say and get their questions answered.''

Getting owners comfortable and familiar with the nitty-gritty details of where a collective bargaining agreement will likely end up is the Herculean task facing NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league's negotiating team in Chicago. But it won't be entirely up to Goodell to "sell'' a deal to his employers. Influential owners like John Mara of the Giants, Robert Kraft of the Patriots and Jerry Richardson of the Panthers are expected to play key roles in taking temperature readings of their fellow owners, and conducting behind-the-scenes conversations that won't occur during the league's formal sessions at the Westin Hotel-O'Hare.

Owners this week need to wrap their hands around facts such as how closely a new deal will resemble the CBA terms they opted out of in 2008, the operational plan of how and when free agency will be conducted in the wake of an agreement, and the specific structure of how owners and players will share in potential TV revenues after the current contract expires following the 2013 season. Many different constituencies must be addressed and considered by Goodell and Co., including those perceived hard-line/small-market owners such as Buffalo's Ralph Wilson and Cincinnati's Mike Brown, who alone voted against the 2006 CBA proposal and later complained that they weren't even given time to understand that document.

"They need to all have the facts of where we are and where we think we're headed,'' a second league source said. "You start by answering questions and getting people comfortable with what [a deal] may be, and what it may not be. Some owners may feel it's not the right deal, and they want to hear more about it. You have to weigh and consider the concerns about the economy. Some people are assuming we're going to double the TV revenue in a few years, but others are saying, wait a second, a lot of people are preaching doom and gloom in regards to the national economy.''

It would take nine of the 32 owners to block any potential deal with the players, and it's almost certain the voices and objections of owners like Wilson and Brown will be taken a bit more seriously this time around, given their apparent foresight in 2006. Though no formal vote is expected this week, momentum toward a deal could clearly be stalled if there's enough organized opposition to what Goodell and the negotiating team presents.

"This would be the forum for saying, 'Let's take our time and not make the mistake of 2006,' which was sort of to get rushed,'' a league source said. "I don't think anyone's trying to just slow things down. I just think these guys got burned and they want to go through it in a level of detail that they neglected in 2006. They want to do a deep dive on the facts of whatever's out there, and if that takes time, so be it.''

That said, the majority of owners are believed to feel that the first significant deadline in salvaging the entire 2011 season is fast approaching. Striking a deal and starting free agency by July 15 would allow for training camp and the preseason to unfold as usual, and the NFL is said to have $700 million-plus of potential lost income if it doesn't. That would obviously mean owners will be positioned to give the players their best possible deal if a full preseason occurs.

Publicly the NFL owners are expected to say next to nothing coming out of their meeting, but it's a silence that might be golden for football fans. The only progress the two sides have made has seemingly come when the news leaks have been all but non-existent, and the league is imploring owners to not drop the ball at this late stage. Though there have been reports that the players may have representatives in Chicago and are willing to negotiate there, it's more likely that any talks would be held only after the owners meeting concludes.

If the sides reconvene this week and negotiations resume, it's probably a solid sign that the owners reached a consensus among themselves and are prepared to move forward. The key to the league getting a deal done with its players could be as simple as making sure nothing comes undone this week in Chicago.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz1PuvVpdcm