Ken Meringolo's Lockout Diary: Day 1

I’m gonna miss being off-season champs…. :(

but what are the owners hiding. Why can’t they be “transparent”. If they want some money back why not show why for Christs sakes.

In names of good, respectable players like London Fletcher and Drew Brees, I feel sorry that they have to deal with owners like Dan Snyder, Jerry Jones, and Al Davis. Then again, there are selfish, greedy players like Haynesworth and T.O. who make you want to shit all over the players’ case for this lockout. However, I’m more angry at the owners because of what they represent. Whether or not the players claims are true/valid, we all look at Dan Snyder (the petulant child who wants to put a small newspaper out of business), Jerry Jones (no, I don’t care that he fucks up the Cowboys, but he’s the same type), or Al Davis, and think, there has to be some sort of valid grievance here. I’m not taking sides because I’m blinded by the prospect of no football in 2011. That doesn’t sit well with me as a fan. Right now, I could care less who’s right and who’s wrong. I want some fucking football, and I’m not prepared to live without it.

Today I am mostly angry because I officially believe that this thing was NEVER going to end up in a different place than where we are now. I foolishly believed that the extensions represented real hope that a deal was imminent. Instead, both the NFL and the NFLPA have been calling plays out of a playbook that pretty much guaranteed this thing would end up here.

In the days ahead, perhaps the owners will prove to be the complete d-bags that the players are painting them out to be. Or perhaps the fear of having embarrassing financial disclosures paint them in a negative light will cause them to negotiate a settlement with the players in time to get the NFL calendar back on track.

Why put all your angst on the owners? Isn’t the decertification what the union planned all along as their strategy? Isn’t the fear of anti-trust litigation their weapon? So maybe the owners bargained in good faith and it’s the union that was playing hardball with good old Judge Doty in their back pocket. Maybe…. maybe not. The hard truth is the players wanted this to play out exactly as it did. Even if the owners had turned over their financial records it would have gone this route. Do the UAW negotiators get to see the books of GM, Ford and Chrysler? I doubt it.

I’m extremely sympathetic to the players normally, but not this time. I agreewith some of the players amanda, but I truly think that some of the changes, such as rookie salary caps, is on the players self interest, and year round drug testing is in the leagues best interest (not the owners, the league).

In this case, the players association want bargaining in good faith. I’m kind of wondering if we will see replacement players part deux, though, before this is solved.

By them decertifying guarantees there will be football this year since the lockout is now illegal. 2011 will be like this year…no salary cap and likely no salary floor. No UFAs.

I’m sure you read about the Offer the owners had made and the players walked away from. It showed some compromise by both sides; the players wanted to keep the 1 billion for the owners at the same level, and the owners wanted 2 billion. They ended up compromising that 1.5. The owners offered the players the profit statements for all 32 teams. The players union wanted full financial disclosure for the last 10 years-anybody who’s been in business knows that is a completely ridiculous request unless you’re going to buy out the owners.

I’ll tell you who I think the biggest blame can be laid with- Roger Godell and more specifically De Maurice Smith. Smith obviously has something else on his agenda that has nothing to do with football.
Why the players collectively have been so poor at choosing their union leader is beyond me. The player representatives from each team are not idiots, they often seem to be the smartest man in the room. So how is it that we get such an NFLPA leaders as Gene Upshaw (absolutely love the guy is a player, but he’s screwed over his colleagues constantly by just rolling over to every owner demand) and De Maurice Smith,, who really doesn’t seem to have a dog in this fight other than his own political.
this thing was set up to be a cluster flock from first moment-I think the only way a deal gets done, is that when the union reforms that they choose a more pragmatic man/woman to represent their interests.