Strange Bedfellows

Hate is a strong word, in its pure, original form. However, Americans throw the word around in casual conversation, usually having a true meaning of “strong dislike”, “slight dislike”, or a meaning produced by the use of that word in jest. I do not genuinely hate anyone that immediately comes to mind. In the sports fanhood context, I hate Tom Brady and the Bill Belichick era New England Patriots.

If you know me personally or read this blog regularly before its recently discontinued hiatus, this is no secret. They’re arrogant. They’re entitled. They are not likable. And the bastards won’t go away like cockroaches and toilets after a nuclear bomb; they keep on winning.

Over the years I have found myself in the ironic and reluctant position of either defending or mitigating the criticism of Tom Terrific, The Hoodie, and the Minutemen amidst their many controversies. I thought the Tuck Rule was a stupid rule, but it was a rule and was applied to its letter in the infamous Tuck Rule Game that launched Brady’s stardom and the modern Patriots dynasty. I thought Spygate was unethical, but I don’t think it warranted any punishment until the league asked the team to discontinue its sideline filming practices. There is no evidence (not even circumstantial evidence) to show that the Patriots filmed the St. Louis Rams’ walk-through before Super Bowl XXXVI, yet detractors of the Patriots organization often freely toss the allegation around a though it were fact.

1

THEY ARE NOT ANGELS

I think that the Patriots organization and Tom Brady are guilty as sin in the Deflategate controversy in which Patriots footballs used during the first half of the 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts in January of 2015 were allegedly deflated below league specifications after the game officials inspected the balls. I also think the impact on the lopsided Patriots victory was between “zero” and “negligible”. More importantly, I think that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell overreached in his punishment of Brady and his team. As reported my multiple news outlets, the penalty on the books in the NFL at that time for equipment tampering is a fine up to $25,000. The Patriots were exponentially fined beyond that threshold, were penalized draft picks, and Brady was suspended for four games at the beginning of the 2015 NFL season.

Of course, the long arm of the real law, not that of Sheriff Goodell, reached out and slapped the NFL, enjoining Brady’s suspension. The court opined that Goodell overreached in his authority, notwithstanding the collective bargaining agreement in place between the league and its players, Brady played the entire 2015 season without interruption. An appellate court recently ruled that the lower erred in its ruling and reinstated Brady’s four game suspension, effective at the start of the 2016 NFL regular season.

2

BLACK MO

If Goodell is the Sheriff in this western style legal drama, then NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith is Black Bart. And he is coming for the sheriff. This morning on ESPN’s SportsCenter, Smith described the intent of the Players Association to take legal action to, once again, invalidate Brady’s suspension and possibly put some handcuffs on the sheriff in the long run. Smith described his disdain for the far reaching authority of Goodell in player discipline issues. With the existing collective bargaining agreement in place until 2021, Smith acknowledged the challenges in curtailing Goodell’s authority. However, the appeals to public opinion and use of the court system are within Smith’s wheelhouse and have proven effective in the past.

We need a new sheriff in town. 3

HOLDING MY NOSE

In this chapter of NFL drama, I am (not so) reluctantly on the side of one of my least favorite players in NFL history. This case is much bigger than Tom Brady or the Patriots and, to a degree, it is bigger than football. In so many words, this is about The Man putting his boot on the throat of the little guy. As rich and famous as Brady is, he is just an employee in and being used as a pawn by the National Football League.

Goodell’s arbitrary exercise of power has become increasingly egregious and grown exponentially during the past several years. What was once an effort to maintain the public image of the league through player and organizational discipline has mushroomed into an untargeted dispersal of power to send a message from one man, the Commissioner, to the people under his authority. It is to the long term detriment, not benefit of the game of football at the professional level.  

"His balls"...what a dick. 4

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2) Image from http://ymswwc.wordpress.com

3) Image from http://satiriclyric.wordpress.com

Oatmeal Is Better Than No Meal

Labor negotiations need to maintain a degree of confidentiality, even one as public as the ongoing collective bargaining agreement between the National Football League owners and players. Still, key nuggets are going to be divulged to the public, intentionally or unintentionally. If one reads between the lines of what is revealed to the public, one can draw some broad conclusions with a relative degree of certainty and accuracy.


Labor Negotiations: As pleasant as going to the dentist for a root canal. 1

 NUTS AND BOLTS

ESPN, yesterday, released some details of the agreement being proposed to the owners in the latest talks. Just looking at the bullet points, I think the players can breathe a collective sigh of relief. The owners were determined to roll back some of what the players had and ask for more out of the players. That was done, but players did not get hammered, more like an inconvenient pinch.

The following are some of the details of the proposed agreement, reported by ESPN, which will likely be a part of the final agreement.

Players get 48 percent of “all revenue” – According to NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, players, after off-the-top expenses, were receiving about 53 percent of the revenue. Many of the reports I had read said that the players could have lived with a 50/50 split. I would call this, under the circumstances, a “win-win”.

Teams required spending close to 100% of the salary cap – That is a win for the players. I do not pretend to have any more knowledge of NFL labor conditions than the average football enthusiast. However, to my knowledge, I am unaware of any minimum salary expenditures that clubs faced in the past. This is a big win for the players, any way one slices it.

Rookie wage scale part of the deal – There are still details to be ironed out, but this is a “win-win” for everyone involved, except for rookies. Owners can save money spent on rookies and spend that money on proven veterans without succumbing to the pressure of an otherwise unencumbered free market for rookie players.

You probably would not like going to your office and seeing this! That is probably how veterans feel when a rookie comes in and gets $60 million guaranteed. 3

Four years needed for unrestricted free agent status – This is another “win-win”. In the absence of a collective bargaining agreement extension in 2010, players had to wait six years (instead of four), well beyond career expectancy, for unrestricted status and owners had no salary cap protection.

18-game regular season designated only as negotiable item and at no point is mandated in deal – Hallelujah! This is a “win-win-win”! The players, obviously win; they wanted no part of an extended schedule. Most fans, expressed through talk shows, Internet polls, scientific polls, and other media, expressed no interest in extending the season. And while the owners may have wanted an 18 game regular season schedule, this condition, should it be agreed upon, may help save the owners from themselves. The Daily Hat Trick has run multiple articles explaining why this was a bad idea. For the fans, this may be the biggest win.

I don't think this is the image the NFL would want after an 18 game regular season. 2

New 16-game Thursday night TV package beginning in 2012 – I have yet to read any details of the thinking and motivation from each side that went into this part of the deal. I am going to take an educated guess and say that this is a win for owners, TV Networks, and fans. This is probably not as much of a win for players (or coaches). Playing a game on Thursday night significantly reduces the rest and preparation time available before a game, 4 days instead of 7 or 8 days for a game played on a Sunday or Monday.

Retirees to benefit from improved health care, pension benefits as revenue projected to double to $18 million by 2016 – This is a win for the players and, besides that, I think it is morally right. Football is a brutal sport that brings fans a lot of entertainment and makes a lot of money for a lot of people. When a player’s career is over, the benefits continue for everyone else, so I think the players responsible for making the great game what it is should be taken care of.


ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

Let us all keep our fingers crossed and hope that the recent goodwill and progress continues. Maybe, just maybe, training camp will start on time and the looming threat of lost activities will turn out to be little more than a scare. I am ready for some football! Are you?

Oh yeah. I'm ready! Good thing the NFL cheerleaders aren't locked out. 4

Don't forget to vote in the fan polls!

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Back To Life; Back To Reality

Injunction Granted

United States District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson granted an injunction lifting the lockout of NFL players. Whoo hoo! ♪♪ Ding dong! The witch is dead! The lockout witch is DEAD! ♫

ALRIGHT! So now players can get back to practice. But there are no practices yet. Well at least free agency can start; time to see our teams make the moves to bring them to the next level. Unfortunately, I have not heard about anyone on the phones or being flown in. Certainly, teams can start strategizing draft day trades. Or not…most analysts are suggesting that it is very unlikely that teams will attempt any transactions involving active players.

I don’t get it. If I am a player, I would think that a victory in court is cause to prance around and shout, “WE WON! WE WON!” instead of, “What the HELL did we win?”

Even the NFL can't escape the long arm of the LAW! 1

So What?

Even under the rosiest, best case scenario, the injunction of the lockout leaves a ton of unanswered questions about how to proceed in the absence of a new collective bargaining agreement. The worst case scenario is that the owners do the absolute minimum, within the boundaries of the law, and there is a functional lockout instead of a physical one. Until the players and owners come to terms on a collective bargaining agreement for the 2011 season, there will be no useful, functional National Football League as we have known it.

Just because football operations are not back to “normal” does not mean that the players did not score a significant victory. By enjoining the lockout, the owners have lost a substantial bargaining chip: the ability to out-wait and out-sweat the players. With a lockout in place, players were eventually going to miss paychecks.

As I have pointed out countless times, the average, typical NFL player makes more money than I do or you (likely) do in a year, but is not rich or set for life. Like you or me, they have bills and need to get paid in order to maintain their standards of living. The Tom Bradys and Drew Breeses of the league aren’t starving, but I would guess that about 40 of the other 52 guys on their teams need every paycheck in order to build their lives and their nest eggs. Owners know this and, until the injunction was granted yesterday, the owner’s worst case would have been to play the waiting game.

With the injunction lifted, players under contract, making good faith efforts to execute the terms of their contracts (like coming to the facility to work out even if the weight room is locked and the running track is closed) need to be paid according to their contracts. This puts the heat back on the owners to come to the table and iron out a deal, tipping the bargaining advantage more toward the players.

I didn't expect the players to be high rolling like Tron during the lockout. 2

Back to the Drawing Board

With all of the drama and maneuvers in court, the leverage and the playing field have shifted their balances between the two sides. Still, nobody is playing football. The owners are currently going through a process to appeal the injunction, so it may be several more weeks before the stage is completely set for the two sides to negotiate a final deal. Both sides can jockey for position, infinitely, in court. But if either side is serious about bringing this unpleasant situation to a close, it is time to put forth serious, agreeable proposals, come to an understanding, and then get back to work.

Until that day, all the players and owners are doing is lining up in the best possible formation, but the ball has still not yet been shifted.

Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith are on their way to killing the goose that lays the golden egg. 3

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