NFLPA Said --VS--NFL/Owners Said

[teeray]

It's pretty simple. If your boss and the company that employed you were making more money than ever before, many using state funded facilities, and they came to you and said you now have to work more hours for less money, you'd be okay with that I'm sure.

Actually that jus happened to my wife. Her company jus celebrated their best year in company history. The company doesn't have a state funded building ut are heavily subsidized by the government and are essentially tax exempt from the state.

How did they repay her and others on the sales team? Cut their commision rate.

She wasn't happy about it but she makes really good money so basically she had to be okay with it.

So again that is bull poo. That is life.

[Carolina Husker]

The league minimum annual salary is more than most of us make in 5-10 years and is exponentially higher than a lot of people who actually need unions make so bull poo.

And why wouldn't it be? No one pays to watch you work.

[Ounce]

So you bring up equally as egregious examples from the rest of the working world and your logic is " Derp corporations screw me over so the hell with anyone else who fights them herp derp".

When you've abandoned basic human logic 101, debating is pointless

[teeray]

And why wouldn't it be? No one pays to watch you work.

We aren't talking about me we are talking about NFL football players. I am not in a labor dispute over my meager salary. I am blessed to have a job at all in this economy.

[teeray]

So you bring up equally as egregious examples from the rest of the working world and your logic is " Derp corporations screw me over so the hell with anyone else who fights them herp derp".

When you've abandoned basic human logic 101, debating is pointless

That wasn't the point. And for the record I think unions are important for that very reason.

What I don't like is the NFLPA using nefarious tactics to try and gain public support for a strategy of blowing up the NFL to try to deepen their pockets.

The "transparency" bull poo was a smoke screen to get us to litigation. It was an outrageous request that had nothing to do with what was being negotiated. It was a request that was designed to try to give them a moral high ground in the poll of public opinion as they tried to bring the NFL closer to the MLB.

It is now obvious that some people bought it.

[Carolina Husker]

And I'm saying they deserve to be paid more than other workers in our economy, as they can support it. Why would the players not need or deserve a union? Just beause your wife accepts a pooty comp plan doesnt mean it's reasonable to assume everyone else In a position to negotiate has to be so meek. Sounds like jealousy on your part to me.

[Sam Mills Fan]

all done by Free Choice they choose this career path, nobody held a gun to their head and said, 'thou shalt be a football player, now bend over"

They are trying to use coercion against ownership, infringing on their private property rights, into a deal they do not think is economically feasible.

This is garbage. I love how the billionaire slurpers on the Huddle just make these blanket statements like "infringing on their private property rights" like that's supposed to mean anything, especially without any explanation.

[Sam Mills Fan]

Career choice. Nobody forced them to become pro athletes.

Nobody forced the owners to buy a professional football team either. So what?

[Sam Mills Fan]

Does that mean that miners, construction workers, chemical engineers, virologists, technical consultants, waitresses, physical therapists, parking deck attendants, university professors, competitive eaters, store clerks, elevator technicians, etc are invested in their respective companies to demand profit sharing?

If your answer is "yes", then welcome to Socialism. Another couple of steps and you will dive full-on into Communism when you abolish private property rights altogether.

This is just gobbledy-****. Nothing but idiotic strawman arguments. Anyone can be a waitress or a competitive eater, but only an extremely select few can play football at the level that will cause over 100 million people to tune in for their title game. And the only professions you listed where there is a danger to the job are miners and construction workers and guess what? There are some fantastic unions for people in those professions in states that allow it. These unions are necessary to prevent more things like the mining accident in WV last year that killed like 30 people IIRC.

[Sam Mills Fan]

It was their choice to play football. They know the risks to their body, and if they don't want to take it, then they don't have to play.

Did somebody point a gun at Jerry Richardson's head and force HIM to purchase a new Charlotte-based NFL franchise back in 1993? Or did he fight tooth and nail himself for that to happen?

No, nobody forced the players to sign up. But nobody forced these oh so poor and helpless owners to enter into the league either. When Jerry Richardson became an owner, there was already a strong union that he knew of, it wasn't like it was a secret. And when he spearheaded the 2006 CBA agreement that he's bitching about now, it's not like anyone was forcing him to do that either.

[Sam Mills Fan]

Until players are as financially invested in their respective teams as owners, they are not equals, nor should they be treated that way. Your avatar is apt.

Depends on what you mean by financially invested. Paul Allen doesn't give a poo if the lockout goes on forever. But a guy like James Anderson...this is his entire livelihood. He's *100%* invested in the league financially. Without the NFL, he has to change careers.

Besides, the NFL didn't gain its $9 billion a year popularity on the backs of the owners, it gained its popularity through guys like Peyton Manning and Michael Vick and even The Golden Calf of Bristol. You don't see many guys at Panthers games with Jerry Richardson jerseys on, do you?

[Sam Mills Fan]

No it's not. No privately owned business should/is required to turn their complete financial record over to anyone. The owners provided the info they felt was necessary for the union to see, which is more than they probably should have been required to do.

This is factually incorrect. Someone posted in another thread the part of the 1989 agreement between the NFLPA and the league that required the league to turn over full financial records if they wanted to pull a stunt like they're doing. Feel free to blame Judge Doty if you want, but it doesn't change the legality.

[Udogg]

In negotiations, you always ask for more than you actually want. If I was in that position I would also ask for 10 years and the compromise would be 4 or 5. Anyone that has negotiated commercial lease (properly), services contract, or distrubution deal would do as such. Just like the NFL came with several hard to swallow propositions for the players in order to negotiate down. I think the Major mistake was they overplayed their hand. They "opted" out of the agreement in place, to then ask for 18 games, rookie salary cap up to 5 years (average player 3.5.), and another 1 billion off the top. Not to mention the side deals that they negotiate outside the collective bargaining agreements. They also negotiated (unfairly) on the TV contracts as leverage against the players. Using waitresses and cooks, and teachers as basis on why the players should just shut up and accept it, thats like comparing apples to nuclear bombs.

I am also not naive enough to believe that the players didn't want to go to court all along. Anything short of the previous deal was going to be fought for tooth and nail. The reason they want to go to court is that the precedence are in their favor. The courts will make a ruling the NFL lawyers will tell the NFLPA lawyers something and that will spur this to a close.

Also, anyone here who says that they wouldn't go to court to battle reduction in pay and longer work hours if they thought they had a chance to win is a liar. I don't care who you are or how much money you have you would do it. The only reason people don't is when they don't believe they have any chance of winning.

[jpniner]

This is garbage. I love how the billionaire slurpers on the Huddle just make these blanket statements like "infringing on their private property rights" like that's supposed to mean anything, especially without any explanation.

uh, last I checked NFL franchises were private property, one of the inalienable right the founding fathers secured for us. NFL franchises are not Communal property. The whole "Thou shalt not steal" thingy underlying the morality within the Declaration of Independence

also, like every NFL player isn't a millionaire, though it wouldn't take too long to a career to become on in net worth terms, though many blow what they make. All owners aren't billionaires, they all also aren't liquid.

player millionaire slurper!