Lockout Lingers... Patience Required

[SteelDad]

As we all know by now the owners of the 32 National Football League Franchises voted unanimously to accept a new collective bargaining agreement last evening. Well, almost unanimous as to absolutely no one's surprise, the Oakland Raiders and owner Al Davis abstained from voting. Essentially, Skeletor himself wasn't real fond of the entire CBA process so he didn't cast a vote. Davis is a topic for another day....

Many NFL fans like myself immediately felt as if Christmas had indeed come in July. As I readied myself for our weekly podcast (shameless plug) it started to dawn on me as I read more and more on-line and via Twitter that the players did not exactly share in my exhuberance. My first thought was, "Are you kidding? Vote yes! Let's play football!!!" The mature adult in me eventually took over as I started to analyze the situation more closely.

The players, led by Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, are taking their sweet time on this and they should be. According to several players including Heath Evans, most recently of the New Orleans Saints, and Steelers Safety Ryan Clark, this CBA was essentially rammed down their collective throats last night without getting a real look at the entire CBA. This is a 10-year deal folks with no opt-outs. The vast majority of players right now will not be around when this deal would be set to expire so the players have every right to examine this stuff with maginifying glasses and fine-toothed combs in my opinion.

The vast majority of NFL fans will not tolerate too much more of a stoppage especially should it carve into the regular season. Any loss of game time at this point would definitely lead to most fingers being pointed at the players. Here's the problem though. As fans, we see this lockout as 'billionaires vs. millionaires' and to a great extent it is just that, but we must also take a step back and recognize that the profession in which these men belong is quite unique and exclusive. Just because a back-up long snapper makes $575,000 a year doesn't mean he shouldn't be looking out for himself in the present as well as for the future. If the owners don't like all the talk of lifetime health care and retirement benefits then they and their leader, Roger Goodell, shouldn't have been making concussions topic #1 throughout the 2010 season. And it isn't just concussions either. More and more players are having knees and hips replaced at ridiculously young ages following their careers. John Elway has two artificial knees I believe. Can you get those in 'bowleg style?'

Of course the argument fans will make is that these guys know what they are doing to their bodies and they know the ramifications of their choice to take the field. They are doing something for us 16 weeks a year that no one else can do as well as they do it. Still, in these tough economic times, we will complain about the money they make for 'playing a game' and will not be happy at all until a CBA is finalized by them because really we are only worried about ourselves and the fact that we may not survive a Sunday this fall without the NFL! The players deserve the right to make sure this is the best possible deal for them and we should take a breath and allow them this opportunity. Remember, the owners locked out the players.

Now, are you listening players? You have until Tuesday or I'm going to be pissed!

Marc 'SteelDad' Uhlmann
www.steeleraddicts.com (http://www.steeleraddicts.com)

[LarryNJ]

You're right they should understand it before they vote and Tuesday is plenty of time. :) But I don't buy the " shoved down our throats" argument some of them are saying. Especially the reps who were part of the negotiations. WTF were they doing?

[BlacknGold Bleeder]

They do have a right and responsibility to know what they are agreeing to,BUT that's why they had reps at the negotiations for them. There is no way in the world the CBA will please everyone,it was up to the player reps to get the best deal possible for all the players as a whole.If there are players not happy with it they need to look at their reps as to why they chose to agree...

[Callax]

The owners seems happy with the deal they "gave" the players, but management is usually happy with offers they make their employees since they offer lowball deals..... players should take thier time to look over this proposal... A friend told me that alot of things discussed were NOT included in the CBA... The owners listened to the players issues, then turned around and wrote what they wanted, saying screw the players

[BlitzburghRockCity]

My problem with all this is, you can't tell me that D. Smith and his team had no idea this was coming, or had no idea what was in this agreement. We've been hearing days, even weeks, that Smith and Goodell talk on the phone multiple times every day. From what we know they were talking on the phone right up until the owners had their vote and their press conference. If the players are crying foul and they didn't know what was in this agreement then somebody is lying to somebody.

[SteelDad]

My gut feeling is that everything that was discussed between the owners and the players was one thing and the cba ratified by the owners may have been slightly another. You are all right, the player reps and Smith should have known exactly what was coming, but I just get the feeling that there was some language in there that they didn't expect. I don't think this will be a major issue and still think it gets done this week.

[Black@Gold Forever32]

I didn't expect the players to except the deal soon after the owners voted the other day......The owners think they're being slick by doing this so they now can try to make the players look bad if the lock out lingers on......Sorry but the owners (majority) wanted the lock out so I still blame them the most....

[BlitzburghRockCity]

I updated the CBA thread and the thread in the Steelers section. Looks now that a vote to recommend recertification will come on Monday and then the actual vote on Wednesday, potentially starting free agency on Saturday. Keep your fingers crossed.

I've mostly sided with the players this whole time but it's obvious that we have no idea who is telling the truth and who isn't. The owners look sincere, the players look sincere, I'm sure there's details left out by both sides in this whole thing that we'll never know about.