PFT: Report: Owners get stay of injunction, lockout back on

[Destino]

Im ok with the owners getting whatever the free market will allow them. They invested their money into the game and took risks to grow it. That is the American way. People who take risks get the benefits of it.

Im ok with NFL players if they dont want to play for the millions the owners offer, taking their talent somewhere else as the free market will allow them.

But to say that players can change the rules whenever the situation benefits them and the owners have to pay is silly. Its pretty clear an unfair labor practice by the union and if this is allowed, it leaves the NFL always in a lose lose situation which will break down labor/mgmt dynamics that will make it difficult to do business in America

I always find it annoying when someone makes a free market argument when it favors their position and ignoring it when it doesn't. The NFL actively colludes to avoid a free market. The only reason they are allowed to do so is because the players have a union. Without a union and a CBA the following would be immediately challenged in court: NFL Draft, restricted free agency, hard salary cap, franchise tag, etc. Seperate employers are not allowed to coordinate with each other to set wages and suppress competition for labor.

Also the players don't change the rules whenever they want to, in fact your entire argument is basically a bunch of nonsense. You don't even understand why the existence of a union allows the NFL rules to be what they are.

---------- Post added April-30th-2011 at 04:37 AM ----------

It is a free market. NFL isnt a basic essential to life or a needed essential. Its not electricity, food or whatever. Its a past-time in country full of past times. Theres Canadian football, arena football, powder puff football as well as other sports. The NFL doesnt force you to watch games or force players to play.

Would you mind telling me what any of that has to do with anti-trust laws? It being essential is irrelevant. There being other leagues is irrelevant.

---------- Post added April-30th-2011 at 04:50 AM ----------

erm, I don't believe there was another year...was there? And while it's easy to demonize the owners by saying THEY made the lockout...well, they're the only ones who CAN, and it simply had to happen under the circumstances. My only problem with the owners is they waited until the very last minute to give a proposal.

Players can strike owners can lock out. Both can stop the NFL from moving on as usual.

On the other hand, all that time was spent listening to the players 'demands' and every single one of them was met, except the money, which was still compromised. Turns out, the players didn't give a rat's ass about veteran benefits, health care, or rookie caps..they just want a bigger piece of the pie. They (Demaurice Smith) were deceiving in selling the whole 'woe is me' attitude and sob stories about poor broke veterans. Nope. Just more money please. It's so 'politicky' the way they're using everything possible to make the owners look evil, all the way down to encouraging folks to BOO Roger Goodell. Why? Do people even know what they're booing about? "WE WANT FOOTBALL DERR". No ****. You know what he's thinking, standing on that podium? "You people have no idea what you're talking about", and he's right. Remember they wanted to BOYCOTT the draft, too? It's ridiculous.

What on earth are you talking about and have you ever sat at a negotiation table? 1) You never negotiate one point in a renegotiation. If the deal is off it's entirely off meaning that everything has to be renegotiated completely. The "current deal" will never be accepted as the starting point and thus the players had a lot of demands all of which were absolutely not met. I don't know who told you that but you've lost your mind. Players hate restricted free agency and the franchise tag entirely. 2) The owners didn't propose a small decrease in money, they wanted to disconnect it from revenue entirely meaning that it doesn't increase as the league does ensuring not just a pay cut but in terms of percentages a evolving worsening pay cut without any renegotiation. Perhaps you don't understand how significant that is.

It's just greed fighting greed, and I'm sorry, but in that battle (at my job anyway) the boss wins. Sorry. It's not like the players are getting absolutely ripped off. They're just mad they can't see books, and IMO they shouldn't because we have every reason to believe they would pick and choose and skew the numbers ...and then who's to decide what's an acceptable profit? Again, I'm not allowed to go tell my boss how much money he's allowed to make. I know, it's collective bargaining, but if you ask me, the players are being awfully bossy and demanding, and, on record, the owners made an attempt to end it with a pretty generous proposal. It's not like it was a technicality, they really thought the players would take it, and we could end this mess. What have the players done? Demand more, attempt to boycott things, encourage childish booing, and ride their super lawyer all the way to court so everyone can appeal everything.

You work a steady job right? Well then there you go, you're a hamster on a wheel running for a hourly or yearly pay rate. You chose to accept that path in life for yourself and you should be at peace with that. I run my own business and partner up with others when it makes sense. I negotiate my own deals and when I'm asked to help put other deals together in a partnership I ask for an amount based on an examination of the numbers and how likely they are to pull it off without my help. Sounds fancy but it's not millions of dollars (yet, some day) and it's a lot of hard work. The point is there are many ways to earn a living and negotiate compensation and it's not all unions and "greed fighting greed". IMO negotiating with open eyes is superior to accepting a salary. Some people prefer predictability and security, I prefer to own my time at a cost of increased risk. Most of the time however to tie your income to revenue you need to play a large role in the creation of that revenue. Having the NFLPA negotiate with the league allows them to avoid anti-trust issues and allows them to secure the best talent pretty much unopposed forever. That's valuable.