Brian Waters Addresses Roger Goodell's Meeting With The Chiefs Players

You don’t want to get hurt? Then go teach school, become a fireman, join the Marines, sell cars, whatever.

Pretty sure 2 of the 4 would be even more dangerous than football, lol. In all seriousness I don’t think the owners have much leverage in this situation because the NFL’s union is obviously a very skilled labor force that you can’t replace. Also, the NFL is a monopoly so the auto industry analogy probably doesn’t apply to this situation.

They’re just bitching(in my opinion) because the NFL is gonna start cracking down on these ridiculous contracts starting w the rookies. They could put 20 grand a check away(chump change to them) and be able to live off the rest of their lives once it adds up. They get no sympathy. Not only do they get money from contracts, they get it from endorsements, commercials, interviews, hell even make us die hard fans wait hours in line then charge us just for your autograph! They should not be making as much as the most powerful people in the country, makes no sense!

The Players might want to look at some history and see the main reasons for why the auto industry crashed. A large part of it was pensions and benefits payed to unionized laborers. It increased the cost of doing business so badly for the American industry that they couldn’t compete from a profit standpoint with the Japanese and others.
That’s not the only issue, but it’s a big one.

You’re missing a LARGE part of that equation… SIZE. The amount of workers in the auto industry absolutely dwarfs (or, dwarfed) the NFL. When you’re talking about 100’s of 1000’s of people vs, what, 10’s of 1000’s at most? I don’t see an NFL team carrying more than 1,000 employees, and I think that is seriously stretching it way beyond what they would require. But I disagree with your point here, you can’t compare two totally different things, especially when the auto industry was THE job to have for so long. A lot of the reason for the american industry’s collapse was lack of innovation and reliable products. Ford has done a good job of turning themselves around, and GM is slowly working towards that as well. Also, many (if not most) cars made by foreign companies are assembled here, in union plants, so to blame the UAW solely for the downfall of the Detroit big 3 is a flawed thought in and of itself. Taking less benefits wouldn’t have made the companies automagically come up with better cars.

Yes the Owners have Millions, if not Billions of dollars. Yes, without the players, they wouldn’t be as wealthy. But the employees are getting way too greedy. If a player wants to whine about health benefits he may need after he retires, then maybe he should be socking away a million here and a million there instead of pissing it away.

Most of the owners are billionaires. The employees are what drives the NFL to be a multi-billion dollar a year business. There are only slightly less than 1700 NFL players during the regular season in the entire world. Think about that for a second. 1700 people in the WORLD are professional NFL football players for 19 weeks out of the year. That’s a very niche market, no? And not all players make millions per year. Most of the league makes the set floor salaries designated to years of service. But really, all they want is to see how much of the pie they’re NOT getting from owners, to decide what they should fight for. I support that thought.

However, I think both sides are being greedy and losing sight of what their jobs are… to entertain. Greed is what’s causing both sides to remain stagnant on making a deal, and the owners (i think) have a whole lot more leverage in the event of a lockout, especially since the TV deal the NFL signed pays teams in the event of a lockout or not. Players won’t get paid, and that’s going to cause a whole lot of grief when guys are having their custom Bently’s and houses repossessed because they were ignorant with their money. Accountants people, when you’re making shitloads of money, get yourself a damned accountant and an investment broker.

As a matter of fact, for every Berry there are 50 guys who get signed as undrafted free agents, bounce around from team to team and practice squad to practice squad for a few years, and then get cut and never resigned. On the one hand, they don’t see the field as much, but on the other hand they’re still contributing in a very dangerous sport, and do not make nearly the money that first round draft choices do. Don’t get me wrong, they still make a good salary, but it would be a mistake to assume that the NFLPA consists entirely of multi-millionaires who can piss away millions and still have enough left to live on for the rest of their lives. The Sam Bradfords and Ndomukong Suhs of the world are more than satisfactorily compensated, but there are lots of players in the league who weren’t first round draft picks and who, as a result, make a much smaller amount of money even though they may see the field just as much, if not more, than some of those over-payed players (particularly if they’re on their first contract) and who are just as at risk of a career ending injury at any time.

It surprises me that Goodell would try to paint himself as some sort of mediator between the ownership and the players. Goodell represents the owners, period. The commissioner always has and always will. That he meets with players and can’t answer their most basic questions shows that the meeting are a farce and more about PR than anything of substance.

Anti-union talking points take on a life of their own. They don’t even have to be true, they just have to seem as though they could be true.

The auto industry crashed because of pensions and benefits paid to unionized workers? If that was true then only the unionized elements of the industry would have crashed, not the entire industry, but Toyota and Nissan crashed with the rest of them. The truth is that all the labor costs that go into an automobile account for about 10% of the cost of the vehicle. Yes the legacy costs the Big 3 American automakers deal with are large. The companies made promises regarding health care and pensions to their employees a generation ago but just pushed off paying for those promises into the future. If GM never builds another car they still owe those workers what they were promised and that was a business decision on the part of GM. Don’t blame the union worker because of the promise made to him by his company. Blame the shortsightedness of the owners.

The NFL is different from the auto industry. In the NFL, the union members don’t make a product, they are the product. In a typical business labor usually represents a small fraction of the cost of the product but clearly it is going to be the lion’s share of costs in a sport (yes, Soylent Green is people).

The owners want to restructure that cost so they (the owners) make more money. That is reasonable. That is why the owners elected to renegotiate the agreement with the players. The players want to make as much money as they can. That is reasonable. I like to think that when reasonable people negotiate, both sides can win. I think ultimately that is what is going to happen here.

The other thing that is wrong is the way the Teams set up the contracts. IMO, if you sign a 5 year 25 mil contract, the team should have to pay you 5 mil a year for 5 years. I’m getting soooooo F—-ing sick of players holding out with two years left on their deal because they are “only getting paid 2 mil a year” when the contract was front end loaded paying them 21 mil in the first 3 years.

when both sides make concessions, then you end up with some kind of agreement.

Good luck with that. We are so screwed. Enjoy football this year boys, I’m betting we don’t get it next year.

And say it’s just all about the paycheck and profits until they can bleed it dry or someone lays down new laws/rules. Shouldn’t owners have a little more say so than the players union? How does that even work out.

a lot. But, your going to have to give the players something they want to make that happen.

And lets not forget that for many, those last few years aren’t so awesome. Dementia? Concussions? The inability to even remember one’s glory on the field?

All I’m saying is that we should be too quick to dismiss the concerns of a union of people who sacrifice a lot that CANNOT be quantified in dollars.

Lets also not forget some owners put their own fortunes and futures on the line as well to own these teams, and if they fail will still be able to remember the haunting memories of their failure. Owners are people too, people who have hopes and dreams for their families.

All these guys are in this together and need each other, so i advise them to find a way to take our money and enjoy.

But the average life expectancy for an NFL player is 55. 52 if you’re a lineman. Players sacrifice years of their lives — about 33% of it, against the national average that is

The article said, the Players Union is very willing to go along with a Rookie Wage scale, and has made proposals about it, but it’s the owners that don’t want to hear what they have to say, or at least Goodel doesn’t. Rookie(specifically 1st round) wage scale, with ALL the money saved going to vets and retirees is something both sides should be on board for. The players seem to be, the owners, not so much.