I'm sure everyone has read Adam Teicher's story with Clark Hunt in the Kansas City Star. If you haven't yet, go check it out. Here are a few thoughts I have after reading the story.
-There doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency with Clark Hunt. His comments indicated that this is "not a worst-case scenario", that this is "just part of the process" and that "there's still a lot of time". Why no urgency? The advantage the NFL has over every other sport is that their offseason can keep me completely entertained year-round with things like free agency and offseason workouts. I'm a Chiefs junkie. Losing March-August of football season is a big deal to me.
-To be fair, another take on the story: I received an email from a reader who said he was proud of the comments Hunt made in the story. The reader said Hunt displayed a sense of confidence while coming off as "cool, calm and collected" and a "great ambassador for the Chiefs". The reader said they felt better about the situation after reading what Hunt had to say.
-The third paragraph into Teicher's story has Hunt starting off with: "If we don't have an agreement by mid-August..." Remember those words, folks. One of the reasons I thought getting a deal done now was so critical is that the next real deadline doesn't come until preseason games are hitting, or around mid-August. And let's face it -- these two sides need deadlines to get anything done. There was more progress made in the last two weeks than the last two years.
-Hunt said the organization formerly known as the NFLPA was "very eager to get to its litigation strategy." Well, yeah, of course. The union's litigation strategy is their best chance at the best possible deal for the players. Just like the league's best chance at the best possible deal for the owners is a lockout. Because decertification came first, which was a procedural issue, the league can blame the union saying they just want to litigate. But if the union hadn't decertified, the league would likely be locking the players out anyway. My point is that both sides are to blame here. Clark Hunt, and the NFL owners, are just as much to blame as Mike Vrabel, Brian Waters and the NFL players.
-How awesome would it be if he had come out and said something like this instead: "I can't blame anyone but myself, the other owners and the NFL players. Collectively, we screwed this up and we apologize to those of you who enjoy following our team year-round. We'll fix this."