Cat Crave » NFL CBA

CBA Talks Break Down?

Brian Miller — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:48:35 +0000

It sounds like one of those old 1980 war movies with the Russians. The movie starts out with a few newspaper headlines. ”The Russians invade Poland”. ”China Backs U.S”. ”Middle East In Turmoil”. ”Peace Talks Break Down”. Ok, so take out the Russian portion of those headlines and I suppose they are relevant today as well. But the headline today that the NFL and the NFLPA negotiations broke off made me laugh at the thought of those old flicks. (Which in turns shows my age).

The NFL and the NFLPA will not meet for day 2 to talk about the CBA. Apparently the league reps got so fed up that they simply packed up and called it quits. But this does not mean it’s over and that a lockout is still a sure thing. Many more dates are scheduled for face to face talks and this is nothing more than a chest thumping negotiation tactic that says the owners are playing hard-ball. Next time, expect the NFLPA to do something similar.

It’s a power trip. Nothing more. A simple show of who has bigger balls.

Sometimes walking away will do more to get this fixed than sitting in a room spitting barbs back and forth…which is why I think the NFLPA will pull it the next time.

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Are You Ready For Some…Lock-Out?

Brian Miller — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:33:31 +0000

The NFL and the NFLPA have less than a month, officially, to end their labor discord and ratify a new CBA. You know it, I know, the players know it, and the owners know it. Everyone knows it. But the only two parties involved that can do anything about it, won’t. That’s right, they won’t, and so, we here more and more talk of a lockout.

The NFLPA through new grandstand master De’Maurice Smith, who really has done nothing but thump his chest and talk big talk, has informed all player agents that if a team approaches them about using the NFL’s “franchise tag” that they are to call them. Why? Because they say that the tag can not be used this year and the NFL publicly told teams that they could. In other words, some more pot pissing.

Players have been told that a lock-out is imminent and that they should have been socking money away for the last year and half. This approach apparently was the preferred method over say, I don’t know, “hey guys we will do what it takes to get this worked out.” The shame that would have been. Right?

The Players union has also stated that they are ready to officially decertify in an attempt to block the NFL owners from locking them out. How will that work you ask? Well, law prohibits an employer (the NFL) from locking out non-union employees. So the NFLPA would no longer exist and the players would file a lawsuit against the owners if they try.

But it’s not all the players fault. (more…)

CBA Needs To Be Fixed…Could You Do It?

Brian Miller — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 18:35:36 +0000

You are faced with a deadline. March 3rd is supposed to kick off the 2011 NFL new year but you don’t have a labor agreement in place because three years ago you opted out of the last one because for you, it sucked. Now, facing the uncertainty of millions of lost revenue by not having an off-season you contemplate staging a lock-out to get the players union to cave and do a deal that will continue things forward and put more money in your pocket but potentially not their’s.

Another NFL owner calls you up and says, “Hey Joe, we just took a vote and your going to negotiate the new CBA”. Sucks to be you. Now you have millions of NFL fans, 31 other owners, and thousands of football players in the NFL and college suddenly hanging on what you will propose to the NFLPA to get this deal done in what amounts a little more than 30 days.

How are you going to fix the CBA?

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