Mike & Mike said that when the lawyers joined in on labor talks things got heated, and D Smith told his legal team to Stand Down (rarely heard outside the military), likely the best thing he has done in negotiations. They decided these two words should be remembered for the lockout. I can think of two different words. Anyone else?
End it. Mike & Mike are morons. My mornings have become much happier when I decided to stop listening to them. Seriously, they just kept on annoying me with their schtick about how Greenberg is a namby-pamby arrogant smart-guy, while Golic is a stupid, fat jock. They're not even close to funny and way too self-referential. When they bring on guests and actually talk about sports, they're quite good, but I'm not willing to sit through 10 minutes of crap to get to 5 minutes of good information.
Two Words: Crotch Flashbang: [video=youtube;_DiVW8ohIiM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DiVW8ohIiM[/video]
Yeah, owners wanting more profit are innocent victims. Players wanting more money are the evil greedy bastards.
Once we sign our first free agent, I think we'll all return to a 10/10. As long as they don't miss any games, I'll be happy.
it took a lot of time for me to like the idea of watching football again, only since the last few weeks i´m warming up to it, i couldnt really stand watching it or hearing news about it till late may
This would be an extremely boring time of year even without the lockout. In fact, it's less boring in part because we have the drama of the lockout to follow. The only thing we've really missed is free agency, and nobody seemed to really miss it at all, at the time that it would have normally happened. People just shifted onto the Draft more than usual. There was plenty of Draft intrigue to fill that drama void. When the lockout is done, we'll get a free agency, and it'll be a very fast, very furious, extremely active free agency with tons of money being thrown around, a lot of transactions, and it'll keep going right on through in all likelihood to when training camps start. I mean I hate to say it but objectively speaking, from the perspective of intrigue, news items, things to argue about and things to discuss, etc...this lockout has made this off season BETTER in more ways than it's made it worse. It's all about perception and desire to complain.
While I agree that there have been more things to argue about and discuss, it certainly has not been BETTER. If your mom is in the hospital for a month, you'd have a lot more things to talk about, but it wouldn't make that month better. I understand that's a crappy analogy, but I'm just saying more activity does not equal more quality. This lockout stuff annoys the hell outta me. It also makes me uptight that the think I love might not happen. I hate it.
agreed, not that the lockout drama made it more interesting for me but a possible start of FA in early july will be great to get to camp
C'mon FinD...two sides to every story...neither side is right in this one anyway... I'll admit I've always leaned more towards management than workers, but even the staunchest supporters of the players have to admit there's another side of this ....
I have to agree with CK as well. I always liked the idea of FA after the draft to fill needs not made available with picks. I would have preferred the FA rookies, contract stuff, injury reports, etc were split up from FA but, am looking forward to everything hitting at once. The only things lost were rookies adapt time, working with Dabol, and the undrafted kids who I really feel badly for. Chances are there are some who would have lived a dream, who will now not get that chance.
Surprisingly my Reds are still in the thick of things depsite some horrendous pitching, and that's taken my attention away from football. However, the first news report of training camp will have my Miami Dolphins interest back at a 12/10.
Of course there's two sides to every story, that doesn't always mean both sides are wrong though. I haven't heard a single thing from the players side that was ridiculous or out of bounds or too far.
Sure....only if you can prove that won't translate into more profit as well. If not, you're splitting hairs.
Well, I don't know if I'm in the minority here or not, but for the most part, I have to side with the owners here. That's not to say there's not room for them to give in a little, but as I see it, the owners are the ones who put the money upfront to purchase the teams, they are the ones who took the finanical risk in this type of investment, they ARE the owners and everyone else from the front office down to the players are employees working for THAT owner. Professional sports is the ONLY occupation in which you can graduate from college and become an instant multimillionare. Business majors, engineering majors...whatever. None of those folks will ever become an instant millionaire upon graduating from college, so these young professional athletes are finanically set for LIFE once they sign with a team. God, look at that scrub JaMarcuss Russell...$63 million at the age of 22. Wish I could have had that type of payday when I was his age. The problem though as I see it is these kids don't look to the future. To them, the future is next week's game against...whomever and they don't get themselves financially set for life with the millions they receive once the enter the league. I think one of the saddest stories I saw of this happening to an NFL star was Earl Campbell. I remember seeing a story on him some years back...flat broke living in almost a shanty of a shack. Now, the owners on the other hand, are they making money hand over fist? Sure they are. Could they or SHOULD they pay the players more? Offer better medical benefits to the players as a whole seeing how violent a sport football is? Sure they should, but it doesn't necessarily mean they are obligated to. If I don't like "my job", I quit! If I don't feel I'm being paid what I'm worth, I quit. NFL Players have this same option. There's NOTHING to say they HAVE to play football. Playing in the NFL is not a RIGHT, it's a choice if you're fortunate enough to be selected for such honor. I think there's room to give on both sides, but ultimately if the players don't want to play for what they're getting, they can be like any other American struggling in their lines of work...if you don't like your job, quit.
Usually I side with the owners/management on issues, but with sports, and ESPECIALLY football, I side more with the players. No kid coming out of college that enters the private/public sector goes through anythign remotly close to what these kids go through. Yeah we see all the college football hype...100K stadium, adoring fans, and think these kids have it made, truth is they dont....Are they gifted, and privledged to be blessed with all that talent, sure, but again no normal citizens is enduring what these cats do. Actually I would like to see someone ANYONE here do the intial physical the NFL teams do on Day 1 of camp..... Anyways beyond that, this is the only area where in my eyes the players have every bit the leverage the owners do. I get the owners monetary risk, I do....beyond that take away the players, and the NFL is trash, and the owners will lose everything NFL-wise, and some might even go bankrupt. You ARE NOT replacing the Tom Bradys, the Peyton Mannings, the "must sees" that people pay top dollar for year in and year out, it is impossible. This is unlike any other profession, where lawyers, doctors, engineers etc could be unhappy and leave and/or the employers could just fire and replace that position the next day, at the SAME EFFICIENCY. Who are you replacing a Chris Johnson with? If Megatron gets locked out, will Detriot pack that field with 58,000 strong? In this sport that makes the most money out of them all, the owners AND players need to conceed that what they have is a cash cow, and both have to give a little up for everything to prosper. The normal rules of employer/employee dont work here, the union/management dichotomy IMO is totally irrelevant in this situation....
