By Jon Wagner-Sr. Writer-Football Reporters Online
The clock finally struck midnight on Friday night, and now, while talk of March Madness and Cinderellas are in full swing, the 2011 NFL season is in realistic jeopardy of turning into a pumpkin.
One week after the original March 4th deadline for ironing out a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was extended, NFL owners officially closed up shop and locked out their players, effectively shutting down the league (other then next month’s NFL draft) until further notice.
Sadly, it’s those who are most responsible for the insanely huge amounts of money that NFL owners and players are quibbling over – NFL fans – who will suffer the most unless the upcoming season is saved.
Duping their loyal fans, NFL owners have taken a page (and then some) from a 1989 film about another sport, the classic baseball movie, “Field of Dreams.”
Most of us know the story. Kevin Costner’s character Ray Kinsella hears the whispers… “If you build it, they will come.”
That’s exactly what NFL owners did with over-the-top, extravagant new stadiums.
Except, they went one step further, with the unfortunate notion that in the NFL, “If you build it, they will come… and when they do, you can try to shake every last dollar you can out of not only the fans who show up, but from the players the fans will pay exorbitant amounts to come see.”
And, that’s all while putting the financial burden of building those shiny new stadiums largely upon those same fans.
Yes, that is the sad state of affairs in today’s NFL for the average NFL fan.
Not only do fans, as taxpayers, shoulder much of the cost of new stadiums like Jerry Jones’ Cowboys Stadium (often dubbed the “Dallas Palace”), or the Giants’ and Jets’ New Meadowlands stadium (each having come with price tags in excess of $1.6 billion), but those same fans are asked to pay thousands of dollars in Personal Seat Licences just to have the right to buy tickets to watch games in them.
If that wasn’t enough, now loyal remaining season ticketholders who weren’t priced out (by PSL’s) of buying tickets to see their favorite teams play, can’t even do that, because of the unyielding collective ego and greed on the part of NFL owners.
That’s not to say that the NFL’s current labor issues are all one-sided. Every dispute has both opposing parties which are usually at least somewhat at fault.
However, it’s the players who really just want to give the fans what they want – to play football -- under the current CBA specifications that the owners agreed to themselves, years ago. That agreement was fine for NFL owners until that no longer became convenient in the face of the owners trying to squeeze every last dollar out of both the NFL Players’ Association and NFL fans.
The simple fact is, the owners can’t fully be trusted.
Only now, after the NFLPA has been forced to decertify and involve the threat of a possible court injunction, are NFL owners beginning to open their books to any extent at all (and even at that, they won’t be opened far enough to justify the extra $1 billion and greater portion of shared revenues along with an increase to an 18-game regular season schedule that NFL owners are seeking).
But, the reason for the mistrust of NFL owners goes beyond that, back to the stadium issue.
Under the guise of “parternership” to win public support, NFL owners have secured more than $4.4 billion in taxpayer money for 21 new or renovated stadiums (nearly two-thirds of the league’s stadiums) since 1995.
The reality is that of the $2 billion teams claim they are investing in stadiums, about $1 billion comes from NFL loans and PSL’s, two sources where the dollars come either exclusively, or at least mostly, from fans.
A particular case like the Chicago Bears’ Soldier Field renovation shows what the NFL’s “parternship” with the public for financing new NFL stadiums really means.
The Bears pledged to pay $200 million of Soldier Field’s $632 million renovation, but when all was said and done, thanks again, to partially fan-financed NFL loans and to fan-paid PSL’s, the final cost to Bears’ ownership for the renovation was less than $30 million.
It’s no different around the league. Over the next 30 years, taxpayers in NFL cities will pay more than $2 billion in interest payments on bonds that were used to raise public money for NFL stadiums.
And, thanks to a deal worked out with the U.S. government, while fans are helping to finance NFL stadium through paying their own taxes, NFL owners collect PSL money on a tax-exempt basis.
The bottom line is that the players just want to play. But, NFL owners want yet more money despite having already asked for billions from NFL fans to help finance new stadiums that ironically are supposed to be fan-friendly. Yet, despite all of the state-of-the-art amenities, how “fan-friendly” can it really be when those same fans are also being asked for thousands of additional dollars per seat in the form of PSL’s?
And, how much more can possibly be asked of NFL fans, who simply want their sport back in time for Week 1 of the regular season in September (or for that matter, in time for the upcoming NFL draft and training camps)?
Adding further insult to injury was the most recent Super Bowl, in February, with yet another irony. So desperate was Jones and the NFL to cram as many fans as possible into the new Cowboys Stadium as a result of further greed (to make more money) and ego on the part of Jones (to set the Super Bowl attendance record), that temporary seating wasn’t installed in time, thereby shutting out many fans who paid about $800 each per ticket (in additional to travel expenses to the Dallas area).
While the NFL more than rectified the situation financially, those fans missed seeing the game live and became the latest casualty of the NFL putting everything else about its game before the fans who support it.
Fans, as taxpayers and now as PSL buyers, have been conditioned to paying for stadiums for millionaires to play in and keep an exclusive NFL family owners in the business of remaining as billionaires, all while the average taxpayer and hardcore NFL fan can’t afford a seat in those very stadiums.
When you look at it that way, it’s amazing that it’s not the fans who haven’t decided to stop paying or to stop showing up, and haven’t locked out the owners and players.
Ultimately, we all love the game too much for that to happen.
But, after all the fans have given to the NFL, it’s time for the NFL and its owners to give something back.
For once, NFL owners (and even players) need to realize that they would have been nothing without their fans.
And for once, they need to let their fans come first, and make sure that it’s not the fans who are the next to be locked out.
Showing posts with label NFLPA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NFLPA. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Which "NFL" Gang is Greedier? the Owners or the Players?
By David Levy-Fan Experience reporter-Football Reporters Online
When I set out to film this documentary(Gang Greed) in August of 2008, my goal to tell the fans side. To let the fans speak about what it means to be a Jets fan. How the new PSL's were going to affect their status as a season ticket holder. Were they going to invest in them or stop going to games altogether. Now, it seams, no one may be going to any games in 2011.
National Football League team owners locked out the league’s players Saturday, shutting down professional football for the first time in 24 years and plunging the nation’s most popular and prosperous sport into a time of uncertainty.
The owners acted after labor talks with the players’ union collapsed Friday afternoon and players decertified the NFL Players Association, moving the bitter dispute into the courts and ending an era of NFL labor peace that had lasted since players went on strike in 1987.
Decertifying the NFL Players Association enabled the players to file antitrust litigation against the owners, which they did late Friday, with superstar quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees among the 10 named plaintiffs. Lawyers for the players also announced that they are seeking an injunction to lift the lockout.
Some still wonder if all of this was worth the headache. Not just for the players and owners, but the fans as well. Both the Jets and Giants issued apologies to the fans for the lockout. The players feel they did what they could but were left with no other choice.
The team owners will complain they are losing money. I am sure they will have no issues paying their bills though. The income is a loss for their business, not them personally. Some younger players will feel the crunch if they are not playing. Many veteran players have investments and other business ventures that will help them get by. But in the end, they will all be on the losing end.
Does anyone really win when this happens? When the last lockout occurred in 1987, who won that battle? The players went on strike while the owners went out and hired "scabs" to play out the season. Will the team owners do the same thing this year? Probably not. They all want to get this rectified before training camp begins. The fans would like it done sooner.
For season ticket holders, they would like to know sooner than later. Many are pleased only 50% is due and not the whole bill. It gives some longer to get that money together. But knowing a season will happen is better knowing now rather than three weeks into a season. We are on the outside looking in, wondering if a sport many of us enjoy will even happen this year.
Last week Judge David S. Doty ruled that the NFL violated the collective bargaining agreement with its players by renegotiating $4.078 billion in television rights fees for team owners to tap during a lockout even if no games are played in 2011. Why should the owners be entitled to money if there is no season? Should the players get paid if they do not play?
Both sides have their issues. Many players feel the union walked away from a deal that sounded good and met their needs, despite the negative media attention towards the NFL and its owners. According to that statement the NFL released the latest proposal’s details included:
1. The NFL proposed that the two sides split the economic differences between them, increasing their proposed cap for 2011 "significantly" and accepting the NFLPA's proposed cap number for 2014, which was $161 million per team.
2. The NFL proposed an entry level compensation system that was based on the union's "rookie cap" instead of a wage scale that the clubs originally proposed. In this proposal, the players drafted from rounds 2-7 would be paid the same amount of money, or even more money, than they are paid now. The savings that would come from the first-round picks would be reallocated to help veteran players and benefits.
3. After a player is injured, the NFL would guarantee that they would pay up to $1 milllion of that player's salary for the contract year. This is the first time that the owners have offered a standard multi-year injury guarantee.
4. The following changes would be made immediately to promote player safety:
Reduce the off-season program by five weeks, reducing OTAs from 14 weeks to 10 and limiting on-field practice time and contact.
They would limit full-contact practices in the preseason and regular season
They would increase the number of off days for players
5. The NFL proposed that any change from a 16-game season to an 18-game season would only be made if the two sides agreed on the change. The 2011 and 2012 seasons would be 16-game seasons.
6. The NFL team owners would boost retirement benefits for more than 2,000 former players by nearly 60 percent by funding retirees benefits $82 million in 2011 and 2012.
7. The owners offered current players the opportunity to stay in their current medical plans for the rest of their lives.
8. The owners would allow third-party arbitrators in the NFL's drug and steroid programs.
9. The owners would improve the Mackey plan (designed for players suffering from dementia and other brain-related problems), disability plan and their degree completion bonus program.
10. The owners proposed a per-club cash minimum spend of 90 percent of the salary cap over three seasons.
Now that you know the particulars of the deal, do you still agree with the NFLPA's decision to decertify and go to court with the NFL?
Yes, the negotiations have been messy and well-publicized but progress was made before the recent burning of bridges. After having half the month of March in extensions of negotiations, both sides were reportedly off by $185 million on how much owners should get up from each season for certain operating expense before splitting up the rest of the revenues with players. That’s a far less amount than the $1 billion difference that separated the two sides earlier in discussions.
A recent poll by ProFootballTalk.com asked fans to place blame on who is responsible for the lockout and 27,000 have said that the player’s are to blame, barely. Just over 38% say the players are to blame, while 24.8% blame the owners and 36.7% blame both.
Many say this is the billionaires vs the millionaires. Two sides who get paid well, fighting to be paid more. If you own a professional football team, one would think you already had enough. Some of that may go to team operations and other bills to be paid, but many know where the bottom line ends. Players put their bodies on the line and should see a little more compensation. Let's see Woody Johnson or the Mara or Tisch families out there to battle for that extra compensation. I think not.
So while the league and the union continue to bicker like a divorced couple fighting over bank accounts, the fans are the ones who are truly hurting from this dispute, like a child overhearing their parents argument.
When I set out to film this documentary(Gang Greed) in August of 2008, my goal to tell the fans side. To let the fans speak about what it means to be a Jets fan. How the new PSL's were going to affect their status as a season ticket holder. Were they going to invest in them or stop going to games altogether. Now, it seams, no one may be going to any games in 2011.
National Football League team owners locked out the league’s players Saturday, shutting down professional football for the first time in 24 years and plunging the nation’s most popular and prosperous sport into a time of uncertainty.
The owners acted after labor talks with the players’ union collapsed Friday afternoon and players decertified the NFL Players Association, moving the bitter dispute into the courts and ending an era of NFL labor peace that had lasted since players went on strike in 1987.
Decertifying the NFL Players Association enabled the players to file antitrust litigation against the owners, which they did late Friday, with superstar quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees among the 10 named plaintiffs. Lawyers for the players also announced that they are seeking an injunction to lift the lockout.
Some still wonder if all of this was worth the headache. Not just for the players and owners, but the fans as well. Both the Jets and Giants issued apologies to the fans for the lockout. The players feel they did what they could but were left with no other choice.
The team owners will complain they are losing money. I am sure they will have no issues paying their bills though. The income is a loss for their business, not them personally. Some younger players will feel the crunch if they are not playing. Many veteran players have investments and other business ventures that will help them get by. But in the end, they will all be on the losing end.
Does anyone really win when this happens? When the last lockout occurred in 1987, who won that battle? The players went on strike while the owners went out and hired "scabs" to play out the season. Will the team owners do the same thing this year? Probably not. They all want to get this rectified before training camp begins. The fans would like it done sooner.
For season ticket holders, they would like to know sooner than later. Many are pleased only 50% is due and not the whole bill. It gives some longer to get that money together. But knowing a season will happen is better knowing now rather than three weeks into a season. We are on the outside looking in, wondering if a sport many of us enjoy will even happen this year.
Last week Judge David S. Doty ruled that the NFL violated the collective bargaining agreement with its players by renegotiating $4.078 billion in television rights fees for team owners to tap during a lockout even if no games are played in 2011. Why should the owners be entitled to money if there is no season? Should the players get paid if they do not play?
Both sides have their issues. Many players feel the union walked away from a deal that sounded good and met their needs, despite the negative media attention towards the NFL and its owners. According to that statement the NFL released the latest proposal’s details included:
1. The NFL proposed that the two sides split the economic differences between them, increasing their proposed cap for 2011 "significantly" and accepting the NFLPA's proposed cap number for 2014, which was $161 million per team.
2. The NFL proposed an entry level compensation system that was based on the union's "rookie cap" instead of a wage scale that the clubs originally proposed. In this proposal, the players drafted from rounds 2-7 would be paid the same amount of money, or even more money, than they are paid now. The savings that would come from the first-round picks would be reallocated to help veteran players and benefits.
3. After a player is injured, the NFL would guarantee that they would pay up to $1 milllion of that player's salary for the contract year. This is the first time that the owners have offered a standard multi-year injury guarantee.
4. The following changes would be made immediately to promote player safety:
Reduce the off-season program by five weeks, reducing OTAs from 14 weeks to 10 and limiting on-field practice time and contact.
They would limit full-contact practices in the preseason and regular season
They would increase the number of off days for players
5. The NFL proposed that any change from a 16-game season to an 18-game season would only be made if the two sides agreed on the change. The 2011 and 2012 seasons would be 16-game seasons.
6. The NFL team owners would boost retirement benefits for more than 2,000 former players by nearly 60 percent by funding retirees benefits $82 million in 2011 and 2012.
7. The owners offered current players the opportunity to stay in their current medical plans for the rest of their lives.
8. The owners would allow third-party arbitrators in the NFL's drug and steroid programs.
9. The owners would improve the Mackey plan (designed for players suffering from dementia and other brain-related problems), disability plan and their degree completion bonus program.
10. The owners proposed a per-club cash minimum spend of 90 percent of the salary cap over three seasons.
Now that you know the particulars of the deal, do you still agree with the NFLPA's decision to decertify and go to court with the NFL?
Yes, the negotiations have been messy and well-publicized but progress was made before the recent burning of bridges. After having half the month of March in extensions of negotiations, both sides were reportedly off by $185 million on how much owners should get up from each season for certain operating expense before splitting up the rest of the revenues with players. That’s a far less amount than the $1 billion difference that separated the two sides earlier in discussions.
A recent poll by ProFootballTalk.com asked fans to place blame on who is responsible for the lockout and 27,000 have said that the player’s are to blame, barely. Just over 38% say the players are to blame, while 24.8% blame the owners and 36.7% blame both.
Many say this is the billionaires vs the millionaires. Two sides who get paid well, fighting to be paid more. If you own a professional football team, one would think you already had enough. Some of that may go to team operations and other bills to be paid, but many know where the bottom line ends. Players put their bodies on the line and should see a little more compensation. Let's see Woody Johnson or the Mara or Tisch families out there to battle for that extra compensation. I think not.
So while the league and the union continue to bicker like a divorced couple fighting over bank accounts, the fans are the ones who are truly hurting from this dispute, like a child overhearing their parents argument.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Some things & Other Things: the Locked Out edition
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online
Everyone is pointing the finger at each other since this past Friday afternoon. The owners accusing the players of not bargaining in good faith, the players accusing the owners (and by extension the league) of wanting this to happen all along. The Players filed a class action suit (Brady Vs. the NFL) after voting to decertify. What drives me nuts here is the players never asked for anything then what they had asked for since 2009: for the owners to open the books. The feeble hearted attempt to do that at the 11th hour was just that. Feeble. Are you telling me the owners really don’t care about how much money they are leaving on the table? That the players really wanted to go the route of litigation as opposed to negotiation?
The league released a “summary “ of it’s proposal, amid other press releases coordinated by Team Owners, and in combat directed at the players. While they all were apologetic to a fault to the fans, not once did they offer to extend the deadline to keep talking, even though the owners claimed up until Friday that they were closer then they ever had been to a settlement. Remember they initiated this by “opting out” of the 2006 extension, because they felt they had given up too much.
The Players never got even the little things they asked for from the Owners Group..
The fact is that the Players never waivered on two serious issues: The extended 18 game schedule was a deal breaker for the players. While the owners and The NFL told us that the “fans want more meaningful” games, the owners never truly showed us they cared about the wear and tear on the players bodies. Did the NFL really take a survey of the fans asking them: do you want two more regular season games and two less pre-season ones? Where are the results of this research?
The second issue was player health and safety, for both current players and the “pre-1993” players. Five years of post career health insurance is just unacceptable in the modern age, while the NFL gets doctors to “lie” in Hearings that “Concussions caused by playing football” don’t lead to “Permanent Brain Injury,” or a lifetime of “headaches.” Just ask Brent Boyd, the former Vikings Offensive lineman who has been to capital hill to testify. He runs a great organization called Dignity After Football (DAF.Org), and if you aren’t totally swayed by what I say, talk to him for 10 minutes. I wonder if he’s had a good night’s sleep since he left the game in 1987.
I have a great deal of respect for Mr. John Mara, and I believe he and Bob Kraft were part of the moderate camp in this mess. Did you notice how he was at the front of the negotiating panel the last several days. That’s because I believe he really wanted to get something done. That’s why you didn’t see Richardson or Jones speak much recently, because no one really wants to hear what “they” were saying. These were the guys who wanted to “Break the players will” just a few weeks ago, that went on 60 Minutes and said a “Lockout wouldn’t be such a bad thing” Remember? I did…
They all talk about how they give to charity and help the less fortunate, but what did they just do to the working class and small businesses that depend on the NFL to earn it’s living. They have already priced out the working class with PSL’s and rising ticket prices, but wanted the players to “see the reality” that the economy was shrinking their profit margins, keeping them from building new stadiums. Why not rebuild the ones that are already in place? Why spend money that you don’t have, or expect local cities to come up with it? To me, the players take all the risks. They are the ones who could die or be paralyzed in a quick moment, or suffer permanent head or spine injuries like so many do, and don’t realize it until long after the fact.
True, no one forces these men to play the game. Many do it for the love of competition. Many do it because it is their only way to a better education and a better life. But if they are going to play, can’t they get the protection they deserve from severe life threatening injury? Can’t they have lifetime insurance? To me this is more important then how to split an extra few million.
Well, at least the draft isn’t cancelled….
You are now going to see the real worth of various teams’ scouting departments. With no free agency period in sight (unless a court ruling forces the parties back to the table and the NFL resumes team operations), the NFL Draft will now be the defining moment for teams to fill their needs. Still, after the player is selected, beyond the initial phone call, no team can have contact with a drafted player until the CBA conflict is settled (at least not legally). Sucks if this was your year to get a QB…
While this doesn’t directly cost me financially, it does impact me in that I only have “half” a sport to report on, the college side of the game. If it doesn’t get settled by the summer, you are going to see a lot of angry fans, a lot of people financially hurt and even businesses ruined, and people asking the question that no one wants to hear: “why bother to watch the NFL anymore?” Is that what the owners truly want?
Why should we feel bad for someone who tells his team “your taking a pay cut of twenty five percent until this is settled, as several teams have done already.
Baseball never fully recovered from the strike of 1994, and Hockey didn’t recover from their strike & lost season several years back either. Can The NFL really survive this? All we can hope for is a quick resolution by the courts at this point.
Everyone is pointing the finger at each other since this past Friday afternoon. The owners accusing the players of not bargaining in good faith, the players accusing the owners (and by extension the league) of wanting this to happen all along. The Players filed a class action suit (Brady Vs. the NFL) after voting to decertify. What drives me nuts here is the players never asked for anything then what they had asked for since 2009: for the owners to open the books. The feeble hearted attempt to do that at the 11th hour was just that. Feeble. Are you telling me the owners really don’t care about how much money they are leaving on the table? That the players really wanted to go the route of litigation as opposed to negotiation?
The league released a “summary “ of it’s proposal, amid other press releases coordinated by Team Owners, and in combat directed at the players. While they all were apologetic to a fault to the fans, not once did they offer to extend the deadline to keep talking, even though the owners claimed up until Friday that they were closer then they ever had been to a settlement. Remember they initiated this by “opting out” of the 2006 extension, because they felt they had given up too much.
The Players never got even the little things they asked for from the Owners Group..
The fact is that the Players never waivered on two serious issues: The extended 18 game schedule was a deal breaker for the players. While the owners and The NFL told us that the “fans want more meaningful” games, the owners never truly showed us they cared about the wear and tear on the players bodies. Did the NFL really take a survey of the fans asking them: do you want two more regular season games and two less pre-season ones? Where are the results of this research?
The second issue was player health and safety, for both current players and the “pre-1993” players. Five years of post career health insurance is just unacceptable in the modern age, while the NFL gets doctors to “lie” in Hearings that “Concussions caused by playing football” don’t lead to “Permanent Brain Injury,” or a lifetime of “headaches.” Just ask Brent Boyd, the former Vikings Offensive lineman who has been to capital hill to testify. He runs a great organization called Dignity After Football (DAF.Org), and if you aren’t totally swayed by what I say, talk to him for 10 minutes. I wonder if he’s had a good night’s sleep since he left the game in 1987.
I have a great deal of respect for Mr. John Mara, and I believe he and Bob Kraft were part of the moderate camp in this mess. Did you notice how he was at the front of the negotiating panel the last several days. That’s because I believe he really wanted to get something done. That’s why you didn’t see Richardson or Jones speak much recently, because no one really wants to hear what “they” were saying. These were the guys who wanted to “Break the players will” just a few weeks ago, that went on 60 Minutes and said a “Lockout wouldn’t be such a bad thing” Remember? I did…
They all talk about how they give to charity and help the less fortunate, but what did they just do to the working class and small businesses that depend on the NFL to earn it’s living. They have already priced out the working class with PSL’s and rising ticket prices, but wanted the players to “see the reality” that the economy was shrinking their profit margins, keeping them from building new stadiums. Why not rebuild the ones that are already in place? Why spend money that you don’t have, or expect local cities to come up with it? To me, the players take all the risks. They are the ones who could die or be paralyzed in a quick moment, or suffer permanent head or spine injuries like so many do, and don’t realize it until long after the fact.
True, no one forces these men to play the game. Many do it for the love of competition. Many do it because it is their only way to a better education and a better life. But if they are going to play, can’t they get the protection they deserve from severe life threatening injury? Can’t they have lifetime insurance? To me this is more important then how to split an extra few million.
Well, at least the draft isn’t cancelled….
You are now going to see the real worth of various teams’ scouting departments. With no free agency period in sight (unless a court ruling forces the parties back to the table and the NFL resumes team operations), the NFL Draft will now be the defining moment for teams to fill their needs. Still, after the player is selected, beyond the initial phone call, no team can have contact with a drafted player until the CBA conflict is settled (at least not legally). Sucks if this was your year to get a QB…
While this doesn’t directly cost me financially, it does impact me in that I only have “half” a sport to report on, the college side of the game. If it doesn’t get settled by the summer, you are going to see a lot of angry fans, a lot of people financially hurt and even businesses ruined, and people asking the question that no one wants to hear: “why bother to watch the NFL anymore?” Is that what the owners truly want?
Why should we feel bad for someone who tells his team “your taking a pay cut of twenty five percent until this is settled, as several teams have done already.
Baseball never fully recovered from the strike of 1994, and Hockey didn’t recover from their strike & lost season several years back either. Can The NFL really survive this? All we can hope for is a quick resolution by the courts at this point.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Some things and Other things-Our weekly (sometimes jaded and comical) look at news from the world of football-
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online
Some interesting happenings this week from around the football world….
Sunday Night’s Pro Bowl, the NFL’s version of an All-star game was the most watched in 14 years….Really? Not that I wasn’t one of those watching at least part of it, but we all know the players were only playing at half speed…Maybe they should bring back the skills competition, or how about a rookie game? Packers Linebacker Clay Matthews pre game ritual is to douse his long (Blonde) mane in ice water just before he hits the field….nice, what if it freezes? Then he’s really the Iceman…..The NFL Management team, and reps from the NFLPA are finally meeting on Saturday down in Dallas, both to begin talks and to “accelerate” the pace of negotiations…what took you so long Guys? An NFLPA rep told me in E-mail this morning he expects it to be the busiest week in some time….and that’s the best news we have heard in some time…From New England Sports networks’ the Daily Blend: Tom Brady is among the most hated players in the NFL. Guess Pats fans are still in shock that another team from New York beat them in the post season….Speaking of that team from NY wearing Green & White…Rex Ryan was spotted In Hawaii at the Pro Bowl this past weekend without his sweater vest , but wearing a white Jets polo shirt and some Dog tags….Last time I checked he had no military service credit in his background…..Unless they are his Dad’s, or they filming a remake of my favorite movie from1970, Kelly’s Heroes….Maybe Rex is Playing (channeling) Carroll O’Connor’s General Colt character, Or is he Donald Sutherland’s “ODDBALl?”….I want to know who on the Jets Coaching staff is Playing Clint Eastwood’s Part….Hopefully not the recently “dismissed” Sal Alosi…..Today here in NY, they are getting ready to ship 7,000 Pizzas to the Afgan front thanks to UNO Grill…Beats mess hall food, even with the improvements in Army Food…”MRE’s Anyone?I donlt ever remember adding water to Pizza....As I write this, the Super Bowl Media day is going on. Rest assured Packers QB Aaron Rodgers has bought plenty of warm coats since we asked him that 5 Years ago at his NFL Draft Presser….Lots of players are concerned about the pace of the talks between the players and the owners…from Jets DB Antonio Cromartie to Steelers WR Hines Ward…..Speaking of the city of Dallas, that emporium of grilled meat products, we hear there are almost as many people worried about how much they will pay to park their cars for the game as they are about finding “suitable Gentleman’s Adult entertainment….” I remember the 12 months I spent stationed at Ft. Hood down near Waco, no shortage of available “dates” there, Girls just love men in uniforms…Speaking of the Army, If the Pentagon & The department of the Army follow suit like they did with Lt. Caleb Campbell, Lt. Ali Villineuva may make it back to Play Pro Football by 2013…now who wants to figure out what to do with a 6’ 10” Tight End….and this week we’ll close with the “Youngest Reporter” at the Super Bowl, 11 year old Braden Madden, of Sachse Texas is part of the credentialed media this week,..interviewing players and filing stories for the “Weekly Reader” which is part of the Reader Digest family....Good for him,…but I had to wait until I was 29 to get a SB credential,….does he have his FWAA Card yet??We'll cut him a break because he's 11, but we're going to send him a few "real" questions to ask.....
Thursday, January 20, 2011
As the NFL lockout approaches, the average fan is clearly unaware of all of the issues
As the NFL lockout approaches, the average fan is clearly unaware of all of the issues
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online
(Eds. Note: this was first published last week @ Football Reporters Online's main website and Tumblr page, and on the NFL Business Blog)
As I sit here writing this at 4:30 am on the 12th day of January 2011, we are 49 days away from the first job action in professional football in 23 years. The “labor peace” that so many worked so hard for over the last 30 years to keep in place is about to go up in a puff of smoke like the $12 cigars that Madison av. money men favor. But this time, the formula for this impending action comes out of 280 Park Avenue, the headquarters of the NFL itself. I’m not saying this is directly the result of anything that Roger Goodell has done. If anything, he is trying to affect the quickest possible resolution to the problem. Except that mr. Goodell’s authority is limited by the owners who run the NFL. A small fraction of these owners want to see a ”correction,” like the stock market take place in pro football.
Yes folks, this is the doing of a small group of owners who could care less about the players health and general well being. All the more saddening is the fact that the owners in question have more to loose then they realize, and the league has gotten big business and the TV networks to play along.
Although I have been paying attention the last few years to the goings on, I took part in the NFLPA media conference call yesterday with Assistant Executive director (for external affairs) George Atallah and player executive board members Dominuqe Foxoworth (Baltimore Ravens) and Scott Fujita (Cleveland Browns). Most of the questions revolved around the current health and safety issues and the Leagues’ launch of a new website to address these issues. Underneath it all is the countdown to when players will be “Locked Out” of their teams’ facilities (March 3rd).
While most would paint this as a “Millionaires vs. Billionaires” fight, the players in this case are getting the short end of the stick. Players’ rights have never been more at risk now then in all the time since Bernie Parrish helped lead the drive to organize in the 1950’s.
It’s true I subscribe to the “more football is good” theory, but when it’s cast about as a way to get around very real concerns about player health issues, then we have to look deeper. The owners want to add 2 regular season games to the schedule: great, right? Get rid of two pre season games, shorten up the time frame with regard to OTA and mini camps.
Players feel this is the major sticking point in getting a deal done. Not who makes more money, the owners or the players. "To me, right now, as things stand, 18 games, the way it's being proposed, is completely unacceptable. ... I see more and more players get injured every season," said Fujita on yesterday’s call.
Atallah informed us that 352 players were on injured reserve for all or part of the 2010 season, a record high, and just about 1/5th or 20% of the total number of active players this year.
Foxworth added "We put our bodies on the line and produce a lot of revenue, and we get five years (of post-retirement health insurance), And then they want to tack on two more games ... which is just going to multiply the injuries and the ailments that we're going to see after we go into our 40s, 50s, 60s -- 70s, if we're lucky”. ... Foxworth, like so many players, has a growing family, and considers a two thousand dollar a month COBRA payment a steep cost to keep health insurance active while locked out. While some players could probably afford to pay it, most of the younger players with less then 3 years of service in the league would probably have to seek temporary employment at something else to help pay that cost.
"We're not willing to budge on health and safety, and we'd like to gain some more ground in ways we can protect former players and current players." Foxoworth added.
I had a conversation at the 2010 draft With Kevin Mawae, who until this September was the players’ association president. “It all comes down to money, plain and simple. The owners had more then the players until the last agreement. The owners want it back now because the economy took a bad turn, so they want to make up for the outrageously high contracts they give to rookies, which add up to more money then most current vets will ever see, Not that I’m saying that a Bradford shouldn’t get every cent he can. You can die or be paralyzed at any time on the field of play” He was very open and candid about what many players see as a travesty in the making.
This is not to say that the financial issues aren’t important, and that the NFL and it’s workforce don’t need to agree to mutually beneficial terms to insure the survival of the great game of football. They do, and soon. But when you want to force a bad deal down one side’s craw as management is trying to do, I have to question what the owners (at least some) are doing here. If you were truly concerned enough to install and reinforce rule “tweaks” to the game this year to prevent more head to head contact injuries, why would you cut off players’ access to health care during a job dispute? Why have the TV networks agree to pay you money even if no games take place in 2011? Why threaten to lay off or furlough up to 50 percent of League and team staff?
Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones recently said on a 60 Minutes interview segment that “it wouldn’t be so bad if the lockout went to the 11th hour before something got done” That doesn’t sound like a man who cares about his players or their families does it? Fujita doesn’t think so either, calling those comments irresponsible.
What the NFL owners don’t see here is beyond costing both sides a great deal of money and anguish. They are going to kill off the popularity of the game, that the NFL won when professional baseball struck in 1994. I’d want to know why I’m getting charged how ever many thousands of dollars for my tickets next year if there won’t be football played, if I still had season tickets. As my fellow writer David Levy points out many times over in his article series about the fan experience these days, Most average people have been priced out of going to see the game they love. If the owners love this game so much, why do they want to kill off it’s popularity, esp. when this past weekend’s “Wild Card Playoffs” broadcasts averaged over 32 million viewers per game.
This is what people should be asking of the NFL.
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online
(Eds. Note: this was first published last week @ Football Reporters Online's main website and Tumblr page, and on the NFL Business Blog)
As I sit here writing this at 4:30 am on the 12th day of January 2011, we are 49 days away from the first job action in professional football in 23 years. The “labor peace” that so many worked so hard for over the last 30 years to keep in place is about to go up in a puff of smoke like the $12 cigars that Madison av. money men favor. But this time, the formula for this impending action comes out of 280 Park Avenue, the headquarters of the NFL itself. I’m not saying this is directly the result of anything that Roger Goodell has done. If anything, he is trying to affect the quickest possible resolution to the problem. Except that mr. Goodell’s authority is limited by the owners who run the NFL. A small fraction of these owners want to see a ”correction,” like the stock market take place in pro football.
Yes folks, this is the doing of a small group of owners who could care less about the players health and general well being. All the more saddening is the fact that the owners in question have more to loose then they realize, and the league has gotten big business and the TV networks to play along.
Although I have been paying attention the last few years to the goings on, I took part in the NFLPA media conference call yesterday with Assistant Executive director (for external affairs) George Atallah and player executive board members Dominuqe Foxoworth (Baltimore Ravens) and Scott Fujita (Cleveland Browns). Most of the questions revolved around the current health and safety issues and the Leagues’ launch of a new website to address these issues. Underneath it all is the countdown to when players will be “Locked Out” of their teams’ facilities (March 3rd).
While most would paint this as a “Millionaires vs. Billionaires” fight, the players in this case are getting the short end of the stick. Players’ rights have never been more at risk now then in all the time since Bernie Parrish helped lead the drive to organize in the 1950’s.
It’s true I subscribe to the “more football is good” theory, but when it’s cast about as a way to get around very real concerns about player health issues, then we have to look deeper. The owners want to add 2 regular season games to the schedule: great, right? Get rid of two pre season games, shorten up the time frame with regard to OTA and mini camps.
Players feel this is the major sticking point in getting a deal done. Not who makes more money, the owners or the players. "To me, right now, as things stand, 18 games, the way it's being proposed, is completely unacceptable. ... I see more and more players get injured every season," said Fujita on yesterday’s call.
Atallah informed us that 352 players were on injured reserve for all or part of the 2010 season, a record high, and just about 1/5th or 20% of the total number of active players this year.
Foxworth added "We put our bodies on the line and produce a lot of revenue, and we get five years (of post-retirement health insurance), And then they want to tack on two more games ... which is just going to multiply the injuries and the ailments that we're going to see after we go into our 40s, 50s, 60s -- 70s, if we're lucky”. ... Foxworth, like so many players, has a growing family, and considers a two thousand dollar a month COBRA payment a steep cost to keep health insurance active while locked out. While some players could probably afford to pay it, most of the younger players with less then 3 years of service in the league would probably have to seek temporary employment at something else to help pay that cost.
"We're not willing to budge on health and safety, and we'd like to gain some more ground in ways we can protect former players and current players." Foxoworth added.
I had a conversation at the 2010 draft With Kevin Mawae, who until this September was the players’ association president. “It all comes down to money, plain and simple. The owners had more then the players until the last agreement. The owners want it back now because the economy took a bad turn, so they want to make up for the outrageously high contracts they give to rookies, which add up to more money then most current vets will ever see, Not that I’m saying that a Bradford shouldn’t get every cent he can. You can die or be paralyzed at any time on the field of play” He was very open and candid about what many players see as a travesty in the making.
This is not to say that the financial issues aren’t important, and that the NFL and it’s workforce don’t need to agree to mutually beneficial terms to insure the survival of the great game of football. They do, and soon. But when you want to force a bad deal down one side’s craw as management is trying to do, I have to question what the owners (at least some) are doing here. If you were truly concerned enough to install and reinforce rule “tweaks” to the game this year to prevent more head to head contact injuries, why would you cut off players’ access to health care during a job dispute? Why have the TV networks agree to pay you money even if no games take place in 2011? Why threaten to lay off or furlough up to 50 percent of League and team staff?
Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones recently said on a 60 Minutes interview segment that “it wouldn’t be so bad if the lockout went to the 11th hour before something got done” That doesn’t sound like a man who cares about his players or their families does it? Fujita doesn’t think so either, calling those comments irresponsible.
What the NFL owners don’t see here is beyond costing both sides a great deal of money and anguish. They are going to kill off the popularity of the game, that the NFL won when professional baseball struck in 1994. I’d want to know why I’m getting charged how ever many thousands of dollars for my tickets next year if there won’t be football played, if I still had season tickets. As my fellow writer David Levy points out many times over in his article series about the fan experience these days, Most average people have been priced out of going to see the game they love. If the owners love this game so much, why do they want to kill off it’s popularity, esp. when this past weekend’s “Wild Card Playoffs” broadcasts averaged over 32 million viewers per game.
This is what people should be asking of the NFL.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
The Fix is In?
The Fix Is In? A BASN/FRO EXCLUSIVE
By Michael – Louis Ingram
BASN/FRO
Bernie Parrish, it seems, has been playing defense all his life. From his playing days with the Cleveland Browns, he saw the future in understanding the need to look out for himself and his fellow players down the road.
Parrish would be instrumental in helping to set up the first Players’ Union back in the 1960s – the same one that would morph into the NFLPA and Players, Inc. today. “I got interested in it after I was voted player rep for the Browns in 1960,” said Parrish,” so I’ve been at this a while.
“We sat down and tore a retirement plan out of the hides of men like George Halas, Paul Brown and George Preston Marshall – a buncha tough old buzzards; developed and gifted a pension plan that became what the modern players have now; and baseball followed suit with our premise soon after.
“Fortunately, for the baseball players, Marvin Miller kept the baseball union straight and made it his business to look out for all his people, and Major League Baseball’s pensioners today receive four to five times more money from their sport than football, in spite of the fact we’ve made more money over the same time frame – while Gene Upshaw & (former NFL commissioner Paul) Tagliabue diverted from that path with retired players (from 1982 and back) into other plans for the players that excluded us.
The death of former NFLPA head Upshaw led to speculation a new leader would be sympathetic to a faction of retired players - Parrish among them – and resolve several long – standing issues; as well as a couple which emanated from the recent award of $28.1 million dollars won in a class – action suit spearheaded by Parrish and Hall of Fame defensive back Herb Adderley, now stuck in appeal.
During Super Bowl week the speculation of a new leader narrowed down to two principal candidates – former players Trace Armstrong and Troy Vincent; but the ascension of lawyer/lobbyist DeMaurice Smith to president of NFLPA was a complete surprise to just about everyone – except Parrish.
Parrish revealed on the BASN / blogtalkradio shows, “the Football Reporters Online” and “The Batchelor Pad” hosted by our colleague, L.A. Batchelor that the process in electing Smith, in his opinion, wasn’t on the up – and – up.
“I was in Tampa during Super Bowl week at the Marriott Waterside,” recalls Parrish, “which was across the street from where most of the Super Bowl stuff was happening, and was having a coffee at a Starbucks which was adjacent to the lobby and the Café Waterside when here comes the inner circle of the NFLPA - Richard Bertelsen, Jeffrey Kessler, Clark Gaines, Jack Quinn, etc. They walked right past me, and didn’t recognize me. There were a bunch of fans around, so it was a little loud.
“Kessler, who was eye to eye with me for 7 hours during the deposition in the class action suit, is looking right at me. I was ready to say, ‘So, Jeff – did you bring the check?’ But he didn’t recognize me, and I’m thinking, ‘this guy has got to be one arrogant ass…’
“They all looked dead at me, walked by and then walked into the Café Waterside, which was closed, but the maitre’d let them in and closed the door; he (maitre’d) soon left, and I walked in and sat down at a table right next to them about 4-5 feet away. I’m looking out the window at the Coast Guard gunboats - and I listened for 90 minutes to them talking about several things – including rigging the election and getting Smith enough votes to get him in as Executive Director.
“They also brought in Cornwell as a supposed challenger. At first I thought they were talking about (former Buffalo Bill) Cornelius Bennett, but it was Cornwell, who was on the list of nominees as of January 29.
“So here I’m thinking the judge leaves Berthelsen (de facto Executive Director) and Kessler (lead counsel vs. Retired players) in charge in spite of the fact they ruled their action shirked their fiduciary responsibility to the retired players, instead of appointing a conservator like they did with the Teamsters after we won the lawsuit.
“They had arranged through several phone calls what they called ‘breakout meetings’ with 10 guys and one meeting went 6-0 against them, so they reworked the process.
“They also talked about getting a hold of Mary Moran, daughter of Rep. Jim Moran, who works for NFLPA in Human Resources, saying they needed to get a hold of her right away and she had to make her dad make these calls right away.
“We know he (Moran) called Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Rep. Kendrick Meeks (D-FL) because Troy Vincent had called these congressmen, to insure the election was honest; but Rep. Moran outed Vincent due to the fact there were indications if Vincent had been elected, he would’ve cleaned house and fired his daughter in the wake of that move.
But Rep. Moran outed Vincent not just to help Smith to win the election. Patton Boggs, who is the largest lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., would be seen in a favorable light by NFLPA. So there were more things involved than just trying to have Moran help his daughter keep her job – there’s a lot of politicking goin’ on,” Parrish said.
According to Parrish, Patton Boggs earned $330 million in monies in 2008, and allegedly gave Moran over $2 million, according to an online watchdog concern.
It is because of these discoveries that Parrish is concerned about the direction of the NFLPA with regard to hundreds of millions of dollars owed to the retired players who had their the pension plan “infiltrated” by concerns not in their best interests – as well as the logic of the newly elected Executive Director.
“Well it doesn’t appear that a positive change is gonna happen,” said Parrish, “with Smith saying he was keeping Berthelsen and Kessler; and was ‘happy with the current staff’ – I don’t know how he was able to assess that over 3 days;
“They say they pay homage to us – well, homage doesn’t pay much; we’re owed 100s of millions of dollars because of the collusion between Upshaw, Tagilabue, the owners and Aon Consulting, who controls our plan actuaries; and our salaries are held down by Aon, who was ordered to pay $190 million in restitution to clients in Illinois, New York, and Connecticut – for cheating their customers.”
Parrish went on to imply there is more to this, and he is sending a letter to the new Executive Director to get a first – hand response to what he discovered.
“Smith says his staff is just fine; the same ones who violated fiduciary responsibility in taking care of our concerns. You think AIG’s crooked? Wait ‘til all this comes out.”
BASN will continue to keep you posted on this issue.
michaelingram@blackathlete.com
mike@footballreportersonline.com
By Michael – Louis Ingram
BASN/FRO
Bernie Parrish, it seems, has been playing defense all his life. From his playing days with the Cleveland Browns, he saw the future in understanding the need to look out for himself and his fellow players down the road.
Parrish would be instrumental in helping to set up the first Players’ Union back in the 1960s – the same one that would morph into the NFLPA and Players, Inc. today. “I got interested in it after I was voted player rep for the Browns in 1960,” said Parrish,” so I’ve been at this a while.
“We sat down and tore a retirement plan out of the hides of men like George Halas, Paul Brown and George Preston Marshall – a buncha tough old buzzards; developed and gifted a pension plan that became what the modern players have now; and baseball followed suit with our premise soon after.
“Fortunately, for the baseball players, Marvin Miller kept the baseball union straight and made it his business to look out for all his people, and Major League Baseball’s pensioners today receive four to five times more money from their sport than football, in spite of the fact we’ve made more money over the same time frame – while Gene Upshaw & (former NFL commissioner Paul) Tagliabue diverted from that path with retired players (from 1982 and back) into other plans for the players that excluded us.
The death of former NFLPA head Upshaw led to speculation a new leader would be sympathetic to a faction of retired players - Parrish among them – and resolve several long – standing issues; as well as a couple which emanated from the recent award of $28.1 million dollars won in a class – action suit spearheaded by Parrish and Hall of Fame defensive back Herb Adderley, now stuck in appeal.
During Super Bowl week the speculation of a new leader narrowed down to two principal candidates – former players Trace Armstrong and Troy Vincent; but the ascension of lawyer/lobbyist DeMaurice Smith to president of NFLPA was a complete surprise to just about everyone – except Parrish.
Parrish revealed on the BASN / blogtalkradio shows, “the Football Reporters Online” and “The Batchelor Pad” hosted by our colleague, L.A. Batchelor that the process in electing Smith, in his opinion, wasn’t on the up – and – up.
“I was in Tampa during Super Bowl week at the Marriott Waterside,” recalls Parrish, “which was across the street from where most of the Super Bowl stuff was happening, and was having a coffee at a Starbucks which was adjacent to the lobby and the Café Waterside when here comes the inner circle of the NFLPA - Richard Bertelsen, Jeffrey Kessler, Clark Gaines, Jack Quinn, etc. They walked right past me, and didn’t recognize me. There were a bunch of fans around, so it was a little loud.
“Kessler, who was eye to eye with me for 7 hours during the deposition in the class action suit, is looking right at me. I was ready to say, ‘So, Jeff – did you bring the check?’ But he didn’t recognize me, and I’m thinking, ‘this guy has got to be one arrogant ass…’
“They all looked dead at me, walked by and then walked into the Café Waterside, which was closed, but the maitre’d let them in and closed the door; he (maitre’d) soon left, and I walked in and sat down at a table right next to them about 4-5 feet away. I’m looking out the window at the Coast Guard gunboats - and I listened for 90 minutes to them talking about several things – including rigging the election and getting Smith enough votes to get him in as Executive Director.
“They also brought in Cornwell as a supposed challenger. At first I thought they were talking about (former Buffalo Bill) Cornelius Bennett, but it was Cornwell, who was on the list of nominees as of January 29.
“So here I’m thinking the judge leaves Berthelsen (de facto Executive Director) and Kessler (lead counsel vs. Retired players) in charge in spite of the fact they ruled their action shirked their fiduciary responsibility to the retired players, instead of appointing a conservator like they did with the Teamsters after we won the lawsuit.
“They had arranged through several phone calls what they called ‘breakout meetings’ with 10 guys and one meeting went 6-0 against them, so they reworked the process.
“They also talked about getting a hold of Mary Moran, daughter of Rep. Jim Moran, who works for NFLPA in Human Resources, saying they needed to get a hold of her right away and she had to make her dad make these calls right away.
“We know he (Moran) called Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Rep. Kendrick Meeks (D-FL) because Troy Vincent had called these congressmen, to insure the election was honest; but Rep. Moran outed Vincent due to the fact there were indications if Vincent had been elected, he would’ve cleaned house and fired his daughter in the wake of that move.
But Rep. Moran outed Vincent not just to help Smith to win the election. Patton Boggs, who is the largest lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., would be seen in a favorable light by NFLPA. So there were more things involved than just trying to have Moran help his daughter keep her job – there’s a lot of politicking goin’ on,” Parrish said.
According to Parrish, Patton Boggs earned $330 million in monies in 2008, and allegedly gave Moran over $2 million, according to an online watchdog concern.
It is because of these discoveries that Parrish is concerned about the direction of the NFLPA with regard to hundreds of millions of dollars owed to the retired players who had their the pension plan “infiltrated” by concerns not in their best interests – as well as the logic of the newly elected Executive Director.
“Well it doesn’t appear that a positive change is gonna happen,” said Parrish, “with Smith saying he was keeping Berthelsen and Kessler; and was ‘happy with the current staff’ – I don’t know how he was able to assess that over 3 days;
“They say they pay homage to us – well, homage doesn’t pay much; we’re owed 100s of millions of dollars because of the collusion between Upshaw, Tagilabue, the owners and Aon Consulting, who controls our plan actuaries; and our salaries are held down by Aon, who was ordered to pay $190 million in restitution to clients in Illinois, New York, and Connecticut – for cheating their customers.”
Parrish went on to imply there is more to this, and he is sending a letter to the new Executive Director to get a first – hand response to what he discovered.
“Smith says his staff is just fine; the same ones who violated fiduciary responsibility in taking care of our concerns. You think AIG’s crooked? Wait ‘til all this comes out.”
BASN will continue to keep you posted on this issue.
michaelingram@blackathlete.com
mike@footballreportersonline.com
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Old School Players Take NFLPA to School: A BASN/FRO Exclusive
Old School Players Take NFLPA to School: A BASN/FRO Exclusive
By Michael – Louis Ingram- Scouting Director Football Reporters Online/ Host-Black Athlete Sports Network
Editor’s Note: The following is a continuation of a series of articles first broken by the Black Athlete Sports Network last September; regarding the plight of many of the football players who laid the foundation for the National Football League’s rise in becoming the number one spectator sport in America.
Throughout the duration of this series, BASN staffers will offer their opinion and contribute pieces to a very convoluted puzzle.
This past Monday, over 2,000 retired professional football players scored a major legal victory in a San Francisco courtroom when they were rewarded $28.1 million in a verdict against the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and its licensing and marketing division, Players, Inc.
The Hon. William Allsup, presiding over U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that NFLPA and Players Inc. must compensate thousands of retired players. Citing a “breaching of their fiduciary duty” on the part of the defendants, jurors, in addition to finding the two entities culpable, ruled for $21 million to be handed over in punitive damages.
The jury of eight women and two men concluded NFLPA and Players, Inc. failed to market retired players' licensing rights under a group licensing authorization contract covering the licensing of electronic games, collectables and other merchandise.
Listed as point men on the original suit was Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Herb Adderley and former Cleveland Browns’ defensive back Bernard Parrish, with the original claim filed approximately two years ago.
Adderley, whose career was laced with accolades and championships, received everything he could from football – except proper compensation after his retirement in the early 1970s, barely surviving on $125.86 as his pension from his 12 years in the NFL prior to the filing.
Mr. Adderley and the victorious former NFL players were represented by attorneys from the national law firms of McKool Smith, P.C., and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. The McKool Smith team included firm principal Lew LeClair, senior counsel Jill Naylor and associates Brett Charhon and Anthony Garza.
The Manatt, Phelps group included firm partners Ronald S. Katz, Chad S. Hummel and L. Peter Parcher, in addition to associates Ryan S. Hilbert and Noel S. Cohen.
"This verdict is a great victory for the men who devoted their lives to building professional football," says Mr. LeClair of McKool Smith, attorney for the retired players. "We are thankful the jury decided to right this wrong."
Throughout the three week trial, several former NFL stars testified about the benefits promised by the union that were never received, and the difficulties in gaining information about the NFLPA's finances and licensing agreements.
First & Goal
While the verdict provides some long overdue git – back, there is a downside to this.
The numbers, on their face sound justifiable, but I beg to differ.
Just as insurance companies are wont to do, these numbers, even with the addition of punitive damages factored in, calculate surprisingly low; and this is something I feel the League expected it would take a beating on, as I feel this judgment represents acceptable losses by the League.
If you breakdown $28 million over 2,000 players, it comes out to $14,000 apiece. When you consider the timeframe of two generations; and the fact the League was drowning in liquidity from television packages, international revenue through expansion of the game to Europe, Japan, Mexico and Canada, the concept of the Super Bowl, facilitation for Electronic Arts (EA Sports) to put a stranglehold on the electronic video game business and the creation of the League’s own cable television network, it would be hard for me to fathom NFLPA and Players, Inc. appealing any decision.
But Liffort Hobley thinks these jokers got off easy. Hobley, a defensive back who played seven seasons in the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Dolphins, says the amount is even less. “The NFL should be ashamed of itself,” said Hobley, “in allowing this to fester into going to court.
“The money that the players finally get won’t be more than ten grand a head; and while it may offer some immediate relief, it doesn’t speak to some of the long – term concerns many of these veterans have.”
Hobley, now an account executive with Thomson Reuters in Dallas, Texas, says this first check should be an appetizer for a main course in the very near future. “It’s not like these guys (owners and union) were ever in danger of missing a payroll – and no one in NFLPA had the decency to do the right thing by the former players.
“You knew this wasn’t going to be a situation like the USFL debacle, where you kicked out three bucks in damages; but it may as well have been for what little you’re paying out now.”
LeClair confirms Hobley’s numbers. “At the beginning of the lawsuit, 2,074 players were listed on the class action. Twelve opted out, so by the time of the decision, 2,062 players are eligible for the payout.
“But it looks like the NFLPA legal counsel will appeal the decision, and given it takes upwards of two years before anyone sees a check, the per – person breakdown comes out to somewhere between eight and ten thousand per man.”
While that cash will be a welcome sight to those who need it and earned it right now, I’m thinking about the dozens of players the NFL callously let die because they waited for something they knew they were entitled to, but were told otherwise.
I can see a direct correlation between former NFL players dying prematurely to people who were killed after the big gasoline shortage in the 1970s. Motorists were killed for wanting gasoline; jumping ahead of lines, hoarding, etc. – but the oil companies were never taken to court in class action or personal litigation to my recollection because of the preposterous notion these companies aided and abetted someone losing their life – for wanting to fill their gas tank would remain beyond adjudication.
Or how about the hundreds of players whose lives spiraled into depression, pain, blues and agony because of conditions developed from playing a collision sport compounded with stress from continuous denial by NFL doctors refusing to acknowledge said affects as cause.
To conclude that men in their 40s, 50s, 60s and up were in damaged condition due to “natural wear and tear” is tantamount to spitting in their face; but the propaganda machine will remind you of what “noble gridiron gladiators these stout men were” – complete with martial music in the scale of C and John Facenda’s bellowing baritone.
Sure, these cats knew the job was dangerous when they took it – but so did you, you greedy bastards. Why couldn’t you just share and be fair with the understanding that it would be good business in taking care of those who helped you become stinking rich? It wasn’t like you were scrambling to make a payroll…
Show Me The Money!
Which now brings us from the Old Heads to the Young Bloods – the self – indulgent, the clueless (not all, but some); the ones who dance and gesticulate but miss the big picture even after seeing a Kevin Everett or an Anquan Boldin’s life change in one play.
What I’d be asking myself right now if I were a current player or recently retired one collecting what would seem to be a nice check is this: “If they went to such a great extent to screw these cats out of their money, what makes me think they’re not screwing me out of my money?
If you stretch out $14,000 over 20 years, that’s an average of $700 yearly; over 40 years, $350. I’m no accountant, but you would have to include a cost of living adjustment over a similar time frame, then, allowing for inflation, compute how much that would have accumulated if even a third of whatever cash was allowed to sit and accrue interest for a reasonable assessment of what each player really deserves.
It has been said often, and bears repeating: football players have the lousiest contract situation in all the major sports. Your bonus – if you get one – is your foundation. If you get hurt, all those numbers on your contract are as valuable as a roll of Charmin; and your usefulness to that organization after the fact makes you as valuable as the used Charmin that just got flushed away.
Suffice to say this cash should represent the first deposit in a workman’s compensation/royalties/reparations condition; to be expedited to those who need it with all deliberate speed.
The NFLPA and Players, Inc. ran their B.S. marathon; now it’s time for the money to talk.
michaelingram@blackathlete.com
mingram@suavvmagazine.com
mike@footballreportersonline.com
(Managing Partner's note: The last thing we want to do at FRO is damage the reputation of the many fine people who are involved in the business of Football. Many of these said persons have no known knowledge of these Issues. However, as we expect to be thought of as credible journalists, we must "dig deeper" to tell the whole story, to make sure that justice gets done for those who are deserving of it and who are
waiting for it!)
By Michael – Louis Ingram- Scouting Director Football Reporters Online/ Host-Black Athlete Sports Network
Editor’s Note: The following is a continuation of a series of articles first broken by the Black Athlete Sports Network last September; regarding the plight of many of the football players who laid the foundation for the National Football League’s rise in becoming the number one spectator sport in America.
Throughout the duration of this series, BASN staffers will offer their opinion and contribute pieces to a very convoluted puzzle.
This past Monday, over 2,000 retired professional football players scored a major legal victory in a San Francisco courtroom when they were rewarded $28.1 million in a verdict against the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and its licensing and marketing division, Players, Inc.
The Hon. William Allsup, presiding over U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that NFLPA and Players Inc. must compensate thousands of retired players. Citing a “breaching of their fiduciary duty” on the part of the defendants, jurors, in addition to finding the two entities culpable, ruled for $21 million to be handed over in punitive damages.
The jury of eight women and two men concluded NFLPA and Players, Inc. failed to market retired players' licensing rights under a group licensing authorization contract covering the licensing of electronic games, collectables and other merchandise.
Listed as point men on the original suit was Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Herb Adderley and former Cleveland Browns’ defensive back Bernard Parrish, with the original claim filed approximately two years ago.
Adderley, whose career was laced with accolades and championships, received everything he could from football – except proper compensation after his retirement in the early 1970s, barely surviving on $125.86 as his pension from his 12 years in the NFL prior to the filing.
Mr. Adderley and the victorious former NFL players were represented by attorneys from the national law firms of McKool Smith, P.C., and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. The McKool Smith team included firm principal Lew LeClair, senior counsel Jill Naylor and associates Brett Charhon and Anthony Garza.
The Manatt, Phelps group included firm partners Ronald S. Katz, Chad S. Hummel and L. Peter Parcher, in addition to associates Ryan S. Hilbert and Noel S. Cohen.
"This verdict is a great victory for the men who devoted their lives to building professional football," says Mr. LeClair of McKool Smith, attorney for the retired players. "We are thankful the jury decided to right this wrong."
Throughout the three week trial, several former NFL stars testified about the benefits promised by the union that were never received, and the difficulties in gaining information about the NFLPA's finances and licensing agreements.
First & Goal
While the verdict provides some long overdue git – back, there is a downside to this.
The numbers, on their face sound justifiable, but I beg to differ.
Just as insurance companies are wont to do, these numbers, even with the addition of punitive damages factored in, calculate surprisingly low; and this is something I feel the League expected it would take a beating on, as I feel this judgment represents acceptable losses by the League.
If you breakdown $28 million over 2,000 players, it comes out to $14,000 apiece. When you consider the timeframe of two generations; and the fact the League was drowning in liquidity from television packages, international revenue through expansion of the game to Europe, Japan, Mexico and Canada, the concept of the Super Bowl, facilitation for Electronic Arts (EA Sports) to put a stranglehold on the electronic video game business and the creation of the League’s own cable television network, it would be hard for me to fathom NFLPA and Players, Inc. appealing any decision.
But Liffort Hobley thinks these jokers got off easy. Hobley, a defensive back who played seven seasons in the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Dolphins, says the amount is even less. “The NFL should be ashamed of itself,” said Hobley, “in allowing this to fester into going to court.
“The money that the players finally get won’t be more than ten grand a head; and while it may offer some immediate relief, it doesn’t speak to some of the long – term concerns many of these veterans have.”
Hobley, now an account executive with Thomson Reuters in Dallas, Texas, says this first check should be an appetizer for a main course in the very near future. “It’s not like these guys (owners and union) were ever in danger of missing a payroll – and no one in NFLPA had the decency to do the right thing by the former players.
“You knew this wasn’t going to be a situation like the USFL debacle, where you kicked out three bucks in damages; but it may as well have been for what little you’re paying out now.”
LeClair confirms Hobley’s numbers. “At the beginning of the lawsuit, 2,074 players were listed on the class action. Twelve opted out, so by the time of the decision, 2,062 players are eligible for the payout.
“But it looks like the NFLPA legal counsel will appeal the decision, and given it takes upwards of two years before anyone sees a check, the per – person breakdown comes out to somewhere between eight and ten thousand per man.”
While that cash will be a welcome sight to those who need it and earned it right now, I’m thinking about the dozens of players the NFL callously let die because they waited for something they knew they were entitled to, but were told otherwise.
I can see a direct correlation between former NFL players dying prematurely to people who were killed after the big gasoline shortage in the 1970s. Motorists were killed for wanting gasoline; jumping ahead of lines, hoarding, etc. – but the oil companies were never taken to court in class action or personal litigation to my recollection because of the preposterous notion these companies aided and abetted someone losing their life – for wanting to fill their gas tank would remain beyond adjudication.
Or how about the hundreds of players whose lives spiraled into depression, pain, blues and agony because of conditions developed from playing a collision sport compounded with stress from continuous denial by NFL doctors refusing to acknowledge said affects as cause.
To conclude that men in their 40s, 50s, 60s and up were in damaged condition due to “natural wear and tear” is tantamount to spitting in their face; but the propaganda machine will remind you of what “noble gridiron gladiators these stout men were” – complete with martial music in the scale of C and John Facenda’s bellowing baritone.
Sure, these cats knew the job was dangerous when they took it – but so did you, you greedy bastards. Why couldn’t you just share and be fair with the understanding that it would be good business in taking care of those who helped you become stinking rich? It wasn’t like you were scrambling to make a payroll…
Show Me The Money!
Which now brings us from the Old Heads to the Young Bloods – the self – indulgent, the clueless (not all, but some); the ones who dance and gesticulate but miss the big picture even after seeing a Kevin Everett or an Anquan Boldin’s life change in one play.
What I’d be asking myself right now if I were a current player or recently retired one collecting what would seem to be a nice check is this: “If they went to such a great extent to screw these cats out of their money, what makes me think they’re not screwing me out of my money?
If you stretch out $14,000 over 20 years, that’s an average of $700 yearly; over 40 years, $350. I’m no accountant, but you would have to include a cost of living adjustment over a similar time frame, then, allowing for inflation, compute how much that would have accumulated if even a third of whatever cash was allowed to sit and accrue interest for a reasonable assessment of what each player really deserves.
It has been said often, and bears repeating: football players have the lousiest contract situation in all the major sports. Your bonus – if you get one – is your foundation. If you get hurt, all those numbers on your contract are as valuable as a roll of Charmin; and your usefulness to that organization after the fact makes you as valuable as the used Charmin that just got flushed away.
Suffice to say this cash should represent the first deposit in a workman’s compensation/royalties/reparations condition; to be expedited to those who need it with all deliberate speed.
The NFLPA and Players, Inc. ran their B.S. marathon; now it’s time for the money to talk.
michaelingram@blackathlete.com
mingram@suavvmagazine.com
mike@footballreportersonline.com
(Managing Partner's note: The last thing we want to do at FRO is damage the reputation of the many fine people who are involved in the business of Football. Many of these said persons have no known knowledge of these Issues. However, as we expect to be thought of as credible journalists, we must "dig deeper" to tell the whole story, to make sure that justice gets done for those who are deserving of it and who are
waiting for it!)
Saturday, September 13, 2008
NFLPA Needs Assistance for Successor to the late Gene Upshaw
NFLPA Needs Assistance for Successor to the late Gene Upshaw
September 11, 2008
By Slavica Milosevska for Football Reporters Online
The NFL Players' Association have some big shoes to fill after executive director Gene Upshaw's death in August and will be hiring a national search firm to help after consulting with all 32 teams. The union's board will take potential firms into consideration in the few weeks to come. Additionally, the actual NFL players are being questioned on the qualifications of the ideal successor.
NFLPA 's Interim executive director is uncertain regarding the time it will take to find Upshaw's replacement. “The choice of an executive director would not change the players’ bargaining agenda,” he stated. Berthelsen says that the executive board and himself are working with hiring procedures should not affect labor issues and that they are also discussing terms with the NFL.
When asked about taking Upshaw's old position, Berthelsen says he doesn't want that commitment. There are many headaches at this level. For instance, before Upshaw's passing, he had a concern that if the NFL opted out of the CBA that it would never return. This is the current status, making 2010 an uncapped season if no new agreement is settled. There is yet time until the spring of 2009 to make a deal. Only time will tell who and what will happen.
September 11, 2008
By Slavica Milosevska for Football Reporters Online
The NFL Players' Association have some big shoes to fill after executive director Gene Upshaw's death in August and will be hiring a national search firm to help after consulting with all 32 teams. The union's board will take potential firms into consideration in the few weeks to come. Additionally, the actual NFL players are being questioned on the qualifications of the ideal successor.
NFLPA 's Interim executive director is uncertain regarding the time it will take to find Upshaw's replacement. “The choice of an executive director would not change the players’ bargaining agenda,” he stated. Berthelsen says that the executive board and himself are working with hiring procedures should not affect labor issues and that they are also discussing terms with the NFL.
When asked about taking Upshaw's old position, Berthelsen says he doesn't want that commitment. There are many headaches at this level. For instance, before Upshaw's passing, he had a concern that if the NFL opted out of the CBA that it would never return. This is the current status, making 2010 an uncapped season if no new agreement is settled. There is yet time until the spring of 2009 to make a deal. Only time will tell who and what will happen.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
NFL Owners opt out of CBA-Upshaw Not Fazed
NFL Owners opt out of CBA-Upshaw Not Fazed
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Football Reporters Online-Special to SBS
Early this week the NFL owners group opted out of the collective bargaining agreement extension which was signed two years ago. Simply put, we are talking about three more years of labor peace (through 2010) even though both sides claim they "want to get the talks rolling now." NFLPA Head Gene Upshaw wasn't even upset. "We knew this was coming" He said. "We just didn't think it would be so soon". I guess he thought the owners would wait until the November 8th deadline.
Something tells me the owners aren't that interested in talking right this second. They will wait until next year at the earliest to call meetings and discuss getting the players to give back some more money, stating hard financial times. While it's true that the country is headed for a recession, there is no concrete evidence of this in professional sports when contracts are getting higher all the time.Could their possible be a strike after the 2010 season, something that has not taken place since 1987(you remember the 87 strike right? Games were played with replacement players) Sadly i remember the 1987 strike. It stunk of sports politics gone bad. We should pray it just doesn't happen again.
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Football Reporters Online-Special to SBS
Early this week the NFL owners group opted out of the collective bargaining agreement extension which was signed two years ago. Simply put, we are talking about three more years of labor peace (through 2010) even though both sides claim they "want to get the talks rolling now." NFLPA Head Gene Upshaw wasn't even upset. "We knew this was coming" He said. "We just didn't think it would be so soon". I guess he thought the owners would wait until the November 8th deadline.
Something tells me the owners aren't that interested in talking right this second. They will wait until next year at the earliest to call meetings and discuss getting the players to give back some more money, stating hard financial times. While it's true that the country is headed for a recession, there is no concrete evidence of this in professional sports when contracts are getting higher all the time.Could their possible be a strike after the 2010 season, something that has not taken place since 1987(you remember the 87 strike right? Games were played with replacement players) Sadly i remember the 1987 strike. It stunk of sports politics gone bad. We should pray it just doesn't happen again.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
NFL Agent Ed Goines - From 49ers Lawyer To Player Agent
For five years, Ed Goines was the Senior Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs for the San Francisco 49ers. Now, Ed Goines has stepped over the line to become an Official NFL Players Association Contract Advisor, otherwise known as NFL Agent.
For Ed, it's a logical step. "I have corporate sponsor contacts, and know how the team organization works. I can see the player deal from both the players and the team's perspective. As the 49ers point person for business affairs I was responsible for sponsorship deals and contract structure, and have already worked with many NFL executives."
Ed also has an online show called "Ed Goines On Sports." You can check out his take on the business of sports there and contact him at 415-407-0882.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
NFLPA's Richard Berthelesen: Gene Upshaw is Underpaid - Profootballtalk.com
I personally think Gene Upshaw's doing a great job and has managed to stay out of court and caused the players to get more money in the last CBA. But Gene's got his detrators...
BERTHELSEN SAYS UPSHAW IS UNDERPAID - Profootballtalk.com
Last month, we reported that NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw made at least $6.6 million in the year ending February 28, 2007.
Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal recently confirmed this report, and obtained a quote from NFLPA general counsel Richard Berthelesen defending the exorbitant salary and bonus package paid to Upshaw.
"If anything he is underpaid," Berthelsen said. "He is paid out of the revenues generated by active players."
As Kaplan notes, it's possible that Upshaw earned even more from Players, Inc., the licensing arm of the NFLPA that generates millions from the use of player names and likenesses for trading cards, video games, and related products.
In our view, Berthelsen's comment indicates that Upshaw's wages are tied directly to the financial package that the NFL has given to the players, and therefore that these windfalls will continue beyond February 28, 2007.
But should they? Is it fair and just for the head of a union to be paid based on the total revenue that the union is generating for its members, or should the head of the union be given a salary that reflects the dynamics of the market for persons with the abilities and skills that Upshaw is utilizing?
We think the latter is the more appropriate formula. If Upshaw won't do the job for less than $6.7 million per year, then the PLAYERS who comprise the union should search for a competent executive who'd be thrilled to have the position in return for a lot less money.
We also are curious as to whether the rank-and-file are given full information as to what Upshaw makes. Berthelsen says that the wages are determined by a 10-member committee. But who beyond that committee is asked their opinion on whether Upshaw is receiving more than his fair share?
Berthelsen says that the committee takes into account the salary paid to the NFL Commissioner. But why should the wages that the 32 billionaires who own NFL teams chose to pay to the guy who is managing their league have any relevance to the money paid to Upshaw?
If the formula used to pay Upshaw is going to continue to take into account the revenues generated by active players, and thus will continue to generate pay in excess of $6 million per year, how will the union go about replacing Upshaw? Will current NFLPA president Troy Vincent get the opportunity to make more per year on average than he ever earned on the field simply because he is in the right place at the right time? Or will the union conduct a nationwide search for the best and most competent person that $6.7 million per year can buy?
Regardless of any other issue that currently is dogging the union, we believe that the pay given to Upshaw is shameful, and that it confirms (in our opinion) the notion that the players are in many cases being manipulated by the power structure that Upshaw has put in place to agree with anything that the union's administration presents to them.
And the fact that the retired players who currently are flailing clumsily at Upshaw over disability benefits have yet to utter a peep about Upshaw's pay tells us that the cause being championed by folks like Mike Ditka and Joe DeLamielleure is going nowhere, fast.
It also tells us that real change will be effected only if and when current players display off of the field the same courage that they demonstrate every time they march onto it.
BERTHELSEN SAYS UPSHAW IS UNDERPAID - Profootballtalk.com
Last month, we reported that NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw made at least $6.6 million in the year ending February 28, 2007.
Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal recently confirmed this report, and obtained a quote from NFLPA general counsel Richard Berthelesen defending the exorbitant salary and bonus package paid to Upshaw.
"If anything he is underpaid," Berthelsen said. "He is paid out of the revenues generated by active players."
As Kaplan notes, it's possible that Upshaw earned even more from Players, Inc., the licensing arm of the NFLPA that generates millions from the use of player names and likenesses for trading cards, video games, and related products.
In our view, Berthelsen's comment indicates that Upshaw's wages are tied directly to the financial package that the NFL has given to the players, and therefore that these windfalls will continue beyond February 28, 2007.
But should they? Is it fair and just for the head of a union to be paid based on the total revenue that the union is generating for its members, or should the head of the union be given a salary that reflects the dynamics of the market for persons with the abilities and skills that Upshaw is utilizing?
We think the latter is the more appropriate formula. If Upshaw won't do the job for less than $6.7 million per year, then the PLAYERS who comprise the union should search for a competent executive who'd be thrilled to have the position in return for a lot less money.
We also are curious as to whether the rank-and-file are given full information as to what Upshaw makes. Berthelsen says that the wages are determined by a 10-member committee. But who beyond that committee is asked their opinion on whether Upshaw is receiving more than his fair share?
Berthelsen says that the committee takes into account the salary paid to the NFL Commissioner. But why should the wages that the 32 billionaires who own NFL teams chose to pay to the guy who is managing their league have any relevance to the money paid to Upshaw?
If the formula used to pay Upshaw is going to continue to take into account the revenues generated by active players, and thus will continue to generate pay in excess of $6 million per year, how will the union go about replacing Upshaw? Will current NFLPA president Troy Vincent get the opportunity to make more per year on average than he ever earned on the field simply because he is in the right place at the right time? Or will the union conduct a nationwide search for the best and most competent person that $6.7 million per year can buy?
Regardless of any other issue that currently is dogging the union, we believe that the pay given to Upshaw is shameful, and that it confirms (in our opinion) the notion that the players are in many cases being manipulated by the power structure that Upshaw has put in place to agree with anything that the union's administration presents to them.
And the fact that the retired players who currently are flailing clumsily at Upshaw over disability benefits have yet to utter a peep about Upshaw's pay tells us that the cause being championed by folks like Mike Ditka and Joe DeLamielleure is going nowhere, fast.
It also tells us that real change will be effected only if and when current players display off of the field the same courage that they demonstrate every time they march onto it.
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