
Roger Goodell and various cronies.
When it comes to a labor agreement, anyone who has ever been in a union can tell you that it takes two to make a deal. You need the owners on one side and the workers on the other side. So what happens when one side ratifies an agreement and the other side doesn’t? Well, turn on sports TV right now, because it’s the ONLY thing people are talking about. Yes, the light is at the end of the tunnel for the NFL labor strife (sorry Lingerie Football League), but there’s a little problem. While the owners have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the players haven’t and seem insulted that the owners did this without them.
“It takes two sides to reach an agreement,” said the Buffalo Bills’ player representative George Wilson to ESPN, “and when they try to shove an agreement down our throats, that’s a sign of disrespect. … There is no timetable set. For most of the time that we were on the conference call, we didn’t even have the proposal yet.”
However, there’s a wrinkle. The owners and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell say they did this after a handshake deal with the players’ union representatives and NFLPA head DeMorris Smith, and that once the players get around to voting on the new CBA, football should be resuming by Wednesday of next week, with all the free agent signings, training camps, cuts, and contract renegotiation that come along with that territory. Until then, I guess players are still looking for work.
Tags: sports, NFL, national football league, NFL lockout, lockout, labor agreement, NFL contract, NFL lockout ending, owners agree to NFL labor agreement, NFL owners agree to contract, DeMaurice Smith, Roger Goodell, NFL labor strife, football, professional football, CBA, collective bargaining agreement, NFL CBA, owners ratify NFL CBA