Players respond to Goodell's letter

[Guest Durant4MVP]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Players-make-position-abundantly-clear-in-respon?urn=nfl-wp392

 

No matter what you thought of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's strategy to bypass the NFL Players' Association and appeal directly to the player with the letter he sent last Thursday (and it's been pretty clear that most players didn't appreciate the gesture at all), you knew a response was coming.

 

And here it is. The response from the player representatives Kevin Mawae(notes), Charlie Batch(notes), Drew Brees(notes), Brian Dawkins(notes), Domonique Foxworth(notes), Scott Fujita(notes), Sean Morey(notes), Tony Richardson(notes), Jeff Saturday(notes), Mike Vrabel(notes), and Brian Waters(notes) was a line-by-line refutation of Goodell's attempt to clarify what he thought the league's last best offer was.

 

You can read the players' complete response after the jump, but even the highlights indicate just how off-base Goodell was with the original letter. The response disputes the NFL's assertion that the players were always interested in litigation, saying instead that breaking off the bargaining talks was "a last resort" taken when "(the last) proposal did not come until 12:30 on Friday (the last day of negotiatons), and, when we examined it, we found it was worse than the proposal the NFL had made the prior week when we agreed to extend the mediation."

 

"At that point," the letter continues, "it became clear to everyone that the NFL had no intention to make a good faith effort to resolve these issues in collective bargaining and the owners were determined to carry out the lockout strategy they decided on in 2007."

 

And there was a very direct shot taken at the league's attempts to redirect public sentiment in its direction: "That is why we were very troubled to see your letter, and repeated press reports by yourself, Jeff Pash, and the owners, which claim that the owners met the players halfway in the negotiations, and that the owners offered a fair deal to the players."

 

And right before the line-by-line refutation begins, there's this little bomb:

 

"Your statements are false. We will let the facts speak for themselves."

 

It's now more clear than ever that before the two sides will be able to begin to put the real issues on the table again in any sort of meaningful fashion, the damage done by various breaches of trust and confidence will have to be repaired. As the response letter intimates, Goodell doesn't even bring up the fact that just three weeks ago, Judge David Doty essentially ruled that the owners used assets in new television contracts that were supposed to be bargained for split revenue as "collateral" for insured payment to the league in the event of a work stoppage.

 

Doty's ruling that the owners couldn't have the money under those circumstances may have been the thing that brought everyone to the table in the first place, but it also started the mediation sessions with a very bitter taste for the players — they knew, for the first time, that the owners had sold them out.

 

In the end, that's the discouraging thing about Goodell's letter, and the players' response — it shows how out of touch Goodell and his minions are with the facts, and it also shows that the players are angry to the point that reasonable discourse may not be possible right now. If you're a football fan, and you want to see a full season of the NFL game this year, it's time to start praying that Judge Susan Nelson enjoins the owners from locking the players out in the Brady v. NFL antitrust suit that begins on April 6.

 

Click the link to read the actual letter from the players.

[oochymp 2,393]

the letter is worth the read, especially for everyone who was bashing the players last week

[RazorStar 4,025]

It does sound like a ripoff, after reading it, but I really wonder if the NFL was expected to have profits continue to rise at 8% for a few more years, it seems like the camel would have broke it's back on the straw or something.

[WindyCitySports 407]

The NFL is making themselves look stupid. This letter did not "direct public sentiment towards them," it directed it against them.

[Guest Durant4MVP]

the letter is worth the read, especially for everyone who was bashing the players last week

 

Yep. How anyone could side with the owners in this lockout is beyond me.

[blotsfan 2,112]

Easy. They own the teams, they pay the players salaries. Thats why I relatively side with the owners.