The NFLPA has had a goal of 55% of Gross Revenue since 1980 or thereabouts. They have struck more than once and sued a couple of times and decertified twice and even negotiated away portions of FA won via litigation not to mention passed on potential long term benefit gains for themselves as well as those who preceeded and will follow them in order to inch ever closer to that goal. The old adage that when someone says it's not about the money it's always about the money should be the official motto of the NFLPA and the majority of it's members.
If Goodell actually told players - 78% of whom are in or on the brink of bankrupcy 2 years after their careers end - that their management team isn't smart enough to even grasp what the books they demand entail, that's refreshingly albeit brutally honest.
Amazing how the cap that pays a group that has never asked for more money has risen from $34M back in 1993 to $128M in 2009. Must have been magic. Brady has always understood that when he left a million on the table it meant the difference between uncle Sam pocketing half of it and Uncle Bob via Uncle Bill spreading it across the roster to facilitate better depth. Because they reinvest their money and grow the business owners are portrayed as greedy. Because they spend their money and live in the moment despite repeated warnings they will end up broken shells, players are always portrayed victims.
It's instructive to look at the recent benefits proposal the owners made that totaled $27M per team, up $5M from 2008-09 (and up $17M from 2010 which was part of the tradeoff the NFLPA was only too willing to make along with trading away 2 years of their young core members FA not to mention restrictive rules that effectively limited extensions for veteran players and an opt out in exchange for an uncapped season they swore would be a player panacea and the dawn of a new day). Teams were offering for the first time to guarantee a portion of rookie contracts ($1M) against injury in the process of capping first round rookie deals and redistributing ALL the cost savings back to veteran players and pre 1993 retirees and they were offering 5 year players the opportunity to remain in the NFL health plan post career with stipends to help mitagate the cost. They were also offering to reduce off season workouts and limit in season padded practices and take the 18 game schedule off the table even though the present CBA allows for 20 games without NFLPA approval.
At the end of the day on the Friday the NFLPA decertified the owners were offering to redistribute or reinvest most of the give back they initially requested and settle for $325M in actual owner givebacks (based on the 2006 CBA split) or roughly $10M per team - less than half the cost of the average top tier veteran signing bonus and about a third of the windfall increase players had realized as a result of the 2006 CBA. And while the salary cap ceiling would have dropped in 2011, it would have increased by $20M over the next 4 years and the cap floor would have gone up immediately to 90%.
Naturally the brilliant minds that rule the roost in the NFLPA smelled potential actual compromise afoot so rather than ask for an extension to counter it they decertified. Because their plan was always to take their case to court so they can find out how much the Bidwell boys get overpaid paid to run a team their family has owned for decades. I guarantee you it's not as much as Albert Haynesworth. Their goon president Mawae, the highest ranking non lawyer on their crack negotiating team, the one who deemed the 2006 CBA a great deal for the players even though it cost hundreds of them their shot at FA or big guaranteed money second deals, pronounced yesterday that it won't matter now what the NLRB rules on their decertification since they are no longer a union...
These clowns needed more than a European investment banker and a cackle of lawyers in the room with them. They need some common sense and marginal intelligence and at least one guy who knows how to negotiate a CBA that works well enough for all sides to be sustainable long term.
i don't think i can do better, that's why i'll wait and see what happens and not pretending i know everything. it is what is is, either they will settle and have a full season or they won't.
