NFL News Trouble in River City - NFLPA Collusion

[patfanken]

Old story. Florio has been on this story for months. I still check PFT every evening. It's a good place to get a solid synopsis of today's top NFL stories.

 

[n1997y]

Old story. Florio has been on this story for months. I still check PFT every evening. It's a good place to get a solid synopsis of today's top NFL stories.

Old stories can still have new developments. Howell just resigned on Thursday night, some reports said “unexpectedly”. Not all of us follow PFT as religiously as you, I certainly don’t. So I find it useful to have threads on here discussing important topics like turmoil in the NFLPA, and hadn’t seen any. Has PFT or anybody else been discussing what this might mean to the union, and the league? Is PFT just reporting developments or do they get into strategic analysis as well? Do I need to start going there too? I’m already trying to follow too many sources, And I’d much rather be reading your commentary on the Patriots, anyway. Season can’t start soon enough!

 

[patfanken]

Old stories can still have new developments. Howell just resigned on Thursday night, some reports said “unexpectedly”. Not all of us follow PFT as religiously as you, I certainly don’t. So I find it useful to have threads on here discussing important topics like turmoil in the NFLPA, and hadn’t seen any. Has PFT or anybody else been discussing what this might mean to the union, and the league? Is PFT just reporting developments or do they get into strategic analysis as well? Do I need to start going there too? I’m already trying to follow too many sources, And I’d much rather be reading your commentary on the Patriots, anyway. Season can’t start soon enough!

Florio is a former attorney who often goes deep into stories that have a legal slant to them like this one. To my view he is a good independent source for NFL news and has a good group of reporters.

I've been checking into his site for over 20 years when he was a one-man outfit using his connections to agents to ferret out news as a passionate fan. It was interesting watching his business grow over the years. It was every football fan's wet dream. Start a part time blog, and then end up on national TV and millions checking out your work everyday.

Before he went really big time with NBCsports, you used to be able to comment on each post. I really liked that feature. Some very interesting threads. Every now and then Florio would comment on your comment. Sadly, that feature has been lost to the realities of mass media

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Old stories can still have new developments. Howell just resigned on Thursday night, some reports said “unexpectedly”. Not all of us follow PFT as religiously as you, I certainly don’t. So I find it useful to have threads on here discussing important topics like turmoil in the NFLPA, and hadn’t seen any. Has PFT or anybody else been discussing what this might mean to the union, and the league? Is PFT just reporting developments or do they get into strategic analysis as well? Do I need to start going there too? I’m already trying to follow too many sources, And I’d much rather be reading your commentary on the Patriots, anyway. Season can’t start soon enough!

Agree it makes sense to have it here too. Agree with Ken that PFT is great for stuff like this, and they have been speculating and reporting a lot.
Report: Two-man race for NFLPA interim executive director, between JC Tretter and Don Davis
Report: Text message critical of JC Tretter is being "shared among" NFL players
NFLPA lead security officer poses question to all staff: "What of JC Tretter?"
With Lloyd Howell out, is JC Tretter the next to go?

This is Florio’s wheelhouse, anything with a potential legal bend to it. He tends to be more of a ****-stirrer in other areas, searching and insinuating stuff that isn’t there. Although he was a big Patriots defender during Deflategate, not so during Spygate. Their site is a really good source for learning of general goings-on in the NFL, but you need to know their strengths and weaknesses to determine what reporting and analysis of theirs to take seriously and what to take with a grain of salt.

 

[PancakeBlockPaul]

You have to be pretty fcking stupid to expense a strip club visit imo…..you know these expense reports are going to be gone over with a fine tooth comb for tax purposes and still do it?

 

[XLIX]

And Howell has resigned.

Possibly over getting caught expensing strip club visits to the NFLPA…

NFLPA Executive Director Lloyd Howell Resignation Could Be Tied to Strip Club Expenses: Report

It is pathetic how no one cared about his obscene conflict of interest.... but spend a couple thou on T&A...? You're fired!!

 

[XLIX]

You have to be pretty fcking stupid to expense a strip club visit imo…..you know these expense reports are going to be gone over with a fine tooth comb for tax purposes and still do it?

It happened roughly 2 years ago. Seems to me that he got away with it and would have continued to get away with it if it weren't for the overall NFLPA audit taking place as a result of the collusion issue.

 

[n1997y]

You have to be pretty fcking stupid to expense a strip club visit imo…..you know these expense reports are going to be gone over with a fine tooth comb for tax purposes and still do it?

Speaks to very lax controls. Lots of other evidence of that but this was egregious.

 

[FortressX]

Seems to me this guy rolled over pretty easy on 17 games being allowed.

Has he moved just behind Alan Eagleson as worst sports players union head ?

 

[BennyBledsoe]

Hire a guy to run it like a business.... and shocker, he's running it like a business. People really have far too high of an opinion on businessmen. They get where they are by being greedy and unscrupulous. Then everybody acts surprised when they're....greedy and unscrupulous.

 

[XLIX]

Seems to me this guy rolled over pretty easy on 17 games being allowed.

Has he moved just behind Alan Eagleson as worst sports players union head ?

Whether you support 17 games or not, at least the players (as a group) are being mightily compensated for it.

His most egregious failing was this whole collusion issue. The court decided the NFL was guilty so he should have hammered them. Instead he meekly allowed silence on the issue.

 

[raduray]

Players should hire an agent or someone from the baseball union to run the NFLPA.

 

[patfanken]

Adding the 18th game means more stadium and media revenue, which means a higher salary cap and more money for players. It also means that contending teams will play up to 22 games each season, meaning a poorer product on the field because there will be a corresponding inevitable increase in injuries leaving rosters limited trying to fill in the voids.

Owners will pay tens of millions to players sitting on the sidelines but will say nothing because the value of their franchises will grow as well as their income. The union will say nothing because the NFL will throw them a bone (like adding 2 or 3 more players to the roster). And this will go on UNTIL the fans demand a return to quality than can only happen when they return to a 16 game schedule OR they take contact out of the game entirely.

They have taken out a lot of it already, Back in my day you would have 2-3 hour full contact practices twice a day at least 5 days a week and up to 6 preseason games in which the starters would play at least a half.

Now you have just 3 preseason games, (which makes sense) and you are lucky if the starter play a quarter of the preseaon snaps. THAT is why the tackling sucks in the NFL. That is why the entire first month of the season looks like preseason games or worse. How do you get better if you don't PRACTICE the game at full speed.

Now I DO understand why this is. Given the money invested in players, it makes no sense to get them hurt before the games are played for real. It's a catch 22 without any easy solutions, but the powers that run the game are asking fans to pay full price for 2nd rate football and fans get pissed at players for making mistakes because they aren't practicing their craft as a team enough.

Listen to Mankins and Andruzzi talk about the critical nature of OL continuity to the success of an offensive line in the latest edition of the "forged in Foxboro" series. Now think of how many reps our starting OL is going to get against live defenses. Not many.

First it will take 2-3 weeks before the 5 starters will be determined and win their jobs. By then how many full speed live snaps will be left to develop that feel that well coordinated OL's have. 50? a hundred? Certainly not the hundredS and thousands you actually need to reach continuity as a unit. So even if the quality of players on the OL has been improved and even if the quality of the coaching has been improved; are we really going to see a vastly improved product on the field until they actually have those reps.

BTW defenses face similar issues because of the lack of live full speed play at practice, but they don't face the same level of coordination issues as the offensive side. Which is why the defense is usually ahead of the offense the first few weeks of camp anyways.

This isn't some old man's rant. This is a concerned long-term fan who has loved this game for a long time. But it IS time to stop.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

JC Tretter resigns from NFL Players Association

 

[XLIX]

Adding the 18th game means more stadium and media revenue, which means a higher salary cap and more money for players. It also means that contending teams will play up to 22 games each season, meaning a poorer product on the field because there will be a corresponding inevitable increase in injuries leaving rosters limited trying to fill in the voids.

There are currently conspiracies suggesting the owners are going to force the NFLPA to take a set amount (with predetermined increases) for that salary cap instead of a percentage. The players would be suicidal to take such a deal.

Now you have just 3 preseason games, (which makes sense) and you are lucky if the starter play a quarter of the preseaon snaps. THAT is why the tackling sucks in the NFL. That is why the entire first month of the season looks like preseason games or worse. How do you get better if you don't PRACTICE the game at full speed.

These days a starting QB won't see any action at all.

 

[maust]

This isn't some old man's rant. This is a concerned long-term fan who has loved this game for a long time. But it IS time to stop.

Well Ken, maybe that should read 'This isn't JUST some old man's rant.'

 

[patfanken]

Well Ken, maybe that should read 'This isn't JUST some old man's rant.'

Yes that IS better. Thanks

 

[XLIX]

If the League plays hardball, then the players should enact the nuclear option: Decertification.

Sometimes I think the NFLPA is so weak and has been kicked around so badly that decertification is the better option anyways.....

 

[lancerman]

Players should hire an agent or someone from the baseball union to run the NFLPA.

Basketball doesn't work the same way as the NFL. Each team has 53 players plus practice squad. The NBA has 5 starters then a bench. The majority of starters in the league will have a LONG career compared to the NFL.

The NFLPA deals with an issue that most players will be gone in 3ish to 5ish years and their only goal is to get as much money in that period of time as possible. If the league flashes them some more money for one more game, they don't give a ****.

Only a small percentage of stars actually bother with longterm negotiations.