Monday Morning Quarterback: Part 2

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 17, 2011 4:54 am

Okay, so let's say the players hold tight until they get their day in court. Both sides then wait until the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals makes its ruling, which it says will be expedited. Let's say that comes in early July and in the owners' favor. Now what??? The court of public opinion won't favor either side and we'll be weeks away from training camps opening. I think I know how it plays out there, but what's your take on how it plays out if the players stay in the courts to get this resolved?

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue May 17, 2011 4:56 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
Okay, so let's say the players hold tight until they get their day in court. Both sides then wait until the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals makes its ruling, which it says will be expedited. Let's say that comes in early July and in the owners' favor. Now what??? The court of public opinion won't favor either side and we'll be weeks away from training camps opening. I think I know how it plays out there, but what's your take on how it plays out if the players stay in the courts to get this resolved? I think business in the NFL will start no later than mid-August. I think it's possible we'll see the league re-open for business by Aug. 1. Once the players get smacked in the court again as I expect will occur in June I'm not sure what recourse they'll have other than to settle.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:00 am

Okay, I'm holding onto hope until I hear more about today's talks. I agreed with Paolantonio that he said it was a good sign that the owners presented a new offer yesterday when the last offer presented was by the owners. So in effect they trumped their own last offer, which isn't done very often. They took the first step toward negotiating a new deal and I think it's up to the players now to counter offer. The judge in Minneapolis seemed eager to get things moving forward and yesterday's session was extended to 8 hours. Here's the ESPN report on that:

Eller told Paolantonio earlier Monday that Boylan extended Monday's talks after the owners agreed to produce a new offer.

Eller said the league's decision created "positive feelings in the room."

"I think there is progress. We are waiting on a new concrete proposal from the owners that the players can respond to. This is progress. This is good," Eller told ESPN's Sal Paolantonio.

Okay, let's see if anything positive comes out of today's session. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, which I must admit makes it tough to type that way!!!

But I'll do it and hope for some positive news today. Are you with me on this one??

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:04 am

Okay, now back to the business at hand if we ever have football: Yesterday Redskins' head coach talked "glowingly" about QB John Beck and now Beck says he feels like he's the starting QB. Can someone tell me what Shanahan sees in Beck and how this 30-year-old QB is going to turn this franchise around? What is Shanny seeing that I'm not seeing. Tom, can you help me here?

Diesel · Post by **Diesel** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:05 am

Answer: 1-Make serious concessions to the owners and get a deal done.

As a union man, this is making my blood boil. These players today have NO FREAKING CLUE how well off they are. How lucky they are. NFL players, in the early days, used to play their hearts out to make the Superbowl, not only for pride and glory, but for the BONUS they would receive. The money they got when the made the Superbowl would help pay off their homes. Not buy their 3rd mansion and 11th Ferrari. The players in the earliest days of pro football had a SECOND job. Can you imagine? And yet we see these players today fighting tooth and nail for MORE money from the owners. MORE money, in a time where REAL union members are fighting to keep their jobs, keep their benefits, keep their pensions and keep their homes. This is not a case of Union vs. Owners. This is a case of rich athletes who want a bigger piece of a pie. A pie of which they are already too full from eating, and yet they are ready to not play until they get an even bigger slice of that pie than they already have.

Enough already. Pride and stupidity sometimes share a fine line.

[ May 17, 2011, 11:10 AM: Message edited by: Diesel ]

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:06 am

No way the Redskins can hope to win with John Beck. That plan has less chance for success than me stealing Scarlett Johansson away from Sean Penn.

Beck is barely an adequate backup. There is no reason to believe he's suddenly going to transform into a respectable (at least) starting quarterback at the age of 30. The Redskins have one of the worst QB situations in the league and I have to believe once the lockout ends one of their first moves will be to acquire a veteran.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:13 am

Originally posted by Diesel:
Answer: 1-Make serious concessions to the owners and get a deal done.

As a union man, this is making my blood boil. These players today have NO FREAKING CLUE how well off they are. How lucky they are. NFL players, in the early days, used to play their hearts out to make the Superbowl, not only for pride and glory, but for the BONUS they would receive. The money they got when the made the Superbowl would help pay off their homes. Not buy their 3rd mansion and 11th Ferrari. The players in the earliest days of pro football had a SECOND job. Can you imagine? And yet we see these players today fighting tooth and nail for MORE money from the owners. MORE money, in a time where REAL union members are fighting to keep their jobs, keep their benefits, keep their pensions and keep their homes. This is not a case of Union vs. Owners. This is a case of rich athletes who want a bigger piece of a pie. A pie of which they are already too full from eating, and yet they are ready to not play until they get an even bigger slice of that pie than they already have.

Enough already. Pride and stupidity sometimes shares a fine line. So help me out Marc. How does the union tell Smith and their even wealthier lawyers that it's time to get serious and make a compromise? How does the union that just disbanded get back to serious negotiations and hammer this out? What would you do as a union member here?

Both sides have wiggle room. The players are getting 60% of the pie, a bigger percentage than the players in any of the other major sports. The owners want $1 billion off the top for "expansion" plans, they say, to grow stadiums and grow revenue. If the players agree to get only 57% of the pie, there's 3% of $9.3 billion or $279 million. If the owners say they will take $500 million instead of the first $1 billion are we now closer? There's room here to get a deal done and have both sides save face. But the only way they do that now is at the negotiating table, correct?

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:17 am

Drew Brees is on the Executive Committee of the (former) NFLPA and he said today the players are waiting for the ruling on June 3. Given Brees' place of importance within the (former) NFLPA it seems pretty clear nothing is going to happen until then. It's also baffling to me that the players continue to believe that the court will issue a ruling that is contrary to the one it just made last night. I'm no legal expert but that strains common sense.

Then again, this entire joke has been all about defying common sense at every turn.

In any event, it sure looks like we're not going anywhere until June 3 unless one side makes major concessions.

Diesel · Post by **Diesel** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:18 am

Tom, to show what a pickle Washington is in...The position they are looking for is QB. They are going to sign a free agent QB as soon as they are allowed. But McNabb is there. Unless Vince Young suddenly stops taking prozac and finds his groove, or Mark Bulger becomes comeback player of the year, there is no QB Washington is going to get that would give them more offense than McNabb would bring to the table. All because they say McNabb had a problem remembering the plays and wouldn't wear a wristband with play calls on it? Kolb is going to Arizona, and Washington is stuck replacing a QB they say didn't fit into their system, with a QB that didn't fit into other teams' systems. In my opinion, its going to be a LONG year for the Redskins. Maybe they should start looking to recruit a QB they way the Rams got Warner, or maybe how the Jets got Chrebet?

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue May 17, 2011 5:20 am

If I was the Redskins I'd pursue Matt Hasselbeck. He's still a decent starter when healthy and he should get you by for a season until you aggressively pursue the position in the draft in 2012. I'm no Vince Young fan but he's Joe Montana compared to John Beck. I agree that Bulger is done and I wouldn't pursue him.

If it was me, I'd be looking at Hasselbeck. One possible option would be to make a run at Matt Flynn of the Packers. He's in a contract year and the Packers could be open to trading him now when they have a chance to recoup some value.