Goodell meets Smith, Players go to Capitol Hill to save the 2011 season
A day after National Football League (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell expressed his frustration over the fact that there wasn’t enough communication between the league and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), he met with union chief DeMaurice Smith. The two officials met in New York on Wednesday.
Union spokesman George Atallah said that the meeting was conducive to advancing the bargaining but was not a formal negotiating session. He released no details about the subject of the meeting. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello did not comment either. The NFL and the NFLPA haven’t met for a formal bargaining session since November, and no meetings to discuss the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) have been scheduled. Owners have threatened a lockout unless a new CBA is signed before the 4 March, 2011, when the current CBA expires.
At the same time more than a dozen former and current NFL players were in Washington to meet with lawmakers. The players union has resorted to unorthodox negotiation techniques. Whichever side blinks first in the standoff loses. The union has applied pressure on the NFL through a vigorous media campaign, which aims to win public support for itself and paint the league as the villains.
The march to Capitol Hill is another step in that direction. “The players are aware that the antitrust exemptions exist as a gift from Congress. The players are aware that the NFL has non-profit status that's been given as a gift from Congress. So, look, we're not asking for anything. The players have been clear about that,” said Atallah.
The NFL has warned against getting lawmakers involved in the labour dispute. NFLPA president, Kevin Mawae wrote a letter to lawmakers and government officials during the regular season also. In that letter the president urged lawmakers to take action in an effort to prevent work stoppage. The letter stated that every city with an NFL team stands to lose up to $160 million in revenue. The league criticised the move and countered that the numbers stated were made up and not based on facts. Whatever the actual number, there is no denying that a lockout carries financial costs, and the unions are not hesitant to play that up.
“This Congress is concerned about jobs, jobs and jobs,” former offensive lineman, Pete Kendall said. “A lockout will affect the local economy, not just those who attend the games, but those who provide services at the games.”
The fans want to watch the sport and generally don’t concern themselves with financial arguments between billionaires and millionaires. The average Joe simply cannot empathise with either side. Colts centre Jeff Saturday, who is also a member of the unions’ executive committee, said that the game would impact countless businesses associated with football. “Parking attendants say, ‘Thanks for the extra games’ when you go to the playoffs,” Saturday said.
While the unions’ public relations campaign might have had some success with the fans, their attempt to woo lawmakers has been fruitless. “That is a business dispute,” Lamar Smith, chair of House Judiciary Committee said. He added, “The owners and players are both literally and figuratively big boys and do not need Congress to referee every dispute for them.”
The talks are progressing too slowly for comfort and the union has warned players to prepare for a lockout. Players were instructed to save their last pay checks from the regular season. The most disturbing sign of an imminent lockout is perhaps the meetings between the union and individual teams. Team-by-team votes were taken for decertification of the union. If the decertification goes through, the players could file antitrust lawsuits against the owners.
The NFL’s lead negotiator Jeff Pash said that the union’s actions speak volumes about their commitment to the negotiations. He said, “If our focus is going to be on litigating, on decertification, on meetings in Washington, on media events, it will be hard to get a deal done.”
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