Kansas City Chiefs’ Mike Vrabel wants NFL top executives out of future labour talks
Mike Vrabel, veteran linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, says that in order to move forward in talks between the National Football League team owners and NFL Players Association, they should cut out NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, outside labour counsel
Bob Batterman and executive vice president and NFL counsel Jeff Pash.
“We are willing to negotiate. But we don't want to negotiate with Bob Batterman, Jeff Pash or Roger Goodell,” Vrabel said. “Our executive committee needs to negotiate with Jerry Jones, Bob Kraft, Jerry Richardson -- their executive committee. People that
are willing and can agree to a deal. Jeff Pash can't agree to a deal.”
In response, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said that the NFL would negotiate again but did not say that the top executives would not be attending.
“The NFL's negotiating team -- accompanied by the three owners Mike mentioned, Jerry Jones, Jerry Richardson and Robert Kraft -- is prepared to meet immediately. Just tell us when and where,” Aiello said.
This comes just one week after the NFLPA decertified themselves and rejected the league’s final offer. Decertification paved way for ten players to file an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL in federal court. They are seeking a class-action lawsuit in U.S.
District Court. The players, including the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady, the Indianapolis Colts’ Peyton Manning, the New Orleans Saints’ Drew Brees and Texas A&M University’s Von Miller, have invoked the Sherman Act.
The act limits commerce and places restrictions on monopolies which are seeking triple the amount of damages sustained, meaning that the stakes are in the hundreds of millions of dollars range.
The NFLPA’s permanent player representative, Pete Kendall said that the union rejected the League’s final proposal because it would have fixed players’ salaries and would eliminate revenue growth.
DeMaurice Smith, NFLPA executive director, says that he will not take any pay during the first work stoppage since 1987. He earns about $1.8 million per year but will be taking a salary of $0 until a new labour deal is agreed upon. He said that the players
were locked out and the League made a unilateral decision to punish the people who made the game great.
San Francisco 49ers linebacker Kevin Burnett was also one of the players upset with the League’s top executives, except that he was a bit more verbal and said, “Goodell's full of it. He's a liar. 'It's our league, it's we, we love the players, we want the
league,' but what have you done for the players?”
The court date for the federal lawsuit is scheduled for 6 April, 2011. At that time, a judge will rule whether or not the League can impose a lockout upon the players.
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