Drew Brees on the Lockout

[LouPhinFan]

This is a good article outlining what happened with the lockout. People try and break this down like its a regular labor issue, but its not. Sure both sides are pretty greedy, but there still could have been an agreement on a CBA if the owners wanted one.

March 11 has become a sort of defining point in the labor mess between NFL owners and players. That was the day the Players Association, after two years of failing to make progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement, decertified as a union and filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league. The owners responded by closing their doors and locking out the players, ostensibly suspending on-field business until a deal is reached.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees ponders the timeline and presents a different starting point for the league's first work stoppage in 24 years. It is Aug. 20, 2008, the day longtime union leader Gene Upshaw died of pancreatic cancer. Few people knew about Upshaw's illness, and his passing created a temporary void within the Players Association.

"Ever since Gene Upshaw passed away -- I'm just going to lay it all out there -- the owners saw blood in the water," Brees said Wednesday after a players-organized workout at Tulane University. "They felt like, 'This is our opportunity to take a significant piece of the [financial] pie back at all costs, a piece that we will never have to give back again. This is our chance, while they don't have leadership, while they're scrambling to find a new executive director. This is our time.'


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/jim_trotter/05/26/lockout/index.html#ixzz1NZccA4NF

 

[Clipse]

This is a good article outlining what happened with the lockout. People try and break this down like its a regular labor issue, but its not. Sure both sides are pretty greedy, but there still could have been an agreement on a CBA if the owners wanted one.

If the owners wanted one? Hasn't the owners already put a few offers on the table while the players haven't even come back with a counter offer?

 

[DisturbedShifty]

The way I understand it is that there was a deal in place on the last day of talks before the lockout began. It all hinged on whether or not the owns would release all of their team financial records to the Players Association. The owns would only release part of the records but not all of them like the PA want and so the PA said that was good not enough and walked away from the table.

I mean really in the end they are both at fault here. In the end its the fans that suffer the most. But was I hoping for Judge Nelson to lift the lockout? Hell yes I was. But I was hoping for that to happen so that we could get an off season going. Hell I am still hoping that will happen. But things are looking pretty bleak at this point and time.

 

[LouPhinFan]

If the owners wanted one? Hasn't the owners already put a few offers on the table while the players haven't even come back with a counter offer?

Yeah, the same owners that opted out of the last CBA and then worked for 2 seasons toward locking out the players. I'm a registered Republican with no love for unions and even I can see as plain as day who holds 80% of the fault for this entire labor situation and its not the players.