Will the Judge make them budge?

As this is my first post on here I’m going to be brief (or at least try to be, as you will find in due course I can struggle at that). I have put together a quick overview of how the NFL stands at present. First though, thank you to Damian, for allowing me to become a part of what could be something pretty cool.

Basically, at the moment all players and employees are locked out by their respective teams, simply put they cannot use any facilities owned by the franchises to train or practice. Why did this happen? Well simply put again, money money and more money. Strikes and lockouts almost always tend to be about money.

In 2006 the NFLPA (Players Association) and the NFL owners worked out a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that would run through the 2011/2012 NFL season. In there was a clause that allowed the owners to opt out of the CBA one year prior to its end. Which the owners have subsequently done.

You may be wondering why the NFLPA allowed that clause to be in there. They allowed it because the 2006 CBA that Paul Tagliabue (then NFL Commissioner) and Gene Upshaw (then NFLPA Executive Director) agreed on, was so player friendly it’s untrue. And as it was so player friendly, the NFLPA had no issue with letting the owners opt out. And the owners always knew they would opt out when they could.

The argument now is that the players want another player friendly deal and the owners want to take back some of the pie. Neither side could agree terms, so the NFLPA decertified and the league countered by locking the players out. Then an antitrust lawsuit was filed by players (headed by Brady, P. Manning and Brees) to get the courts to lift the lockout until the legal proceedings were done. This basically argues that all 32 teams are separate companies and cannot band together and lock the players out in one big decision.

The hearing was taking place as I wrote this, and Judge Susan Nelson is taking the case ‘under advisement’ and will issue a ruling in “a couple of weeks”. She suggested the parties continue negotiations but stopped short of requiring them to submit to mediation.

We’ll know in 2 weeks what happens, and it will be one of two things I believe.

1. The parties work something out before the ruling; or

2. The judge tells them to submit to mediation and forces them back to the bargaining table.

We’ll see what happens. Hopefully she’ll tell them to get back to the table.

Article courtesy of J_Dogg