Players mad at Upshaw

From Pro-Football Talk

With roughly eight hours of windshield time on Wednesday to work the phone lines, a clear theme is emerging from our discussions with league insiders.

The NFLPA has left the players in the dark regarding the status of the discussions regarding a CBA extension, and the players are getting pissed.

Very pissed.

We're told that there has been little or no communication from NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw and/or NFLPA president Troy Vincent to the rank-and-file regarding the status of the discussions. With rampant media reports of a looming massacre of veteran players (and the blood already is flowing), guys are getting nervous.

But yet the players are getting no information.

So while Upshaw is being praised by some in the media for digging in his heels against the NFL, many of his constituents would like to dig their toes into his ass.

With that said, we continue to believe that this whole exercise in high drama is a well-orchestrated act between Upshaw and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to get a deal done at the eleventh hour.

If it isn't -- and if free agency launches without a new CBA in place -- we predict that there will be open calls at the annual meeting of player representatives for Upshaw to be fired.

Why? Because guys who are in line for decent money will end up, absent an extension, with low-money deals. Take Steelers running back Verron Haynes, for example. With a new CBA, he'd likely get a deal averaging $1.5 million or so a year. Without a new CBA, he's looking at the one-year minimum, at best.

But we shouldn't feel bad for him because he'll be a free agent in 2007, when there's no salary cap, right?

Wrong. Too many players and media types simply don't realize that, in the uncapped year, only guys with six years of credited service will be eligible for unrestricted free agency. Guys with three to five years will be subject to the restricted free agency rules. So if Haynes rips it up in 2006, his reward will be one of the three levels of RFA tenders.

Bottom line -- Upshaw is taking a hell of a gamble. If a deal gets done, the players quickly will forgive and forget. If it doesn't, Upshaw might want to take out a lease on Saddam Hussein's spider hole.

I honestly think Upshaw is going to get hit and get hit hard when the total picture is seen.

He wants no caps, if the NFL goes one year without them he said the players would never return to them. He is making a point, trying to play the power card in order to line his pockets even more.

I will find it hard to believe the players are behind this action. I also think the players are smart enough to know they need a cap, and if not the fans need to speak out. If the fans somehow could communicate as one voice it would be louder then either side.

cojo is giving singer a run for is money!!


:lol:

"Del Rio" wrote:

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I honestly think Upshaw is going to get hit and get hit hard when the total picture is seen.

He wants no caps, if the NFL goes one year without them he said the players would never return to them. He is making a point, trying to play the power card in order to line his pockets even more.

I will find it hard to believe the players are behind this action. I also think the players are smart enough to know they need a cap, and if not the fans need to speak out. If the fans somehow could communicate as one voice it would be louder then either side.

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I wonder if the players themselves could get together and impeach Upshaw.

I would think the players themselves would have a greater say in all this....Isn't that how unions are supposed to work?..

"VikingNed" wrote:

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"Del Rio" wrote:

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I honestly think Upshaw is going to get hit and get hit hard when the total picture is seen.

He wants no caps, if the NFL goes one year without them he said the players would never return to them. He is making a point, trying to play the power card in order to line his pockets even more.

I will find it hard to believe the players are behind this action. I also think the players are smart enough to know they need a cap, and if not the fans need to speak out. If the fans somehow could communicate as one voice it would be louder then either side.

---

I wonder if the players themselves could get together and impeach Upshaw.

I would think the players themselves would have a greater say in all this....Isn't that how unions are supposed to work?..

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Yeah I think the players will get together and heads may roll. People want lots of money that is for sure, they also want job security. I mean sometimes we lose site that these people are human, they have families some have kids. Where they live what they do and for how long all add strain on their families.

I am not surprised to see this article and if it continues this way I imagine the Union will be in a world of hurt.

"Lotzapurple119" wrote:

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cojo is giving singer a run for is money!!


:lol:

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Naw! Cojo is on the staff. Glad to have him! :grin:

"singersp" wrote:

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"Lotzapurple119" wrote:

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cojo is giving singer a run for is money!!


:lol:

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Naw! Cojo is on the staff. Glad to have him! :grin:

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You both make a good team.....Now get back to work would ya... :lol:

I read dis on NFL.com, and it sounded like da article COJOMAY posted:
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Veterans need to speak up in CBA talks
By Pat Kirwan
NFL.com Senior Analyst

(March 2, 2006) – Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has talked about the status of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Gene Upshaw, the NFL Players Association chief, is quoted every day about the bleak state of affairs. The owners seem to feel free about hinting at what they want in the revenue sharing department. But what about the veteran players?

The players know that not getting a new CBA will cook the "golden goose." There already has been a significant number of players released because the salary-cap situation looks bleak. I know the NFL rank and file players understand that revenue directed to players has gone from $1 billion gross salaries in 1992 to $3 billion in 2004. They also know the new television deal will inject even more money into the pool, yet there are problems getting a resolution. The question I have is, where are the veteran players? As one very prominent agent said to me while I was in Indianapolis for the Combine, "I hope the players understand they have a great deal and the good players are going to become wealthy."

Gene Upshaw has called the labor talks 'deadlocked.'
I wonder if the veterans understand that the league will continue to get younger and younger if the salary cap goes away because this group of vets just couldn't agree on a deal. The stress of a salary cap growing to $95 million instead of $105 million means there is $10 million less to spend on veteran contracts. The number of vets being cut is already at an alarming rate and it is going to intensify as the next few weeks come and go. Think about the teams that were not going to have to worry about the salary cap if a new CBA could be agreed upon, but without one they have to get the red pen out and slash the roster.

If the cap rose to $105 million because of a CBA extension, then the following teams could have stayed put and just improved their roster:

Indianapolis: The Colts would have been under the cap, but now they will be over, so the stress on being proactive about Edgerrin James means they have much less of a chance of retaining him without cutting players they wanted to keep.

Atlanta: The Falcons would be right on the edge of a larger cap, but now a team on the verge of the playoffs probably has to take a step backwards in the personnel business. My projections had the Falcons about $800,000 under if there were a new CBA. Instead, they are $10 million over and reworking Keith Brooking 's deal isn't enough to get under the cap.

Carolina: The Panthers have a terrific football team and could have built on a very good roster. But now they have already cut veterans Brentson Buckner, Stephen Davis and Rod Smart and still have work to do.

Miami: The Dolphins are another team that would have had room to spare but now it appears they have to move players just to qualify to open up the 2006 season. Sure, it looks like Reggie Howard, Damion McIntosh and Tebucky Jones were expendable, but Sam Madison also had to go for cap reasons. The talent and production of these four players has to be replaced before the team can even go forward.

Tampa Bay: The Bucs have rebuilt their football team over the past two seasons and seem ready to make a run back to the top of the NFC. If the CBA were extended, they could get a player or two to make a difference on a young talented roster. Instead, they need to create close to $9 million in salary-cap space to be in compliance with the 2006 cap. Terminating two players like Mike Alstott and Brian Griese would get the Bucs under the cap, but it doesn't give them enough room to replace the talent they had in 2005 or give them the flexibility to be aggressive with unrestricted free agent players.

Sam Madison was a salary-cap caualty after nine seasons in Miami.
I would guess that upwards of 60 veterans around the NFL will get a pink slip without a CBA extension. Some of them will get work on another team for a lot less money, but they will replace other veterans. In the long run, 60 to 80 veterans more than usual will be out of work next fall because there might not be a CBA extension. Mark my words: With at least 12 teams terminating good veteran players, it will be the rookies and young untested players that will benefit from the increased opportunities around the league.

I really think it is time for the smart NFL veterans to speak up and get a new CBA deal done. There is only one professional football league in the whole world that pays like the NFL. As another agent with lots of top players in his stable said, "These players have nowhere else to turn to and they better smarten up soon." I agree!

As for the teams that appear to benefit from a tighter salary-cap situation because they have cap space and the pool of available talent is growing, my answer is don't get to excited because those teams, for the most part, never take advantage of their situation. If the older veterans don't feel like speaking up with their backs to the wall, then how about the four- and five-year veterans that thought their contracts will expire after 2006 but will become restricted free agents instead if 2007 is an uncapped year?

Finally, with the volatility of these CBA negotiations, the posturing by both sides and the 11th hour mentality of both sides, that doesn't mean I believe there will not be an extension. I have great confidence that all of the concerned parties know the value of a CBA and I do not believe the owners, players or NFLPA officials will cook the golden goose. Why not keep talking until a deal is struck?

I negotiated hundreds of contracts, and even though they were less complicated then, the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement talks the truth when there is a time element like there is now. Both sides have the best chance to get a reasonable deal done if they just keep talking and stop threatening to break off the discussions. The two things I learned negotiating player contracts was don't take things personally and never be the party to shut down the negotiations.

So far, I need to hear more from the players themselves and less from the parties who say that negotiations are at a standstill.