Fellow Redskin fans and armchair quarterbacks – be very careful with the judgments that ye shall pass in the next day or so.
We all sit and wait with bated breath, for an agreement to be reached, and for the NFL lockout to end. As fans, we are starting to feel that compulsion swell inside of us, and we feel our burgundy and gold blood coarsing through our veins. Emotions heightened, it would be easy for us to jump to conclusions, or to make rash judgments.
Beware!
Ownership played dirty pool Thursday, holding a press conference to ostensibly give Joe Q. Public the impression that the NFL lockout would be over as they were turning over a new proposal.
The football starved nation went mad. People celebrated. People Partied. People Tweeted. People Facebooked. People high-fived. People blogged that the lockout was done.
And all for naught.
You see, there was really nothing to get excited about. The players themselves hadn’t even seen the new proposed agreement. In fact, despite an 8pm conference call for the NFLPA, no vote was even taken on Thursday.
Further to that, there are rumblings that the NFL tried to sneak in some language that hadn’t been discussed. Our friends over at Hogs Haven trended a new hashtag on Twitter #hiddenNFLclauses. Jokes spread like wildfire as people mocked the entire process, but despite the levity, the players have to be pretty pissed about the gestapo tactics of ownership.
Redskins player representative Vonnie Holliday tweeted the following at 8:30pm to try and quell the brewing PR storm: “Please don’t get excited about that press conference. The owners have agreed on a deal we the players have not seen! This is not consistent with where we thought we were yesterday!”
Holliday also tweeted that, “It’s sad that the owners played this card! We want to get back to work & have been trying to do so! Don’t buy into the hype.”
Those are troubling words from a man who chooses words carefully. As he stated later in the evening, “Look guys I have no reason to lie! The truth of the matter is we got tricked, duped, led astray, hoodwinked, bamboozled! I’m sorry you did too!”
I struggle to see any benefit to one half of the negotiations feeling like they have been ‘duped.’ Did the league make a massive mistake?
Reactions from other Redskins players were mixed – ranging from not at all surprised, to thoroughly disenfranchised. The fan base was frustrated to say the least, and rightfully so, we are but puppets in this game. It’s easy to see how the bush league press conference put on by league ownership, could even further delay an agreement.
Luckily, Redskins defensive end Jeremy Jarmon tweeted some sage advice out to Redskin tweeps everywhere, “It’s called negotiating. It’s a process. Can’t be offended during the process. It’s strictly business.”
Hopefully few feathers were ruffled by the actions of ownership, and the two sides can back to negotiating in good faith – without the pageantry. I asked Vonnie via Twitter if he thought that the tactics of ownership would potentially delay an agreement. His response was definitive and to the point, “No… We want to get this over with!”
So what looked like it would end on Thursday evening could go on for a bit longer, but hopefully not much longer.
Stay tuned, try to stay level-headed, and don’t buy into the hype.
Hail to the Redskins.
Notes: You can follow Vonnie Holliday on Twitter @therealholliday, Jeremy Jarmon @DoubleJJ90, and THN @TheHogsdotNet
I have no problem with what the owners did today. The created a new CBA Offer to present to players. I don’t believe that they stated that the Players had viewed the proposal, agreed to the proposal or insinuated the proposal. What concerns me is that Vonnie claims they were duped, bamboozled, etc. Same as N.O.’s Heath Evans. But when asked the question directly by Rich Eisen on NFL Network, he failed to answer the question as to what the Owners did. My only guess is that with a lot of this on both sides is a lot of regurgitation.
I don’t like how it’s playing out. If players and owners would just stick with the facts and leave emotion/feelings out of this, then more would’ve been done by now in my opinion. Both sides look bad to me in this negotiation because we knew about this two years ago.
Apparently things were put into this new agreement that changed what had been already negotiated. I believe that was what Vonnie was referring to. Now think about how large this CBA is in pages etc. And then think about not discussing ALL facets of an agreement with the other party – or worse still -changing some of them. It’s just bush league. it goes on all the time in Union voting I know, but it doesn;t make it any less of a strong-arm.
I don’t side with ownership or players on the CBA – it’s my belief that it is an agreement that has allowed the NFL to grow into the best run business in sports.
But ownership knew what they were doing when they held a press conference to announce… basically nothing. After all, if this is a negotiation, where is the ‘progress’ in handing a proposal to someone that has obviously not seen it’s contents… and apparently, have not even discussed all of these contents during discussions. Seems like just a step to me – not worthy of a presser.
My understanding, and a lot of this is over my head like the majority of folks and I negotiate contracts all day – everyday, but that there are a lot of the smaller items that can not worked out until the Players Union has recertified. Items like number of practices, length of practices or OTA’s, etc. I get that. My Wife is a school teacher. It’s all in her contract so I get that.
I think that ownership had the vote, sent or are sending the approved contract to the players to review. I think the whole stand by the players early on after the lockout was that the owners don’t want to allow them to play. So now I guess it’s a little giveback!!!! Negotiations are dirty but I guess that it being out in the public just makes it even more messy.
Negotiations ARE dirty – no doubt about it. I think that’s why the majority of players won’t be as offended by this as they could be, and just see it as part of the ugly process. (Which is good)
But I can’t for the life of me figure out why ownership would think that it would fly. It wouldn’t fly to slide in non-negotiated sanctions in a tiny, little union, let alone one as large and powerful as the nFLPA. There will be a lot of egos that come into play in the next 48-72 hours.
I just wonder what those “slip-in’s” were. Unless they were major items, it makes no sense why the owners would do that. Especially given the fact that there are issues that still must be resolved but can not be until the form their union again. I’m just looking for the logic here.
Hey…somebody has to vote first…why not the owners. Smith briefed the player reps for every team on the contents of the negotiated deal. Goodell did the same with the owners. Both sides are on the same side talking the same issues. This is what we’re going to vote on. The owners voted. Now it’s time for the players to do the same but first they have to reconstitute the union. It’s the LAW. In every group there’s always some diehard who thinks they’re getting screwed over by the other side. Mostly in this case it’s because the peons in the trenches haven’t been involved in the negotiations and haven’t seen the deal. That is NOT the owners screwing them over and adding stuff. That’s Smith not getting the full information out to his constituents.