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NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

Posted on: November 26, 2010 3:26 pm
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Posted by Will Brinson

Everyone spent Thursday being full of thanks for the NFL. (The NFL also spent the day being thankful for its loyal constituents -- CBS boasted our highest ratings since 1998 thanks to a fantastic New England - Detroit matchup, FOX scored its best ratings in 15 years, and the NFL Network posted it's highest ratings ever.)

Seems Friday, though, was back to the grind of political attempts at rallying certain fans to either the owners or the players side. DeMaurice Smith, NFLPA executive director, kicked things off in a Bloomberg News interview, calling the lockout a "14" on the likelihood-of-happening scale, which only goes to 10.

"The magnitude of the loss would be at the very least about $160 million to $170 million per team-city," Smith said. "That is a conservative estimate of the economic impact."

Naturally, the NFL disagrees -- NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello even called the numbers "economic fairy tales."

"It is a series of numbers pulled from thin air in a misguided attempt to inject politics into the collective bargaining process," Aiello said. "There is a fair deal to be done and soon if the union will bargain with the same fervor it displays in creating economic fairy tales."

The "soon" portion is what fans care about, but that won't stop either side from preaching the "poorer me" version of their story; George Atallah, NFLPA representative, joined Mike Florio as the guest host of the Dan Patrick Show on Friday and pleaded the players case.

"The question I have for owners is why do you keep telling the fans the players get 60 cents of each dollar when it's just not true," Atallah said.

But from the "please handle this right now, thanks!" category comes the news that Atallah said the union is committed to devoting two weeks in December to intense negotiations, and the league is open to discussions as well.

"We have told the union leaders that we will be available to meet almost any time and are working with them on scheduling our next sessions," Aiello said.

So, to sum up: football is really, really popular and makes everyone involved really, really, REALLY big piles of money. And yet, the two principle parties are so concerned with how to split the proverbial pie that they're not focusing on what's important -- getting in the kitchen and baking that sucker so that fans will pay to eat it come 2011.

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Category: NFL
Tags: George Atallah, Greg Aiello, Labor Dispute, NFL, NFLPA, Roger Goodell
 
Comments

Since: Dec 2, 2011
Posted on: January 30, 2012 1:12 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

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Since: Dec 2, 2011
Posted on: December 30, 2011 9:53 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

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Since: Dec 2, 2011
Posted on: December 13, 2011 3:31 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

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Since: Dec 2, 2011
Posted on: December 2, 2011 3:09 pm
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

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Since: Sep 9, 2006
Posted on: November 27, 2010 11:27 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

College Football sounds nice ... I can catch up on my Irish and that frustration more .. and hey I can always give the NHL some of that Sunday ticket  money instead ... alot cheaper and more games even though the Rangers still suck.... or I can use to save even more for both of my kids education....I've had it with overpaid crybabies in general from the CEO's on down... "its a dangerous profession" yeah so is a lot of other dangerous professions and they dont get paid millions of dollars a year to do it... everyone has had to take a loss in these economic times and lets not forget ... this "union" is a joke they have a contract covering individ
uals who have negotiated a contract already .... what the hell? Why do they need a union?   I would love to  have an agent negotiate a contract after a union negotiates a base contract for me ... kinda goes against what a union really is for anyway .... to collectively bargan a better deal for the group as a whole ? and then the individual negotiates a contract that bennifits only the individual?....I'm baffled by this 

Since: Oct 22, 2008
Posted on: November 27, 2010 10:56 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

"There is a fair deal to be done and soon if the union will bargain with the same fervor it displays in creating economic fairy tales."  

Are we all grown ups here? Quit the childish crap and be business like, because even though it is a sport, it is a business also.

Don't take cheap shots at one another, that solves nothing. It's like T.O. calling out Revis, oh look how that turned out, bulletin board

material. Sit down in the meeting room, hash it out and get a deal done like business like grown ups and not grade school kids!

Since: Sep 9, 2006
Posted on: November 27, 2010 10:21 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

There is plenty of blame to go around here ... The players need to be realistic..... care for older playes should be a joint effort by boh organizations for ex-players of a certain age sure.... but in this day and age there should also be a required manditory financial advisor coming into the league for life after football planning and if youre irresponsible with what you earn and end up in the gutter then thats on you.... I only wish that my union had this kind of stuff to negotiate with ....we have to give up things like affordable healthcare and jobs and 2% or 2.5% cost of living increases with no bonuses while the CEO makes 300X the lowest paid worker in the company before bonuses and excellerators....amazing???  Yes not everyone acan play professional football or baseball etc.... but not everyone can be a cop or firefighter or a air traffic controller or utility lineman either .... hell my job requires a psych profile test that not many people can pass ... I get compensated for it because its a necessary specialized position, but nothing like these guys in football ... hell whats the league minimum? around $300,000 for a scrub benchwarmer? come on ...  

Since: Nov 27, 2010
Posted on: November 27, 2010 9:54 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

the nfl players need to be happy they are getting the money they are getting in these hard times and be more thankful of the fans they still have there is people who have not got a raise in years and make far less be happy you still have a job and make what you do don't be so greedy at least keep the public happy in these troubled times before the clubs start recruiting just anyone who wants to play and are not  worried so much about the money they get so a word of advice don't bit the hands that feed you.

Since: Nov 27, 2010
Posted on: November 27, 2010 9:51 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

the nfl players need to be happy they are getting the money they are getting in these hard times andbe more thankful of the fans they still havethere is people who have not got a raise in years and make far less be happy you still have a job and make what you do don't be so greedy at least keep the public happy in these troubled times before the clubs start recruiting just anyone who wants to play and are not  worried so much about the money they getso a word of advice don't bit the hands that feed you.

Since: Nov 27, 2010
Posted on: November 27, 2010 7:12 am
 

NFL says union 'creating economic fairy tales'

I agree that the players asking for more money is pure greed. Maybe the players should pay for their travels to the games, pay for their hotel rooms, pay for their equipment, everything but their uniform like any honest american kids parent has to do who make much less then the players one game salary for the year. Owners have to pay all that on top of your salaries plus have to pay for the stadium, training facilties top of the line doctors, food for sales,employees at the stadiums and the players who doesn't have to pay any of these costs are complaining, DAMN,, They're so many good players out there who would play for league minimum just to play. Players get $800K just to be on the practice squads. If there's a strike, I hope owners just get the balls from between their legs and put up a fight. If their weren't owners,they won't be teams, players and Football. Stop crying about the Millions you make and play the game.
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