NFL: Union Decertifies After Failing to Reach Deal

[Revolution]

WASHINGTON -- The NFL Players Association announced Friday that it has renounced its status as the collective bargaining representative of the players after failing to reach a new labor deal with the league during 16 days of federal mediation.

The NFLPA said it now becomes a professional trade association that supports the interests and rights of current and former players.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81eb6e46/article/union-decertifies-after-failing-to-reach-labor-deal-with-league?module=breaking_news

There could be no 2011 season. The Draft will take place next month, but no signing of players, no free agency, no trades, no NOTHING after that. They're going to have to find a way to split up that $9 Billion dollars the NFL makes every year, or they will make absolutely nothing. I absolutely HATE Unions, because of the WI crap, the crap in Ohio, and now THIS!

Individual player suits are set to begin. Brady, Manning, and Brees are already in an anti-trust suit with the NFL.

More updates may come after the 11:59 deadline tonight.

My final comment is simply this: The NFL hasn NOT fallen on hard times. They put themselves there through greed, and nothing more.

[NHSparky]

Another nail in the union coffin.

[cavegal]

Ruh roh

[Revolution]

Even though I doubt it will happen, I think the threat of no football next year has better potential for national strikes than the WI business does.

[FreeBorn]

I think this may prove to be devastating to unions everywhere in this country. It will contribute to and prove to be bigger than the Madison affair in terms of a wholesale anti union mentality arising on a national level.

Major League Baseball lost most of a season and no World Series in '93-'94 due to a union dispute and since that time baseball has suffered immeasurably because of it. Already by then surpassed by football as "America's pastime" but still hugely popular it still to this day has not recovered the level of popularity it had before the strike.
People wanted to watch the ballgame, take the kids, have a beer and buy a hot dog, they loved baseball.
What they got instead was a bitter drama seemingly with no end. Many never came back.

Football is probably more popular today than baseball ever was but if football does the dead guppy float like baseball did the fans have no place else to go. Baseball was already second fiddle when they had their strike and the fans could at least shift their interest to pre season NFL action when the strike hit in August '93, keeping their attention on sports and not politics. No such Y in the road this time, just a sudden stop and something is going to shake loose. I think that will be any remaining sympathy for unions on the whole in the American psyche.

[Revolution]

Last time there was an NFL strike, to put it back right again, we got Free Agency. Wonder what we'll get this time.

However, I don't care. I'm hopping mad. I LOVE the NFL, and my Packers. But mostly just the Game The Gridiron. Absolutely ****ing SUCKS that greed is overruning it, and I wish to voice my opinion as loudly s I can on this subject. This is BULLSHIT!!

5 minutes left...

[dandi]

Last time there was an NFL strike, to put it back right again, we got Free Agency. Wonder what we'll get this time.

However, I don't care. I'm hopping mad. I LOVE the NFL, and my Packers. But mostly just the Game The Gridiron. Absolutely ****ing SUCKS that greed is overruning it, and I wish to voice my opinion as loudly s I can on this subject. This is BULLSHIT!!

5 minutes left...

College ball is better and much more exciting.

Let em walk, they're only hurting themselves.

[Revolution]

I've gotten into College ball recently, but Pro ball is my passion. My dream would be to work somewhere within the League. That dream is quashed s of right now, but to be fair, there isn't a very good chance in the best of times.

[Crazy Horse]

College ball is better and much more exciting.

Let em walk, they're only hurting themselves.

Exactly

[Jmartin]

Yet another reason to not like Pro-Football "unions". Atleast with NASCAR I don't have to worry about missing half a season due to a drivers strike. Good thing Bill France showed the drivers who wanted a union where the door was. Even banned one driver for life.

[Lacarnut]

Yet another reason to not like Pro-Football "unions". Atleast with NASCAR I don't have to worry about missing half a season due to a drivers strike. Good thing Bill France showed the drivers who wanted a union where the door was. Even banned one driver for life.

I am no fan of unions but the owners are trying to put the screws to the players. They want to go from a 16 game to a 18 game schedule and they want the players to give back monetary compensation (cuts). That is what I read. If that is true, that does not sound like a good deal for the players. Both sides are greedy. Won't be long before the playoffs and the super bowl will be pay per view.

[Revolution]

^ If that were to happen, I would only be watching the regular season. Not sure I'd pay even if my glorious Packers made it to Playoffs/SB.

[Ptarmigan]

I am no fan of unions but the owners are trying to put the screws to the players. They want to go from a 16 game to a 18 game schedule and they want the players to give back monetary compensation (cuts). That is what I read. If that is true, that does not sound like a good deal for the players. Both sides are greedy. Won't be long before the playoffs and the super bowl will be pay per view.

If they made Super Bowl pay per view, they would be committing suicide because there many people watch it and it is one the most watched TV show.