NFL Owners Opt Out of CBA

It's long been understood that of all professional athletes in America's major sports, none get screwed more than NFL players. They're at a higher risk for injury, and not just the two week kind. The kind that can have a dramatic effect on the rest of their lives.

Their contracts aren't guaranteed, unlike other sports, so they're always one play away from losing everything they thought they had. They have it rough.

Of course, a lot of this is because the head of their union is a puppet of the NFL's commissioner's office. Paul Tagliabue just beat up on Gene Upshaw for years as he helped make the NFL the most popular and profitable sport in the country. Now, it looks as though Roger Goodell and the rest of the owners don't plan on changing that.

Which is why the owners voted unanimously to opt out of the leagues current collective bargaining agreement.

The NFL owners voted unanimously Tuesday to end their agreement with the players' union in 2011, two years before the deal was to expire.

The league, however, emphasized that it will keep negotiating with the NFL Players Association and said games will be played "without threat of interruption for at least the next three seasons."

The owners had until Nov. 8 to opt out of the agreement, a provision written into the deal when it was signed in March 2006. They decided to act early, partly because they didn't want to do so while the 2008 season had begun.

Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFLPA, said on Sirius NFL Radio he learned of the owners' decision by e-mail from commissioner Roger Goodell.

"My response to his e-mail was very simple: 'What a surprise,'" Upshaw said sarcastically.

Upshaw has been predicting this the last few months and last weekend referred to the owners as "greedy."

Basically the two sides have until March of 2009 to come up with a new agreement, or 2010 is going to be a really fun season. You see, if the players and owners don't come up with a new deal before then there will be no salary cap in 2010.

That means teams will be free to spend money like the New York Yankees, and things could get crazy. Of course, knowing full well how cheap the Bears are, this means nothing to us but a likely 2-14 season.

The owners main reason for opting out of the deal is, wait for it, MONEY. Yes, even though the league is more profitable than ever, and there's a ton of money to go around, the owners want more of the money to go to them. Currently, players receive about 60% of the league's revenue, and the owners just can't have that.

No doubt they'd like to get that number a lot closer to 50%.

About This Whole Scott Skiles Thing

I know the story is a few days old, but I didn't get a chance to talk about it then, so I'll talk about it now. The firing of Scott Skiles caught me off guard. I was at work on Monday morning when I got a call from Joey Mac. I didn't answer it, and later when I checked the voicemail I got this message.

"Hey Tom, Merry Christmas! Scott Skiles got fired!"

At first I thought Joe was kidding, because on Saturday night we were watching the Bulls game against Houston and the entire time I was complaining about this team and Skiles. Then more calls and text messages came in telling me the same thing.

My first reaction was, "Damn. On Christmas Eve?"

I quickly got over it though and moved on to the "What the hell are they going to do now?"

I'm not familiar enough with the inner workings of the organization to know what's really going on, but from all accounts it's the same old story for Skiles. His players just got tired of playing for him, and they'd essentially tuned him out. It happened to Scott when he was in Phoenix, and now it's happened to him in Chicago.

Is it his fault though? I mean, these guys are supposed to be paid professionals after all. I've had bosses at my job who I haven't been too fond of, but that doesn't mean I stopped doing my job. It's also not Skiles' fault that Luol Deng and Ben Gordon didn't sign extensions this offseason, and that they've been distracted by it.

It's not Scott's fault that John Paxson has made a few bad moves in recent years. I'm sure Scott would have loved to have LaMarcus Aldridge on his team right now rather than Tyrus Thomas.

It isn't Skiles' fault that Ben Wallace is playing like a 65-year old man out there.

A lot of the Bulls problems aren't Skiles fault, so why fire him?

Well, because you can't fire the team.

And maybe, just maybe, a coaching change right now will provide the spark this team needs to wake up and get going. All the talent that was prevalent on this team the last few seasons is still there, maybe now with the Skiles Shackles off, it will finally show itself again.

As far as who the next coach of the Bulls will be, your guess is just as good as mine. There are some big names being floated around right now like Larry Brown (not this Larry Brown), Rick Carlisle, and Jeff Van Gundy as possible replacements. I doubt the Bulls will get any of the three.

The fact is that Jerry Reinsdorf and the Bulls owe Skiles around $7 million over the next two years, and Jerry isn't that fond of spending big bucks on new coaches while he's still paying an old one.

Foul Balls

Jay Mariotti Still Says Stupid Things - While were on the subject of Skiles, when I first heard the news I already knew what Mariotti's column on it would be. The Bulls and Jerry Reinsdorf are big scrooges for firing Skiles at Christmas!

Of course, Jay says a lot of dumb things I disagree with (and to be fair, a lot of dumb things I do agree with) but sometimes I can tell he's just reaching to fill space. This was one of those moments.

Sure, it matters. It matters when Skiles has a wife and children, all of whom had to awaken Christmas morning and open presents with the sting of Dad having been fired.

Yes, Scott's poor family. Those kids must have been devastated to learn that they'd actually have time to spend with their father now. And his wife!? Dear Lord how is she going to provide for the family now that Scott's out of a job, and he's only going to get paid $7 million over the next two years!?

It's the worst Christmas ever!

Blackhawks Win Again - Bill Wirtz is rolling over in his grave! Imagine, a Blackhawks home game being shown on television in Chicago. Now it's not the first time it's happened this season or since Bill's death, but there was something different going on on Wednesday night.

I've watched the Hawks at home when they're on TV, and I've noticed a trend. The first game? A sparse crowd surrounded the rink as the Hawks played. In every game since then, those empty seats started to fill up. Wednesday night? Well that was the first Hawks home sellout of the season.

That's right, the game was on TV, and every ticket in the house had been sold. It's a Christmas miracle.

The Hawks beat Nashville 3-1 for their fourth straight victory, and frankly, it's about time I start covering them more here.

The NFL Gives In - Apparently the NFL and the NFL Network aren't as untouchable as they seem to think they are. All season the league has had to deal with complaints about the fact that the NFL Network isn't available in a lot of homes around the country, and as a result, a lot of fans haven't been able to watch their teams play some weeks.

Well, with this Saturday night's game featuring the Giants and some team from the Boston area that hasn't lost yet, there's some demand to see the game. In fact, there's so much demand to see the game that the NFL finally caved.

They're going to be simulcasting the game on CBS and NBC, so everybody can watch it.

The NFL avoided a potential backlash by fans unable to watch the New England Patriots' attempt to complete a perfect regular season, announcing yesterday that the NFL Network's telecast of Saturday night's game between the Patriots and New York Giants also will be carried by NBC and CBS.

The nationwide simulcast will be the first of an NFL game since Super Bowl I, and it dissipates a controversy that had been building in recent weeks because the league-owned NFL Network had been scheduled to carry the game alone. It reaches only about 35 million U.S. households.

"We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a written statement released by the league. "What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever."

Actually, Rog. It's not consumer demand for the NFL Network as much as it's NFL consumer demand to let them watch the NFL. Not that I really care, mind you, I have the channel.

Now if congress would please start pressuring the folks over at the Big Ten Network......

The Next NFL Scandal: Bootygate!!!!

What did I just hear on the television????

On Inside the NFL this morning, Charlie Casserly reported that last Thursday night the NFL sent a memo to all 32 teams informing them home teams can no longer torture the visitors with cheerleader sirens.

Said Casserly:

No longer will [the cheerleaders] be allowed to warm up in front of the visiting team locker room or do their stretching in front of the visiting team locker room and they can't go in the tunnel! The reason? Some players feel they were being a little distracted.

According to the one corroborating story I could find on the internet, the memo stated the tactic is “distracting and inappropriate and to be stopped immediately and teams will be monitored.”

Hey, Commisioner GODdell, way to focus on the important head injuries.



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It Sucks To Be a Commissioner Right Now

Gary Bettman's never had it so good. Sure, nobody really seems to care all that much about the sport he presides over, but at least he doesn't have to deal with any of the headaches of his colleagues.

Just look at the lives of the other commissioners around the sports world right now.

Bud Selig is going to have to deal with the Barry Bonds situation sooner rather than later, and then there is still that whole steroids business. Roger Goodell has had to tell Mike Vick to not attend Falcons minicamp until the league investigates the current case against him, and they decide what to do with him. Then there's David Stern who has to deal with this whole Tim Donaghy situation.

Seriously, all of their lives suck right now.

But the one who probably has it the worst is Stern. No matter what Selig or Goodell decide to do with their problem, neither is in danger of losing their job. That's not the case for Stern.

There's word out now that the NBA might have been aware of Donaghy's gambling problem, but failed to do anything about it.

There's also the very real possibility that Donaghy isn't the only current NBA official involved in this type of thing. Though this is something that Stern denied in his press conference earlier today.

"We think we have here a rogue, isolated criminal here," Stern said at a news conference. "I feel betrayed by what happened on behalf of the sport."

"I also understand [Donaghy] is the only referee alleged to have bet on NBA games and disclosed confidential information to others," Stern said, adding "Let me make it clear that's my current understanding."

"If that understanding changes tomorrow, I will so inform everybody," he added later.

If it does turn out that this isn't an isolated incident, somebody is going to have to take the fall for it.

And I don't mean Tim Donaghy. I mean David Stern.

The NBA doesn't have the same kind of autonomy amongst sports fans that the NFL and MLB do. Have any of the steroids scandals in baseball kept fans from going to the games or watching on television? How many people do you know are going to stop watching football because of guys like Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson?

The NBA on the other hand has long had to deal with the whole "thug" perception of it's players, and the fact that fans have long felt as though some of the games were fixed. Especially come playoff time.

While I used to think that the last theory was idiotic, now I can't be sure. Much like I used to think David Stern would be the commissioner of the NBA for as long as he wanted to be. Now?

I'm not so sure.