Malazan

Bills had to match...he got an offer sheet from the Clippers

sign an angry girl scout..and he won't be missed

You can not make a thread that doesn't turn into one on TBD

Poor Willis...guess Baltimore is a craphole according to him now too

No, they deserved to be paid. Please don't try to associate good players with Peters to make a weak position appear stronger.

It's good we won't have to listen to these idiots talk about how working in the NFL is like slavery anymore

So he got another pay day (from his insurance) for having a few dazzling moments that quickly faded?

So trickle down economics didn't work in the NFL? Amazing, it's doing so well everywhere else..

I've not seen anything that the owners were looking for the players to vote on the proposal before this..

I can say personally that Smith has given an impression that he's more concerned with his own 'image' over getting a deal done. He's in love with his own voice and seems to focus perception over substance. I don't think I'm alone in the belief that a fair deal could have been done a long time ago with someone else running things. It's backed up by thing like players running around yelling about the deal. They should have been informed and consistent statement released beyond the yelling, "ZOMG, Owners voted!". Why was it that all the fans knew the NFL has said they had days to look it over, but the players themselves were running around like chickens with their heads cut off? Smith seems to delight in his 'power' and it has seemed from the moment he was hired that we were destined for a 'showdown' if, for nothing else, to put him in the limelight. His focus has seemed to drift and the latest antics seem to re-inforce the opinion that he has willfully kept and manipulated information to ensure support from the players for his tactics. In addition, his pretending that he is not aware of the greater financial pressures that were in play to cause the owners to make the move didn't exactly endear him to anyone. As stated, we rarely get 'calm, collected' statements from him. Something like, "We realize that the owners have made some decisions that have driven up valuations of franchises and caused problems for teams that make disproportionately less then the top earning teams in the league. We realize that we all have to pay for those mistakes, and we're ready to strike a deal that is fair and helps ensure the stability of the league" would have gone a long way compared to the rhetoric laden statements he unleashes nearly non-stop. In short, he hasn't struck me as a leader working to get a deal in place that benefits players. He's struck me as working to get a deal, but ensuring that he gets plenty of press while doing it and if that requires manipulating and holding up the process, then he's ok with that.

Something definitely smells fishy from the players side here. It doesn't add up. They went running around in a media blitz yelling like a drunk. Why would the guy herding the players not release a calm, collected statement? Why would he not relay that to the players? Why did *all* of the players who were talking mention the 'slipped in' line?

I think you could benefit from this advice as well. You're assuming an NFL team is a 'long term' investment. How many owners have owned their teams for 30 years?

Seriously, this reeks of another D smith attempt at a 'brilliant' maneuver. Players have been drinking the kool aid from a charlatan and likely the fans will pay for it.

It would likely be the death knell for the franchise in Buffalo. The team currently makes about 30 million and paying on a loan and increased payroll would seal their fate.

Sounds like a band aid deal. Players should be taking an interest in this as it's one of the reasons why the league wants to revamp things.

I think you misunderstand the financial issues involved and why the league is seeking the changes it wants. If Joe wants to sell you his Hot Dog Cart for $800 and he tells you that it makes a profit after paying all the costs (Employees, hot dogs, taxes, etc) of $3o a year, does that seem like a good business deal to you? It's making a profit! You don't have to do anything, but put up the initial $800 and collect $30/year! In only, 27 years you would make your money back! Now, let's say you don't have the $800 and need to get the loan from a bank. You tell the bank that you would like a loan of $800 and will pay it back in 30 years (10% interest on the $800 makes for $880 which would be 29 1/3rd years). The bank is going to ask if that is feasible and how do you guarantee profit for 30 years? *keep in mind, all profit would be paying back the loan* So you say, well, the value will go up. I'll operate it for five years and then sell it for $1000! Great Plan. Well, you think so. The Bank...not so much. They're gonna ask you, who can afford your stand without needing a loan and given that your profits don't hold up as having a great chance of paying back the loan, why would someone take a loan to buy it? They are the only bank, so they'd be lending the money to this new buyer and while they would make some short term profit from the interest, they'd be resetting the 30 year clock to pay off the loan. Of course, that money could keep being 'lent' and accruing interest for the bank, but they're not going to be able to indefinitely loan out money for that hot dog stand. Banks actually did/do this. We see how that worked out for the economy. In short, NFL teams are over-valued. They need to bolster the profit to make it easier to pretend that a team could 'pay for itself' without being sold again. They need to sure up this bottom line to maintain the values of their teams. Again, it should never have come to this point, but the owners AND players BOTH jumped merrily on the tracks for a few short term dollars without looking at the train coming down the tracks. They're joined at the hip and neither one wants to jump off before the train hits them. The players were greedy and now it's bit them in the arse. They could have made the CBA about 'issues', but they went for the dollar bills so pacman could make it rain in a club and RELIED on the owners to take care of everything. Now the dues demand payment.

As I mentioned, three owners have driven the 'valuation' of their teams sky high and now the other teams are in a bad place. The Cowboys, Patriots, and Redskins don't face the same hurdles as the other teams. The rest of the owners are at fault for letting this happen and the players should have been watching as well. The players tend to be more interested int he very short term. If they had negotiated a more nuanced CBA that forced greater revenue sharing then they might not find themselves in their current predicament. They took a short term money grab and the owners all followed the pied piper trio which has led them all to a bad place.

tgreg, I have to admit that I am confused. The owners have to open their books, but they will just manipulate the books to favor themselves? Isn't this a catch 22?

I was unaware that Sony had open books, but I'm glad we agree that the players being able to see the books would be meaningless.

My post wasn't about feeling 'sorry' for anyone. I'm of the mind this should be prolonged and rectify the amounts of money being funneled into the NFL and players. The Superbowl Champion Packers made less than 10 million (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5379673). We can go back and forth that somehow, some way they are hiding money, but we can also discuss the moon landing being faked. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but the information that is accepted and available has an NFL team valued at 1 billion dollars makes 10 million dollars a year. That's a problem regardless of how you feel about the owners and the three specific owners who caused this problem. The reality is that the players and owners are in this reality and adjustments have to be made.

Donte has already indicated he is looking for more money than the Bills are interested in offering. He is another one of those Players like Peters where a team will pick him up thinking he will fill a hole, and he will, but at way beyond his value.

The players are going to have face reality that while the owners are making profits, there are TEAMS making less profit in a year than some players. Outside of that absurdity, a team worth a billion dollars that only make 15 million a year is a tough sale when there's very few who have the assets to buy a team without a loan. Banks aren't exactly lining up to loan a billion dollars when a team would need to devote every bit of profit to pay them back in 30-40 years especially when there is such volatility. Add into that the rising cost of stadiums with less government money and it has to come from somewhere. It's only a matter of time until the players give in.

The ironic part is that if you desperately need football and after two off season months want to do everything you can to resolve, you could pay more for tickets and merchandise. If you 'forced' a resolution, it would likely just result in lobbying dollars exasperating the current financial situation that the league faces.

There is no rule against stupid or crazy

Did he trademark Elway? Did he miss the part that people need to think that the name Elway would confuse people? Copyright and Trademark law are out of control.