Can somebody please explain to me what is meant by decertification, and what the outcome of that happening is?
In a nutshell, it menas no more union, which means each team will have to indivudally deal with their own players, so if each team then locks out the players, you can go to court and argue an illegal horizontal trust, which the NFL would likely (though not assuredly) lose.
OK thanks. If this were to happen then, how would we then get back to playing football if there were no union with whom to negotiate a new CBA?
This is why the NFL is saying it's a sham decertification, because in the end they would still negotiate with the union heads, come to an agreement, and the union would reform or whathave you to enter into a new CBA with the league. But in all that time, the league would be spending $ and faced with losing $ in court.
Pretty much what BK said below your post but, they can just make a new players union under a different name, etc...
My stomach is in knots over this. I can't imagine a year without football in an era where football is thriving the way it is.
Decertification doesn't mean no football. In fact if the players get an injunction to stop the lockout (which they most likely can) then there's definitely gonna be a season.
This may sound stupid, but from a public relations standpoint they almost have to agree to extend the deadline today because of what is going on in Japan. Yes, the two events are grossly unrelated, but if there is an announcement of a lockout and/or decertification on a day where the news is filled with what is going on in Japan, it makes the "billionaires vs. millionaires" fight look that much worse in the eys of the public (or maybe I'm grasping at straws because I don't want negotiations to end).
I wouldn't. For a guys like Mike Brown or Ralph Wilson, what's to conceal? You have a pretty well fixed revenue, and a pretty well known expense side. Not so for someone like Woody Johnson, Jerry Jones, or Robert Kraft - all who have pretty sophisticated enhanced revenue packages and deep marketing budgets. I'm thinking they're also the ones more willing to tell the NFLPA to stuff it. If I'm Jerry Jones, what's the worst that could happen? My bank sends me a foreclosure notice on my new stadium. Are ya kidding? Know what's pretty interesting? We haven't heard dick from Al Davis. Not a peep. And it was DAVIS who struck the deal for the owners five years ago and averted a labor stoppage then. I'd be real curious to hear what he has to say about all this.
I agree with that one THOUSAND percent, and I don't think it sounds stupid at all. In the midst of arguing as if there were nothing else going on around them, these two groups of meat heads should appreciate that there are other things going on around them.
I'd agree except for the fact that these guys have their heads so far up their asses at the moment I doubt they even turned on the news today.
Swear to God I was watching one of the history of the AFL shows the other night and thought the same thing, but assumed I must have just missed Al's take on it because I tend to block out all things Raiders. But his silence is definitely SOMETHING. I don't know what, but it's interesting to say the least.
