Even before a lockout, casualties start to mount
DALLAS - If you don't include the verbal spitballs that NFL attorney Jeff Pash and NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith threw at each other in dueling press conferences earlier this week, an actual shot hasn't yet been fired in the labor battle between the owners and players.
DALLAS - If you don't include the verbal spitballs that NFL attorney Jeff Pash and NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith threw at each other in dueling press conferences earlier this week, an actual shot hasn't yet been fired in the labor battle between the owners and players.
The current collective bargaining agreement - the one the league calls "unbalanced and one-sided" and union president Kevin Mawae calls "grrrrrreat" (OK, I added the extra Tony the Tiger Rs) - doesn't expire until midnight on March 3. But the owners already are using the possibility of a lockout as an excuse to do some unconscionable cost-cutting.
Last week, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt and Jets owner Woody Johnson threw a total of 41 paycheck-to-paycheck employees over the side of their yachts in the name of supposedly shrinking profit margins.
Hunt, whose daddy Lamar never laid off a worker in 40-plus years as the Chiefs' beloved owner, showed 11 employees the door, even as the NFL was getting ready for a Super Bowl that is expected to break attendance and television-ratings records.
Public relations director Pete Moris, who had put in 17 loyal years with the organization and has 2-year-old twins . . . gone. Brenda Sniezek, the team's longtime director of community relations who had been a Chiefs employee for 29 years . . . gone. Director of logistics Ken Blume, who had worked for the Hunt family for 26 years . . . gone.
Thanks for your years of loyal service, people. But we might be having a lockout in a couple of weeks that could force the missus and myself to fly commercial on our next trip to Cabo. Hope you understand. Oh, and don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.
In North Jersey, Johnson, of the Johnson & Johnson Johnsons, and the Jets gave pink slips to 30 - count 'em, 30 - people on their business side. A Jets spokesman claimed the jobs were eliminated in connection with the completion of the sales effort of the new stadium. Hold the laughs.
One thing I can guarantee you is that this is only the tip of the iceberg. If the owners and players don't shake hands on a new labor agreement by March 4, there will be more paycheck-to-paycheck blood spilled around the league.
A lot more.
That could include the Eagles.
"We are working on our plans," club president Joe Banner said when I asked him if they were considering staff cuts in the event of a lockout. "I can honestly tell you we do not yet know exactly what we will do under the possible scenario that we face."
At his annual Super Bowl-week news conference yesterday, commissioner Roger Goodell insisted that no teams are using the possibility of a lockout as an excuse for staff reductions; these were necessary cuts.
"There are still difficult economic challenges out there," said Goodell, who oversees a league that had record revenues and record television ratings this season, which almost certainly will result in a record television contract when the current one expires. "All of our clubs, and the league, and every other business, including businesses that you all are associated with [can you say newspapers, boys and girls?] have to make very tough decisions in this kind of environment."
Comparing the NFL to the newspaper business is a little silly and Roger knows it. The newspaper business is in the toilet because we've been stupid enough to give away our online product. The Daily News and Inquirer spent over a year in bankruptcy.
The NFL is not in the toilet. If $9 billion in annual revenues is the toilet, then please pass the Charmin.
What we're talking about here are filthy rich owners and wealthy players who can't seem to agree on how to split that $9 billion pie.
It's really hard to feel one drop of sympathy for either side in this labor stalemate. There is no principle involved like there was in 1982 and 1987 when the players were fighting for free agency and the owners were claiming free agency would destroy the game.
I still remember the league insisting to anyone who would listen, including an anti-trust jury, that free agency would be the death of small-market teams like the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hey, aren't they playing each other in Super Bowl XLV?
Four years ago, the owners, by a 30-2 margin, signed off on the current labor deal. Two years later, they claimed they were either drunk or having an allergic reaction to medication when they agreed to it and opted out of it. Now they want a deal tilted a little more in their direction.
"The president of the union [Kevin Mawae] just last week said players got a great deal in 2006," Goodell said yesterday. "The pendulum has shifted too far in one direction.
"We want to make sure we have a fair agreement. We want to make sure it's fair to the players and the clubs."
The owners and players have a formal bargaining session scheduled for today. Maybe it will be productive, but don't hold your breath. The two sides have agreed to hold two more meetings next week.
"We could get a deal done in the next week if business people sat down on both sides and we tried to get the lawyers in the background," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said.
Take it from the father of a lawyer: You'd have an easier time getting Chad Ochocinco not to speak for a day.
If we get to March 4 and there still is no new agreement, buckle your seat belts. It will be a bumpy and bloody 6-month ride with more paycheck-to-paycheck casualties.
"We have not made any determination on what will happen on March 4," Goodell said. "Ownership is completely focused on getting a deal that works and is fair to players and clubs."
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