Friday, March 18, 2011

More on the "draft strike"

Patrick wrote about this a bit below. But something in this Peter King article has struck me about this as being beyond the ridiculous stupidity of the whole situation (which is, let's admit, ridiculously stupid).

Let's start here:

One agent with several prospective first-round picks thinks it will, telling me this morning: "What is the first round of the draft for the NFL? It's a TV show, a show that makes the league a lot of money. They're going to be asking young men to shake the hand of a commissioner [Roger Goodell] who is trying to lock them out. They're going to be asking young men to help the league put on this big TV production. And I can tell you this: There're a few quarterbacks who could get picked high in this draft and the NFL will invite to New York. All those quarterbacks would do by attending the draft for the NFL is giving DeMarcus Ware more incentive to knock their blocks off the first time they line up across the line of scrimmage from him.''


I'm sorry, really? DeMarcus Ware is going to not really play that hard against the guys that support the NFLPA, but if Gabbert goes to the draft itself, he's gonna actually try to get to him? Cause there's only one argument to be made here that I buy...that players want to injure the other players that don't support them. And that sort of behavior should never be condoned. I don't buy it'll happen, and I don't buy someone showing to the draft rather than the player's draft will cause players to go harder in game.

Let's jump back a minute though, to this note:

The decertified union is looking into getting veterans from every team to show up in New York, so that when the college players are drafted, they'll all have a future teammate, not the commissioner, greet them.


Now, why on earth, if you're a player - assuming you believe that no one will be out to injure you on the field as a result of your decision - would you prefer to piss off the guys that are going to pay you your check?

I grasp the concept of worker solidarity. But this seems like it'd be a stupid move for the prospects, to spit in the league and owner's face and go meet with fellow players at the draft itself. In my job, if I'm given a choice to piss off the company that pays my salary, and piss off a few of my coworkers, that's not really a tough choice for me. Maybe I'm in the minority there? But I want a paycheck. I want my paycheck to be as big as it can be. I don't want my employer thinking I'm not worthy of getting paid because I've got attitude issues.

Where's the up-side in this?

1 comment:

  1. I think really the only point that has some merit is that they may be viewed as, or treated as, scabs. If you haven't heard the term, which I imagine you have, just look it up in terms of unions, and strikes. Of course I don't think that busting the strike line in the NFL could nearly constitute the danger or violence that scabs experienced against other more formidable unions. But I do think that there is a potential of them being viewed by their co-workers, teammates, etc, as being Benedict Arnold of sorts. Anyway, I don't advocate them not showing up, but I could see how they may have an issue with it.

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