NFLPA May Urge Players to Skip the NFL Combine, Draft
The potential NFL lockout has been news for more than a year now. I haven’t paid much attention to this fiasco, simply because it has yet to effect me. I tend not to worry or harp on things until I must, which I’ll admit, can be both good and bad. Unfortunately, yesterday this fiasco may have taken a turn for the worst. NFL Networks, Jason Laconfora reported that the NFLPA Union is considering boycotting the NFL Scouting Combine and all NFL Draft activities (Wait, say what?!).
"NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, who addressed the media Thursday, has been meeting and talking with prominent agents in recent weeks, including a sit-down Friday morning during Super Bowl festivities in North Texas. According to several sources familiar with the discussions, central topics included the feasibility of withholding clients from the Feb. 23-March 1 combine in Indianapolis and boycotting draft activities in New York in late April, including the televised event itself at Radio City Music Hall."
This has got to be a a joke right? No? Maybe a dream? Give me a second, let me rub my eyes and pinch myself to see if i’ll awake from this hellish news. Darn-it, that didn’t work. I guess we’ll just have to face the facts. Both the NFL Owners and NFLPA have been going tit for tat, spewing self-righteous rhetoric at one another. The warfare has been harmless up until now. There have been no causalities and all the fighting has remained on the ground. With yesterdays news, it’s starting to look like the NFLPA is prepping for a preemptive strike of napalm. This tid bit disheartens me. I live and breathe football. I often tell people that if it were legal in California (Prop F), I’d marry football. Not only does this news effect my wonderland state of mind, but it effects WTFP.
It would be a shame if the Union followed through with this preliminary tactic. Right now, at this very moment, college players are working their tails off for the biggest interview of their life’s. The NFL Combine and Draft are once in a lifetime opportunities. Those are the moments that athletes cherish forever. To deprive them of that joyful memory, would go down as a modern day football tragedy. Hopefully, the players and agents are intelligent enough to not be used as pawns, if not, there will be major ramifications.
NFLPA Executive Director, DeMaurice Smith had one goal in mind with the leak of his latest plans, and that was to ruffle the feathers of the Commissioner and Owners. The waters he treads are dicey. If he follows through, he risks losing the support of the fans. If you think the revolt in Egypt is bad, wait until you see millions of football deprived fans take the streets with Molotov cocktails in hand. It won’t be a pretty thing to witness. Mr. Smith needs to sit down, loosen his belt, place the palm of his non-writing hand on his belly, a beer in the opposite and enjoy the off-season festivities. Do not do anything drastic. Keep the lines of communication open, and diligently work to barter a deal. The fans and players want and need both the Combine and Draft. Both activities have become a way of off-season life. Please do not make us put down our beers and have to come and find you!