Updated Title: 8th Circuit Court Grants Stay, Lockout Reinstated

[53Fan]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

What do you really expect from a mullet-head?

[SBXVII]

Rumors fly of a complete NFL shutdown | ProFootballTalk

Very interesting. So if the bargining didn't work, and the court has not worked, and if the 8th Circuit does not work, .... the owners are just going to shut down and force the players to take what they want them to take anyway. So in the end why are the players fighting a losing battle? What will the courts be able to do? It sounds like nothing.

[Alvin Walton]

Allen needs to fly somewhere to get Brett Favre so they can buy a new bass boat.

[CRedskinsRule]

The following is copied from a Cowboys forum, the administrator wrote it and sent it to Roger Goodell. I would add that this guy has a good sense of fairness, and has made open his point of view on that board. This letter in my opinion crosses over the "players vs owners" arguments that we have seen on all these fan boards. Also, while I have no idea of his exact position or "sway", I know that he is in the loop somehow, much like SS has demonstrated his insider knowledge.

If there were someway, any way, to get all the parties involved in this $9billion trainwreck to read this and truly take to heart the meaning of the game to the fans and non-player/owner participants, maybe this thing would be settled in short matter. But owners and players have drawn some dramatic lines, and when the dust settles, well we hopefully will have football.

Here is Hostile from Cowboyszone.com's letter:

At the draft you said you heard the fans. I hope that you will hear me. Football for me is a 12 month passion. I live, eat, drink, sleep, and breathe the game of football. It is so ingrained in me that my hobby is now to spend hours and hours on a fan football forum for my favorite team and to talk about football with other addicts like me.

Have you ever noticed that years ago ESPN rotated their sports banner to have currently active sports first and inactive sports were later. They quit doing that because the NFL is no longer just a sport. It is a culture. The NFL stays first on their banner and it never moves. I am certain that they quickly realized that even in the off season it was their most popular forum pages.

Now they have fractioned off into regional areas. Other sports still get reported on but football drives those area sites just as surely as it drives the souls of the fans who clamor for it.

We are so addicted to it that we watch hour after hour of guys running 40 yard dashes but do not watch track and field unless it is the Olympics and this without football players being Olympic sprinters. Especially the linemen.

We watch the Draft and hours and hours of pre-draft shows telling us the same things we've heard hundreds of times by then. Is it sinking in yet that football fans are passionate? You sit in a seat that we can only dream about sir. One that allows you power over the game of football. Do you know what that really means? I don't think you completely do so please humor me for a minute while I explain.

You aren't just the man in charge of 32 team ownerships. You aren't even just the man in charge of the approximately two thousand players on active rosters, practice squads and injured reserve stand by. You're not the man in charge of the just over 250 draft picks nor the countless others who will become Undrafted Free Agents. In reality sir, you are the man in charge of millions of fans who spend thousands of dollars and thousands of hours loving and supporting our teams.

To put it very bluntly, we are counting on you to lead this deal. That sir, is why fans chanted every time you came to the podium. Because you have a huge responsibility to make this happen. It is more than just reducing your salary to a dollar in a symbolic move. Frankly we don't need symbolic moves. We need movement. As in two sides trying to get this deal done.

The ownership side claims the player side didn't negotiate in good faith and the player side claims the ownership side hasn't. We sit back and watch while both sides play damage control through the media and show us the great exercise of finger pointing. Fan groups on team websites all over the country are fractured on which side they support and people who otherwise get along just fine because they are united by love for a football team are now becoming more and more fractured by this escalating pissing match the NFL and the NFLPA* are engaging in.

On Wednesday May 4th I was sitting in my office arguing with people I enjoy and respect, but who for the last couple of months have been at my throat and me at theirs as we have argued and spat venom at each other over our opinions on this stalemate you two mega powers have chosen to engage in. I believe much of the venom flows on political lines and that makes it even more poisonous. I wonder if some of my adversaries in this unending debate will ever again just enjoy the game and team that we love with me again or if things are too fractured to ever get along again.

That's where I was on Wednesday when I received the most painful phone call of my life. It was a Doctor telling me that I needed to rally my family because my Mom was not going to make it. In a matter of just a couple of hours she had gone from stable and improving to gone. It snapped me back to reality about what is important in this mortal probation we call life.

For millions of us football is important. The ebb and flow of the off season is every bit as gratifying and exciting as the season itself. You are a witness of this as you see passionate fans line up for hours just so they can get in the doors of Radio City Music Hall and tell you that they want football. They stay until every last pick is announced and they relish every moment of something that isn't even a game. No other sport enjoys that powerful love.

You hear us? I hope so sir. The last time a powerful man looked at a crowd of New Yorkers chanting and told them that he heard them was a dark time in our nation. It rallied us though. Political differences were temporarily put aside and we all became partners in the healing of a nation.

You hear us? If so then heal us. I am asking you to order both sides back to the negotiation tables and I am asking you to order them to stop posturing and playing the propaganda games. I'm asking you to fix this.

Ultimately no one else can. Am I dumping a lot of responsibility in your lap? You're damned right I am. But don't for one minute believe I feel sorry for you, or your one dollar a year salary. I'd give anything to have the power you wield to fix this mess and I wouldn't symbolically ask my pay reduced. I would instead roll up my sleeves, eschew sleep, eschew food, and eschew all other comforts to sit in a room with the NFLPA* and we would get this deal done or we would go hungry, we would go without sleep and I might even turn off the air conditioning to add motivation. I believe that when you guys start smelling each others body odors it might light a fire under your rear ends.

I have to tell you sir, up until now, I don't see that fire. Not from the owners. Not from the NFPLA*. I do see it from the fans. I see their passion. I feel it. You heard us. Did you feel it? If you didn't then you need to stop whatever practice it is that is desensitzing you and the NFLPA* to what we are actually saying.

Those fans were telling you guys to get off your fat butts and earn your symbolic dollars. They were telling you to for a change realize that the passion of the fans for this game drives the dollars that all of you rich, privileged, and even deified people enjoy. I have no idea what percentage of football fans will never in their lives see the kind of money even the lowest athletes in the NFL make in their short careers, but I guarantee you sir that you have already made more money than the huge percentage of us will ever see. The owners have. Many of the players have. That symbolic dollar doesn't resonate with us sir. Neither do hollow words.

You hear us? I once heard a saying that went like this. "I can't hear your words of reassurance because your actions are screaming so loudly and drowning them out." That is where we are as fans sir. We see the inactivity and the pointless lawsuits and appeals and the posturing threats against the Draft and a model of Free Agency that frankly is working and we see two sides divided by a common interest, football.

10 years ago that man who said he heard us was talking about the 9/11 attacks. Now we as fans are sitting here watching these incredible plans the NFL has for the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 being threatened by this lockout and the lawsuits and the appeals and above all by the finger pointing by both sides. There is nothing right about the stance of either side any more sir.

Our nation is once again celebrating as the mastermind behind that awful day is trying to grow gills as he takes a watery nap in an unidentified spot in the Indian Ocean. Make that celebration inspire action.

Football was delayed one week 10 years ago and it began again so that we could heal and it helped. For every day that you allow these two sides to sit idly by with their thumbs up their rear ends while they point fingers at the other side is a day that you sit and wait for a phone call that says it's too late.

I will never again discuss the labor negotiations of the NFL with my fellow fans because frankly inactivity is not news and what I want, what I crave, and what I need is news. Positive, hope filled news. I need it now more than I have ever needed it my life. The problem is, I am staring at a horizon that still isn't in view and I am wondering, do you really hear us? Or is it just another sleight of hand like that symbolic one dollar salary you and others on both sides are waving around as if it means something.

You hear us? I'll believe you when I hear or read about how you and all the vital parties on both sides are in that room with no air, no food and no sleep and you are busting your butts to fix this wonderful game that you all have so screwed up right now that it has devolved into fractions among fans over political boundaries. All of the power brokers on both sides of this fence ought to feel nothing but shame over your actions, excuse me inaction as you hold millions of us hostage.

I would give anything to have you share this e-mail with the owners, their lawyers and all of the decision makers on the other side. I'd give anything to have just a few minutes in front of all of you before you started actually negotiating. I'd give anything to be the one who hangs the "do not disturb" sign on the door and who turns off the air as I walk out the door of the room where you need to be fixing this mess.

You hear us? Don't tell us. Show us. Symbolic words and gestures are worthless. Otherwise you're going to be writing a eulogy just like me, but instead of a few family and friends you will be writing it to millions of us.

[SBXVII]

Wow, I got about half way throught that and wondered how much he had to drink? I honestly can't finish reading his diatribe. The commish can't fix this. The commish is a figure head much like the President of the USA. It's the owners vs. the players. The commish was just the voice for the owners so not everyone of them would have to show up and waist their time. He should be sending the letter to each and every owner. Both sides need a win. Neither side wants to say they lost. So, they need to sit, e-mail, phone, or something and figure out what each side can give up in order to get what they want. Funny thing is I think both sides could care less about all the other parts. All they care about is the extra 1 billion. So why can't both sides concede and split it in half. 500 mill to the owners and 500 mill to the players. Lets move on.

As a Redskin fan I "almost" wish this would go on forever because it's funny seeing a Cowboy throwing a tantrum. Oh well.

[Jontrem]

Originally Posted by SBXVII

Wow, I got about half way throught that and wondered how much he had to drink? I honestly can't finish reading his diatribe.

I give you credit for making it to the halfway point.

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by Jontrem

I give you credit for making it to the halfway point.

I don't. Was it emotional yes, but the point he made should be one that all of us can agree with, Get past the symbolic stuff, take the position of Commisioner to heart, and get both sides back to reality. To tint it with a throwaway line about Cowboys fans was a foolish snide remark, and that is why I prefaced it to say this wasn't a wannabe politico or simpleton, this is a man that is as respected on their board as Matty is here. Also, he definitely has contacts in the league that has given him the ability for his words to be mean something in insider circles.

I hate the cowboys as much as anyone, but this issue isn't about watching dallas fans whine, or about arguing amongst ourselves over who is more at fault, it's about both sides rolling up their sleeves, locking themselves in a room and hammering out a real and stable deal, like Hostile said.

If you can't read an emotional response from an intelligent man and fan, then that is your loss, not his.

[CRedskinsRule]

Here is a link to a Colts fan who received a direct call from Goodell, this is after the Colts group call last week. just another read:
A Conversation with Roger Goodell

[SBXVII]

Intelligent fan I can read, rambling fan I can not. I'm almost betting the commish will get as far as I did and put it in the pile of other letters.

Rule #1- You want to be heard, make your point, and make it short and sweet.

I'm all for sticking together, but again there are a lot of us who can't decide which side to pick. I'm actually leaning towards the owners a little. I don't like everything they have done but I understand their situation. Just like I'm sure there are fans who don't and only want to understand the players side of things and think that owners are unreasonable.

But we as fans can all stick together and pick the players side, put pressure on the owners to get something done, give up the money issue, and later down the road when the piss poor markets start complaining that they can't afford to stay in their market and want to move..... don't be the first fan to scream foul. Let the owner move his team to a more lucrative market so there will be less revinue sharing and teams can keep more of their income.

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by SBXVII

Intelligent fan I can read, rambling fan I can not. I'm almost betting the commish will get as far as I did and put it in the pile of other letters.

Rule #1- You want to be heard, make your point, and make it short and sweet.

I'm all for sticking together, but again there are a lot of us who can't decide which side to pick. I'm actually leaning towards the owners a little. I don't like everything they have done but I understand their situation. Just like I'm sure there are fans who don't and only want to understand the players side of things and think that owners are unreasonable.

But we as fans can all stick together and pick the players side, put pressure on the owners to get something done, give up the money issue, and later down the road when the piss poor markets start complaining that they can't afford to stay in their market and want to move..... don't be the first fan to scream foul. Let the owner move his team to a more lucrative market so there will be less revinue sharing and teams can keep more of their income.

I don't think any fans here are going to scream foul if any team owners moves their team to another city. Ironically thought some of the teams that are in danger of being moved by their owners , are probably going to have sh*tty seasons because of this lockout, resulting in a more prompt move.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by SBXVII

Intelligent fan I can read, rambling fan I can not. I'm almost betting the commish will get as far as I did and put it in the pile of other letters.

Rule #1- You want to be heard, make your point, and make it short and sweet.

I'm all for sticking together, but again there are a lot of us who can't decide which side to pick. I'm actually leaning towards the owners a little. I don't like everything they have done but I understand their situation. Just like I'm sure there are fans who don't and only want to understand the players side of things and think that owners are unreasonable.

But we as fans can all stick together and pick the players side, put pressure on the owners to get something done, give up the money issue, and later down the road when the piss poor markets start complaining that they can't afford to stay in their market and want to move..... don't be the first fan to scream foul. Let the owner move his team to a more lucrative market so there will be less revinue sharing and teams can keep more of their income.

The secret to good communication is brevity.

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Lotus

The secret to good communication is brevity.

Kurt Schmoke - - former mayor of Baltimore - - once said:

A speech, to be immortal, need not be eternal.

Words to live by...

[freddyg12]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Kurt Schmoke - - former mayor of Baltimore - - once said:

A speech, to be immortal, need not be eternal.

Words to live by...

Haven't heard a K. Schmoke quote since I listened to him in an interview about his appearance on "The Wire." Love that dude, & his schmokey name, though it might not've been the best name for a mayor that suggested legalizing drugs!

[SBXVII]

^ I should practice what I preach... short and sweet. lol. But honestly no big wig is going to read something that will take too long to read.

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by SBXVII

^ I should practice what I preach... short and sweet. lol. But honestly no big wig is going to read something that will take too long to read.

Isn't Goodell a lawyer, I'm sure he's used to reading boring repetitive stuff.

Anyway, back to lockout stuff. I find it interesting that the NFL is making contingency plans for free agency rules if the 8th Circuit Court rules against them.

Report: NFL crafting alternative to 2010 rules | ProFootballTalk