I suppose this could constitute snark, but the bottom line is that Al Davis has been pissed at the NFL for 45 years, since he was Commissioner of the AFL and thought that the AFL could make the NFL come to them. He certainly harbored a grudge against Pete Rozelle. His manipulations with Oakland and LA involved a threatened antitrust lawsuit and he testified on behalf of the USFL during their big lawsuit against the NFL in the 1980s. I honestly believe that he would spend all of his money to kill the NFL out of spite if he could do it.
The upside is it appears that we will have football. Lot of downside, too, though. Especially the draconian limits on full pad practices during the season. Tackling is already pretty sloppy in the NFL, and less practice ain’t gonna help that.
Also not liking the potential for an 18 game season. 16 games is plenty.
And I’m not real confident in the opt out clause…apparently either side can nix the whole deal in 2015 or after. Not promising long term stability there.
Didn’t see any details about a rookie salary cap, but I hope there is one. I just don’t see the wisdom in giving a draft pick piles of money before he’s even played a game. I think that money should go to veterans.
Agreed. But tackling has been declining for so long in favor of offensive production that good defenses will be even more impressive. As a Steelers fan, it works for me.
Also agreed. I’m curious about whether the owners will want to play chicken with that. According to Peter King (as referenced above):
Everybody loses in that deal, including the fans. Preseason ball isn’t very good, but it gives the management a chance to evaluate the talent under game conditions. Two fewer preseason games means that the players will certainly be somewhat inferior under the best of circumstances. Add to that the increased possibility of injury and the games are diminished. And for what? Two more games that won’t earn notably more money than preseason games? Big mistake. The owners will get burned if they try this, I believe.
Apparently the opt-out clauses come with some pretty stringent triggers which will serve to keep both parties honest, so I’m fine with that.
The word is that the rookies took a BIG hit. I’m perfectly OK with that, because as you said they haven’t done a damn thing but be drafted yet.
So you are suggesting less games will cause more injuries .The players are against adding more games because they say more games will cause more injuries.
That seems awfully high minded to me. I am quite sure that Davis feels this way and I trust Clayton’s reporting on the comments, but I suspect that Davis would have been petulant about this and found a different angle to abstain about had this one not cropped up.