kalibane wrote:You are obsessed with this hero worship concept Burrton it has nothing to do with people thinking about "poor millionaire athletes" it's about preventing these kind of holdouts.
And the NFL not guaranteeing contracts has absolutely nothing to do with how successful they are in comparison to other sports leagues.
If the players got guaranteed contracts all that would happen is instead of a player signing a 6 year 50 million dollar deal with a 21 million dollar signing bonus you'd see that player get 4 years guaranteed for 30-35 million.
Understood and agreed. But I still don't see what guaranteeing contracts has to do with ending holdouts. All it's going to do is eliminate one issue. What's going to prevent a player that feels he's out performed his contract from holding out for a new, larger dollar amount or a longer number of years? They need to put a stop to players that are under contract failing to honor the commitments they signed until the terms of that agreement have expired. Otherwise, those contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on.
IMO the authority to levy fines for not reporting must be taken away from the teams. The provision currently in place is nothing more than a paper tiger, like a 55 mph speed limit on a California freeway. If the fines are to be rescinded, they should be done so only as a result of a review process conducted by the league and based on the merits of the appeal. The team should have no say whatsoever if a breach of contract was justified or not. Once players realize that the first day they miss in a holdout is going to cost them money and that there is nothing that the team can do to prevent the fine, they will be much less likely to hold out. Of course, that is probably going to have to wait until the next CBA, but that's one of the things that needs to happen if we want to stop these holdouts that every one of us at one point or another in this soap opera has declared to be unjustified.
Oh, and Obi, we're not going to have to worry about Irvin holding out. In all likelihood, he won't even be with the team next season. But you can bet your bottom dollar that if we cave on Kam, Bennett will be the next one to hold out. He almost held out this season.