Coaches back players in lockout

[BigBucs]

Coaches back players in lockout

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- NFL coaches are teaming up with the players in their legal fight to end the owner-imposed lockout.

The NFL Coaches Association filed a brief with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday expressing support for the players and saying that the lockout is putting their jobs in jeopardy.

"Owners and fans increasingly demand immediate success, and coaches whose teams cannot fulfill such severe expectations face likely dismissal, which means the uprooting of families, economic dislocation, and a significantly less promising career path," lawyers for the NFLCA wrote.

No individual coaches were identified in the brief, which said that the eight new coaches hired this year face particularly daunting odds of success if the lockout is not lifted soon. The NFL grants new coaches two extra summer minicamps to get players familiar with the new staff, and the elimination of those camps puts them at a competitive disadvantage heading into the season.

"To meet management's expectations, coaches need adequate time in the offseason to prepare their players for the season ahead," the filing said. "The lockout has already interfered with the coaches' offseason plans for their players, and each day lost in preparing for the season further diminishes coaches' opportunities to prove themselves and advance their career."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league was not surprised by the filing.

"The Coaches Association offices with the Players Association in Washington," Aiello wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "So this comes as no surprise."

The 8th Circuit has set a June 3 hearing to hear arguments on whether the lockout is legal. A federal judge in St. Paul, Minn., initially ruled that the lockout was illegal, but the 8th Circuit put a stay on that ruling pending the appeal.

Some coaches across the league are facing a reduction in wages and benefits during the lockout, including those employed by the Buffalo Bills, who have suspended pension payments and cut wages for all employees while the lockout is in effect.

"These income reductions are occurring amid the burdens of mortgage payments, tuition, and other life costs that do not wait for the NFL to end its lockout," the filing said.

Coaches have already lost several minicamps and the ability to institute their valued offseason workout programs, both of which get many players together starting in mid-May to prepare themselves physcially and mentally for the upcoming season. Coaches rely on those programs to get on the same page with their players, institute new playbooks or tweaks to their existing schemes and make sure that players are ready for the rigors of training camp that await in August.

All of that has been put on hold during the labor dispute over how to divvy up $9 billion in revenue. Mediation has been unsuccessful while each side waits to be handed some kind of leverage through the courts, meaning no minicamps, organized team activities or group workouts in front of coaches.

"Preparation is a coach's currency, and coaches rely heavily on the offseason to prepare their players for the season," the NFLCA said. "If the NFL's lockout denies coaches the necessary time with players, coaches will be significantly more limited in their ability to prepare their teams and to prove their value as coaches."

The NFLCA said no amount of financial damages could compensate for the time lost this offseason, so they asked the 8th Circuit to uphold Judge Susan Richard Nelson's injunction of the lockout to allow the players and coaches to get back to work.

"Failure at an early stage of one's career, however, can falter career aspirations for many subsequent years," the filing said. "A lockout will significantly impinge on coaches' opportunities to prove themselves and will increase the likelihood that they will suffer failure they can neither avoid nor overcome."

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...l-coaches-players.ap/index.html#ixzz1NPzon6ca

 

[ram29jackson]

coaches back players in lock out = water is wet


...like theyre not going to...?

 

[BigBucs]

coaches back players in lock out = water is wet


...like theyre not going to...?

Who are you asking? Go let one off and get that stress up out you.

 

[Prodigal Son]

Who do you think the coaches are going to back? The guys who sign their pay check, or the guys who will make sure they continue to get pay checks?

 

[BigBucs]

Redskins coaching staff made it clear that they are backing the owners.

 

[killgod]

Redskins coaching staff made it clear that they are backing the owners.

Haynesworth gets paid 100M to nap in the middle of plays.

I think they are a little bit biased.

 

[Bmore]

This could be a huge move in terms of getting shit done.

 

[BigBucs]

Haynesworth gets paid 100M to nap in the middle of plays.

I think they are a little bit biased.

Yea, guess they are siding with a player who wont be with the team once the season starts.

 

[killgod]

Yea, guess they are siding with a player who wont be with the team once the season starts.

Doesn't surprise me you didn't get the point.

 

[BigBucs]

Doesn't surprise me you didn't get the point.

I completely got the point, which was shitty I might add, but Haynesworth is one player. As shitty as that team is that doesnt represent the mentality of the entire team or league for that matter.

 

[Yawkey Way]

Does it even matter who sides with who?

Both sides are ridiculously stubborn and will drag this out until the 11th hour, it seems like its beyond the point of getting football back now. Personal battles must be won.

 

[MrBill]

A general whose army will not go to battle for him is worthless.

 

[jeffx]

Does it even matter who sides with who?

Both sides are ridiculously stubborn and will drag this out until the 11th hour, it seems like its beyond the point of getting football back now. Personal battles must be won.

I can't blame the players on this. In a year when the NFL made a $9billion profit(in a down economy!), the owners staged a work stoppage. Even John Mara said(on the Mike Francesca show) the league is doing better than ever. This is nothing but a money grab for future earnings. Francesca is right - it's not between owner vs. player, but owner vs. owner. On one side, there are the 'haves'(Jerry Richardson, Mike Brown), and the other side the 'have mores'(Jerry Jones, Dan Snyder). The 'haves' are making a profit, but not as big as the 'have mores'. The 'haves mores' could care less about the 'haves' complaints, so they want the players to take care of it. Bunch of fucking pigs at the trough, that's all they are.

 

[killgod]

I completely got the point, which was shitty I might add, but Haynesworth is one player. As shitty as that team is that doesnt represent the mentality of the entire team or league for that matter.

You didn't get the point because your response was mentioning how he's no longer going to be a Redskin when that's completely fucking irrelevant to what I was getting at.

Him not being a Redskin in 2011 has nothing to do with him being a 100 Million dollar athlete that acted like a stupid fat baby in 2010, right in front of their eyes.


You're not fooling me retard, you didn't get the point.

 

[Rayman]

I can't blame the players on this. In a year when the NFL made a $9billion profit(in a down economy!), the owners staged a work stoppage. Even John Mara said(on the Mike Francesca show) the league is doing better than ever. This is nothing but a money grab for future earnings. Francesca is right - it's not between owner vs. player, but owner vs. owner. On one side, there are the 'haves'(Jerry Richardson, Mike Brown), and the other side the 'have mores'(Jerry Jones, Dan Snyder). The 'haves' are making a profit, but not as big as the 'have mores'. The 'haves mores' could care less about the 'haves' complaints, so they want the players to take care of it. Bunch of fucking pigs at the trough, that's all they are.

The owners are to be blamed for instilling the lockout, but the players, led by that douchebag D. Smith, are responsible for the complete lack of negotiation going on and all this litigation BS. This faggot is talking about going as far as killing the draft.

I can't wait til the players realize what his little "all or nothing" crusade is going to end up doing to them.

 

[BigBucs]

You didn't get the point because your response was mentioning how he's no longer going to be a Redskin when that's completely fucking irrelevant to what I was getting at.

Him not being a Redskin in 2011 has nothing to do with him being a 100 Million dollar athlete that acted like a stupid fat baby in 2010, right in front of their eyes.


You're not fooling me retard, you didn't get the point.

Oh, you mad? I did get your point and made it perfectly clear when I alluded to Haynesworth representing such a small percentage of the attitudes players carry in the league. Me mentioning him hitting the bricks next season didnt make a case either way for me understanding what you were getting at. For every Haynesworth you can use to muster up such a shitty argument you can count 20 players that go about their business as a professional.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Here is the article from the Washington Post on that issue:

Washington Redskins coaches were not part of the group of coaches that filed a brief Wednesday with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals requesting that NFL owners lift the lockout, according to a letter the coaches sent to the league Thursday.

The letter, signed by every coach except Head Coach Mike Shanahan, who is part of the team’s management, says that “we stand united with our ownership and the brief does not reflect our thoughts on the matter.”

A source familiar with the situation said the Redskins’ coaches grew concerned that the court document filed by the Coaches Association Wednesday could jeopardize their relationship with management and possibly cost them their jobs.

Larry Kennan, director of the NFL Coaches Association, organized the effort that resulted in Wednesday’s filing of a friend-of-the-court brief in the NFL lockout case.

The NFLCA stated in the court filing that the NFL “is attempting an end-run around a unanimous Supreme Court,” which had clearly stated that the league is subject to anti-trust laws in a decision last year.

The coaches association isn’t an official governing body and doesn’t speak for all coaches as the players association does for players. The players association was a labor union until the players chose to dissolve it a day before the March 12 lockout. It is now technically a trade association.

Names weren’t included in the coaches association brief, but Kennan told NFL.com that names weren’t necessary.

The Redskins coaches obviously felt differently and on Thursday sent the two-paragraph letter to the league, signed by 17 assistant coaches.

“The Washington Redskins’ coaching staff has not given its backing to the brief filed with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the National Football League Coaches Assocation,” it reads. “Our former representative, Kirk Olivadotti, is no longer with the organization and no member of our coaching staff was consulted prior to this action being taken.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ckout/2011/05/26/AGSe7ECH_blog.html#pagebreak

 

[citizenerased]

So let me get this straight... one union in a industry is siding with another union in the same industry during an industrial dispute?

SHOCK.