Running List of Ridiculous Player Statments During the Lockout

It seems as though the players cannot keep their mouths shut.  I'm going to keep a comprehensive list of what these guys said and make some comments to go with it.  Enjoy.

3.15.11-"It's like modern day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money, the owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money."-Adrian Peterson, Vikings RB


I already ripped into him for this one, so I'll avoid it. But here's some more...

"Well, show us.' We want more information, and they want to bull****, going around, saying this and that, just open it up and give us the information we want. If they have nothing to hide, just give us the information"

Adrian. Adrian. Adrian.  You make $10 Million a year, and you're saying the LEAGUE is bull****ing you?  Have you even run a business?  Don't you think these teams want a competitive advantage over each other?  How about you get Wal-Mart together with Target and they look over how they spend their money.  Yeah.  Good one.  Oh...and the NFL has already given an unprecedented amount of financial info to a 3rd party arbitrator.  Is that not enough, Adrian?

NOTE: *Rashard Mendenhall and Leonard Weaver have stated the same thing publicly, but for sake of keeping it sort of fresh, I'll avoid posting lengthy posts about them.*

3.16.11-"Goodell's full of it. He's a liar. You're a blatant liar. 'It's our league, it's we, we love the players, we want the league,' but what have you done for the players? What have you done, in all honesty, to improve the game, besides fine guys, besides take money away from guys, besides change a game that you've never played? … He's done nothing to improve the game."-Kevin Burnett, Chargers LB

Kevin Burnett?  Is he even in the NFL anymore?  Anyway.  Let's start with your question, 'what have you done for the players?'  Well where do we start?  Roger Goodell has expanded the league continually.  Goodell has acknowledged and taken action on the concussion problem.  If anyone doesn't believe that Tagliabue's regime didn't believe concussions were an issue, go to 8:20-9:12  in the clip below.   Oh and the fining?  That's trying to make the game safer, Kevin.

3.18.11-“He and the owners lie to the public every day,” Pitts said of Goodell.  “That letter is the equivalent of spam!  How is it all of sudden he now wants to negotiate when he knows that window has closed. A Trade Association can not collectively bargain! The courts must now decide.”-Chester Pitts, Seahawks G


Thankfully, Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com pointed out how you were wrong.  The two sides can negotiate using lawyers.  That's all.  Thanks for playing, Chester.  Enjoy your "spam" you bumbling oaf.


4.6.11-"He needs to stop crying about blood tests and HGH. He needs to try to get a deal done, that's what he needs to do. He's been on this crusade about HGH, but he needs to be on a crusade about getting these owners together and trying to work out a deal. To me, he's a joke, because every time I look, he's talking about performance enhancements instead of talking about trying to figure out a way to make sure football is played in August."-Derrick Mason, Ravens WR


No, the players need to stop crying about a needle being too intrusive.  The players need to stop taking these performance enhancing drugs.  Oh and he tried to get a deal done with you guys, but you know...you players are totally unreasonable and would rather have the legal system do its thing than actually negotiate for the greater good of football.  You guys are holding it back, not the NFL.

4.27.11-According to Chester Pitts (no long quote here) Commissioner Roger Goodell is a "fraud" and the NFL's counsel Jeff Pash is a "consistent turd".   Roger Goodell made legitimate points about the NFL Draft, salary cap, etc., being in danger.  That is how Pitts has responded.

If anyone reading this wonders "well, why can't they just get a deal done already?!" think of these quotes.  There are sure going to be more to come.  It's only April.  The night is young.

Ranking the QBs: 2002 NFL Draft

David Carr # 1 Overall to the Houston Texans

David Carr was the first QB in Houston Texans history.  He was soon shuffled out and was given little respect for being the guy to take all the hits for a growing franchise.  Was he the best QB in 2002?

Career Stats
79 GS
1340/2242 Comp/Att
59.8% Comp
14,313 Yards
65 TDs
70 INTs
75.1 QB Rating

Per Game:
17/28 59.8% 181 Yards .8 TDs .88 INTs

Joey Harrington #3 Overall to the Detroit Lions

Joey Harrington tried unsuccessfully with several teams.  We already saw the number 1 QB wasn't great, how about the 2nd QB taken?

Career Stats
66 GS
1424/2538 Comp/Att
56.1% Comp
14,693 Yards 
79 TDs
85 INTs
69.4 QB Rating


Per Game:
21/38 56.1% 223 Yards 1.2 TDs 1.3 INTs


Patrick Ramsey #32 Overall to the Washington Redskins

Patrick has been with 9 different teams, yet only has 24 starts.  A colossal disappointment for the Redskins, Ramsey never panned out to projections.  Lets see how he stacks up.


24 GS
511/913 Comp/Att
56% Comp

5,930 Yards
35 TDs
30 INTs
74.9 QB Rating

Per Game:
21/38 56% 247 Yards 1.5 TDs 1.25 INTs

David Garrard #108 Overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars

78 GS
1406/2281 Att/Comp
61.6 Comp
16,003 Yards
89 TDs
54 INTs
85.8 QB Rating

Per Game:
18/29 61.6% 205 Yards 1.1 TDs .69 INTs


Well, looking at the numbers, it's clear that the 2002 NFL Draft's best QB was David Garrard.  Garrard has been underwhelming to say the least, but he's got the best stats and has one less start than David Carr while being taken 107 picks after him to a team with a QB already.  This draft was embarrassingly weak at QB, most QBs never panned out and are out of the league.

Mock Draft picks 21-32

For the sake of time, I'm not going to do a write up for each team, but I need to finish the mock draft.

Link to picks 1-10
Link to picks 11-20

21.  Kansas City-Corey Liuget, DT Illinois

22. Indianapolis-Benjamin Ijalana, OT Villanova

23. Philadelphia-Tyron Smith, OT USC

24. Washington-Ryan Mallet, QB Arkansas

25. Seattle-Jake Locker, QB Washington

26. Baltimore-Danny Watkins, OG Baylor

27. Atlanta-Ras-I Dowling, CB Virginia

28. Arizona-Adrian Clayborn, DE Iowa

29. Chicago-Mohammad Wilkerson, DE Temple

30. NY Jets-Akeem Ayers, OLB UCLA

31. Pittsburgh-Gabe Carimi, OT Wisconsin

32. Green Bay-Cam Heyward, DE Ohio St.

Ranking Each Draft's QBs: 2001 NFL Draft

Michael Vick #1 Overall to the Atlanta Falcons

Michael Vick, one of the most controversial players, was taken first overall in this draft. Whether or not you agree with his criminal record, you can't deny he's one of the best players in the NFL right now. Let's look into it:

Career Stats
74 GS
1169/2115 Comp/Att
58.3% Comp
14,604 Yards
93 TDs
58 INTs
80.2 QB Rating

Per Game:
16/29 58.3% 197 Yards 1.26 TDs .78 INTs

Drew Brees #32 Overall to San Diego

Drew Brees was the 2nd QB off the board, but he fell to the second round. 35,000 yards and 235 TDs later, Brees is making people question why Vick was taken first.

135 GS
3145/4822 Comp/Att
65.2% Comp
35,266 Yards
235 TDs
132 INTs
91.7 QB Rating

Per Game:
23/36 65.2% 261 Yards 1.75 TDs .98 INTs

Quincy Carter #53 Overall to the Dallas Cowboys

Quincy had an okay career with Dallas. He made the playoffs and added a bit of a spark to the Dallas Cowboys team. Let's see how much he helped.

34 GS
542/960 Comp/Att
56.5% Comp
6,337 Yards
32 TDs
37 INTs
71.7 QB Rating

Per Game:
16/28 56.5% 186 Yards .94 TDs 1.09 INTs

Chris Weinke #106 Overall to Carolina

Weinke wasn't good for much more than being the joke that Chris Berman could never make on NFL Primetime. Chris "Touch My" Weinke had some pretty awful games, lets see.

20 GS
386/709 Comp/Att
54.4% Comp
3,904 Yards
15 TDs
26 INTs
62.2 QB Rating

Per Game:
19/35 54.4% 195 Yards .75 TDs 1.3 INTs

So let's look at the rankings here. This one isn't too hard, it's pretty much a two horse race.

1. Brees
2. Vick
3. Carter
4. Weinke

Brees has been much more consistent. Vick is definitely more of a threat at any given time, but Brees gives you the best chance to win. Carter and Weinke had short stints and had pretty bad stats. Part 3 Coming soon!!

Ranking Each Draft's QBs: 2000 NFL Draft

I decided to undertake an interesting endeavor.  I'm going to rank the QBs from each draft from 2000-2010.  For this experiment each QB must have at least 16 starts.  I will grade based off of performance only, not wins.  Let's go!

Chad Pennington #18 Overall to the NY Jets

Chad has had a tough career lately, but he had some flashes of greatness with the Jets.  How does he stack up?

Career Numbers:
81 Starts
1632/2471 Comp/Att
66% Comp
17,832 Yards
102 TDs
64 INTs
90.1 QB Rating

Averages:
20/30 66% 220 Yards 1.25 TDs .79 INTs

Marc Bulger # 168 Overall to the New Orleans Saints

Bulger proved to be a solid starter in the NFL despite falling to pick 168, how does he stack up?

Career Numbers
95 Starts
1969/3171 Comp/Att
62.1% Comp
22,814 Yards
122 TDs
93 INTs
84.4 QB Rating

Averages:
21/33 62.1% 240 Yards 1.28 TDs .98 INTs


Tom Brady #199 Overall to the New England Patriots
One of the best QBs of all time, do his numbers stack up?

143 Starts
2996/4710 Comp/Att
63.6 Comp%
34,744 Yards
261 TDs
103 INTs
95.2 QB Rating

Averages:
21/33 63.6% 243 Yards 1.83 TDs .72 INTs

Out of a weak QB class, 3 solid starters emerged.  What do the stats show?

1. Tom Brady
2. Chad Pennington
3. Marc Bulger

There you have it folks.  The only 3 QBs that mattered in the 2000 NFL Draft ranked.  Brady has the yardage of Bulger, the INT % of Pennington, and he crushes both with TDs.  If you're in a pass happy offense, take Bulger, if you're in a conservative offense, take Pennington.  If you're looking for the best QB in the 2000 NFL Draft, take Brady.

It's official: Some players have lost their minds.

These players are really out of their minds.

Seriously.

I truly believe most of them have no understanding of anything that goes on in the world. I'm going to destroy 4 people on here today. Adrian Peterson, Rashard Mendenhall, Leonard Weaver, and Kevin Mawae.

Adrian Peterson-
You've probably heard his idiotic remark by now. "The NFL...well it's pretty much modern day slavery.". NO YOU IDIOT!! MODERN DAY SLAVERY?! There is an estimated 1.2 million people who would take offense to that, Adrian. 1.2 million...hmmm what could that number represent? Can't be the players...no there are only 1,900 of them. The owners? No...only 32. Hummm...OH! I KNOW!! That's the number of TRUE modern day slaves. You know...those people who will never in their lifetime know what you said...because...they're you know...slaves.

All the way back to the Maurice Clarett case when ESPN was talking about you possibly being the first HS player drafted if he won the case, you understood the rules and regulations of the NFL. That was your desired career choice. I'm sure people idolized you back then. I'm sure people idolize you now. All the glory and fame and wealth you've accumulated. It must be nice to go home to the land YOU own. In the car YOU own. And have time off. And not be forced to work every single day without pay. Oh that's right. You get paid. Let's see how much modern slavery gets paid.

In 2011, if there's football (there may not be thanks to clowns like AP) Adrian Peterson, Zigy Wylf's slave, will be paid $10.2 Million. TEN MILLION, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. Let's put this into perspective. Say someone works for the federal minimum wage, $7.25. That is $7.25 an hour MORE than slaves got. Let's say the worked 40 hours a week for all 52 weeks. No vacations, no sick days. That comes out to $15,080. Now lets take AP's salary and divide it by what someone who makes minimum wage makes in a year. What does that come to??? 676.39 years. It will take someone making minimum wage SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY SIX POINT THREE NINE YEARS to make what he makes in ONE! Hey! Being a slave sounds pretty awesome! Oh and what happens when they become ill? Their employer takes money out of their pocket and pays for healthcare, just like the NFL right? Nope AP, sorry we're in the real world here. Most people don't get to play a childrens game for a living.

Rashard Mendenhall-
Now, it's one thing for AP to speak out of frustration (even though he said it twice and hasn't gone back on his word). It's another thing to blindly follow another players ignorant words and back them up even though the majority of people think he's an idiot for saying them. In the wise words of Rashard Mendenhall, "Learn to LISTEN before passing judgement." And then he goes and blindly agrees with AP, continuing to trivialize a horrific practice that still goes on TO THIS DAY.

This in itself is worse in a way than what AP said. Mendenhall had the time to think about the reaction. He saw how negatively it was taken and he could have drawn better parallels than slavery for the point he and AP were trying to make (I'll explain that later). Let's look at how much this slave makes (working for literally the most player friendly/civil rights friendly owner in the whole league). He doesn't make as much as AP. Oh god...how is he going to live off of...$3 Million a year..? Well put it this way...if he took a minimum wage job, he would have to work for 198.94 years to make what he makes in a year.

Leonard Weaver-
Now I have to admit, he redeemed himself just minutes before I started writing this. He publicly said he watched the clip of him agreeing to the other two players, I mean slaves...sorry...for some reason I keep thinking they play a childrens game for a living. Right, they're slaves. Sorry. He said publicly that he watched the video of him saying the NFL was like slavery made him embarrassed. He still claimed that the NFL was unfair...blah blah blah. I'll get to that after I break down this slave's contract. Wait...I thought the slave was supposed to have no rights...how can slaves sign a contract...

He makes slightly more than Mendenhall (I guess his Masta is better!!). $3.3 Million. Pssssssshhhh...that's nothing! Unless you're working for minimum wage. Then that's 218.83 years to you.

But okay, I can see you guys saying, "oh that's not fair nobody makes minimum wage for their entire life". Fair point, let's use $70,000 a year. You can live comfortably with that.

AP-145.71 years at $70K
Mendenhall-42.86 years (might not sound like a lot, but he'd be able to retire after one year living on $70K per year)
Waver-45.71 (play a year on his plantation--football field--sorry...and you'll have worked 45.71 years in the shoes of a person making $70K)

(I'll rip on Mawae after this--stay tuned)

To be fair, let me explain to you why these guys think the NFL is like modern day slavery since their free education at esteemed universities didn't teach them how to articulate thoughts without resorting to buzz words in attempt to garner sympathy.

-The NFL Draft-This is the biggest one. The players fell that in order to play in the NFL, they are unfairly put on teams without their control. While this is true, there are several ways to circumvent this. First, nobody is forcing you to play football, or even NFL football. There's the CFL, UFL (though you may not even get a check...just ask last year's champs), AFL, afl2. It was the player's choice to pursue this career path. But let's assume that the player has his heart set on playing football and can't go into ANY OTHER career field. What do they do then? Make it clear you don't want to play for certain teams. Eli Manning did this in 2004, John Elway did this. To be fair, technically speaking the draft IS illegal without the CBA, but it is something that helps the league stay competitive. Without it, the league would have a few good teams and the rest garbage. Part of the reason the game is a $9 Billion industry is the fact that come week 1, teams are all 0-0 and teams all have a chance to improve thanks to the draft.

-The Combine-This is often compared to slave auctions. A bunch of scary rich old white men make a bunch of young black men (of course a lot of them are white too, but for argument's sake on their part, it's only blacks) run around in their underwear, get poked and prodded by doctors and take a test. There are a few things wrong with the theory. First off, the combine is VOLUNTARY. If you don't want to get poked and prodded and run and jump and lift weights and get a physical, you don't have to. It only helps you to do it though. See when slaves were auctioned off, the best ones were taken by the richest people and if you couldn't work, you were usually killed (yes...it was legal to kill slaves in some places). The combine HELPS these people make MILLIONS. And do you blame the owners for wanting these multi-million dollar investments to be inspected?? There's no insurance for them when they sink money into prospects who are huge busts (JaMarcus Russell??). Most of these guys have tons of money GUARNATEED. Those awful owners...wanting to make smart investments HOW DARE THEM.

-Racial remarks said by owners/coaches-This one is laughable at best. If those stories are true, then that only means one thing, the individual who said it is an asshole. It doesn't mean that the league itself is full of racist people and they're trying to oppress the blacks and make money off of them and leave them with nothing. The opposite is true.

Finally, Kevin Mawae-
He's not nearly as much of an idiot as the other 3 I mentioned. He technically IS doing his job the way it should be done. It doesn't mean he can't be wrong.

Kevin Mawae was quoted as saying that some of the players won't be able to afford insurance for the lockout. He quoted the price of about $2,400 a family a month for insurance. Okay, Kevin, let's use that number. How about we also use these numbers. League rookie minimum salary? $325K. So for the LOWEST PAID PLAYER IN THE NFL, he HAS TO MAKE $325K. But what about the league average salary?? What's the league average?!?! Surely it HAS to be HORRIBLY LOW!! Well just BASE SALARY (not including signing/incentive bonuses)?? $990,000 (this is the 2009 number, 2010 may be higher). Okay so let's look at this.

1 year of insurance at $2,400 a month/family= $28,800

Amount of insurance an NFL player can buy with 1 year worth of salary at NFL minimum= 11.28 years...for a player who likely didn't contribute much of ANYTHING to the game of football.

Amount of insurance an NFL player who makes the league average can buy after one year of work=35.36 years.

Each insurance payment for the mimumum salaried players is 1/135.42nd of their total annual salary.

Each insurance payment for the average player is 1/412.5th of their annual salary.

Those poor, awful players.

Now look, I don't have a problem with the players trying to get more. It's America and they have EVERY RIGHT to try and maximize their income. My problem is when they try to tug at the emotions of the public. How about they stop for one second and think about this:

The more they make, the more (some) owners have made, which means the more the league has made, which means the more YOU AND ME AND EVERY OTHER FAN HAS PAID OUT OF OUR SALARY THAT MIGHT NOT EVEN TOUCH WHAT THE NFL PLAYERS GET IN A SIGNING BONUS. By the players sobbing and wanting more, it's only going to drive up prices for EVERYTHING. Keep siding with the players, people.

NFL Labor Dispute 2.0

I haven't written about this in a while, but I feel I should. I'll start with a brief summary of what's going on then get into my usual rant. The NFL and NFLPA*(technically a trade association now) can't agree on squat. Why not?

Well it goes back to 2006. The late Gene Upshaw and the now retired Paul Tagliabue agreed on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. One of the stipulations of the agreement was a change to the way the salary cap worked. Under the previous agreement, the players received 64.5% of all SHARED revenue. Shared revenue is the revenue received from TV deals, league wide ads, licensing agreements, ect. The new deal shaved about $1 Billion off of the $9 Billion pot for the owners to split evenly to use towards capital investment. The rest of the $8 Billion was split 57% players 43% owners. The problem arises from the fact that the number now includes both shared and unshared revenue instead of just shared. Why is that a problem?

Unshared revenue is different for each team. A team like Jacksonville may have a much smaller unshared revenue than the Cowboys, yet they must allocate the same am out of money to the players. The current system is unsustainable to certain teams. The owners need to change this and in order to do so, they need to take some from the players. In 2008, the owners opted out of the CBA for after the 2010 season claiming that the current model is unsustainable. The players responded with this statement: show us your books.

Understandably, the owners didn't feel the need to release every single financial document to the players. What is intriguing though is that the Packers are publicly owned. This means that by law they HAVE to open their books. What came wasn't surprising. They had record revenue, but also low profits. The season before the new CBA, they realized profits of close to $40 Million. This number dwindled. 2008-2009 profits were $20 million. 2009-2010 profits were $9 million. What's going on? Well to see that, we have to go to the player costs. In the same time span, costs have gone from around $110 million to $150 million. Still this evidence wasn't enough. The players demanded to see more. Even after the NFL gave an unprecedented amount of financial data to a 3rd party financial auditor and gave the NFLPA an offer that included several concessions, the NFLPA chose to stop negotiating and decertify.

What is decertification and why is it such a big deal? Decertification is the union ceasing to exist. This is significant because the NFL is protected from antitrust lawsuits because of the union. Because there is no union, they players can now sue the NFL under antitrust law. The NFL is countering that by locking the players out, and submitting a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board claiming the NFLPA was not negotiating in good faith and that the decertification is a sham to gain leverage. This all culminates to an April 6th hearing. If the players win, the lockout could be lifted. There would be football under the last rules while the two sides fight in court. This outcome sounds appealing, but it may drastically change the game. The other outcome would be the union forced to come back to the negotiating table. This will delay things from getting done but would most likely end in a new CBA deal.

Now after that "brief" explanation...on to my rant. Many people think that the players "deserve" everything they get. They deserve more money because they bring in the money. People forget a fundamental detail here. The owners invest their capital. They spend their money on the logos, stadium, marketing, practice facility, transportation, coaching staff, grounds crew, training staff, front office guys, weight room, security, insurance, player pension, player healthcare, retired player pensions and healthcare, scouts, equipment, water boys, taxes...the list goes on. Now remember...this comes out of the OWNER'S pocket.

Without the things above...there is no football. Without the owners providing these things and giving the players a forum to display their talents, they would be really athletic guys working normal jobs. People forget this. They say "the players are partners! Without them there is no football". That's only half true. Sure without them there is no football, but without employees at any job there is no product. But they are not partners. Partners share a financial risk if the company tanks. If a team folds, the players aren't going to help the owner pay his debt. That's all on him.

I'm not saying don't pay the players or that they don't deserve anything or that they don't sacrifice their bodies. They do deserve to be compensated and they do sacrifice their bodies. My point is they don't share the financial risks that the owners do. I don't think it's right to tell the owners, the guys who fun the league, how to spend their money. The player's sense of entitlement needs to stop. The owners have demonstrated a need for reform and the players have given them stubbornness. If the players were really "partners" they would understand this and help the owners out. Instead they're suing them.