NFLPA exec on settling for owner-friendly deal in 2011: ‘No CBA is perfect’

NFLPA exec on settling for owner-friendly deal in 2011: ‘No CBA is perfect’

http://www.theredzone.org/BlogDescription/tabid/61/EntryId/57323/NFLPA-exec-on-settling-for-owner-friendly-deal-in-2011—No-CBA-is-perfect-/Default.aspx

Why did NFL players agree to a CBA that has proven more advantageous to club owners by focusing more on reduced practice time and fewer workouts in pads rather than financial issues?

Booger McFarland posed that question to NFLPA assistant executive director of external affairs George Atallah on the Opening Drive Friday on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
“Well, there were a number of things in 2011 that our player leadership told us were really important,” Atallah told McFarland and co-host Ross Tucker. “Practice and reduced practice time and changes in the offseason was certainly a big one, but also don’t forget that we negotiated an increase of a billion dollars in new benefits. So what our player leadership said to us at that time — and, specifically, I’m talking about our executive committee and players like (Drew) Brees and Kevin Mawae and (Domonique) Foxworth and all those guys — (was), ‘OK, our guys play an average of three-and-a-half years. Let’s maintain … as much of our share of revenue as we can, create a minimum cash spend so that teams have to spend cash as the cap goes up and let’s maintain, to the best of our ability, that players who play in the National Football League can benefit from their short time in this business well beyond the three-and-a-half years that they set foot on a football field.

“No collective bargaining agreement is perfect, and I think every player will tell you — who sat at that table — that there were things that were given and taken and traded and that kind of thing. But it’s difficult to point, in my view, respectfully, at one particular issue and say, ‘This wasn’t important.’ We were going on, and the union administration in particular, was simply negotiating based on the priorities that our guys were setting for us.”