More Texting; Goodell Says Need More Communication

More Texting

According to deadspin.com, Stephanie Dusenbe, a massage therapist, is alleging she received lewd advances from Viking players including Brett Favre.

Read the article here.

NFL

With respect to the NFL/NFLPA labor negotiations, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday there needs to be more meaningful discussions with the NFLPA.

“There’s not enough communication,” Goodell said. “We need to get to productive negotiations.”

The last negotiations were held before Thanksgiving. Goodell said they need to meet regularly.

“There’s a very clear understanding if there’s a work stoppage of any kind, it hurts everybody.   It hurts the clubs, it hurts players, it’ll hurt the game, and most importantly it’ll hurt our fans,”  Goodell said.

You might remember that the NFLPA was hopping mad late last week when legal counsel for the NFL Batterman said that the NFLPA wants to be locked out by the owners. The reasoning on the part of Batterman was that the lockout would provide the NFLPA the opportunity to decertify (i.e., kill the union), which in turn would allow individual players to sue the NFL for antitrust violations. Right now the NFL is insulated from these claims because the violations are in the CBA, and labor law trumps antitrust law. Once you blow up the union, the CBA can't protect the NFL.

While there has certainly been some posturing by both sides, there are some real issues dividing the sides, including readjusting the revenue sharing model to favour the owners, a rollback on salaries and a rookie cap.