NFL offseason thread

Looking forward to Stephen A Smith, Chris's Broussard and Mike Huckabee defending a mans right to assault his baby momma. Well it may take Stephen a bit longer to reply as he is still in some glory holed closet

 

I'll cling to due process as much as the next guy. But enough.

Any team that gives him a third chance doesn't care about the issues that the NFL is allegedly trying to address.

Really, at some point football has to become secondary to doing the right thing.

 

Aside from one poster looking for an argument, I don't think anybody is questioning the Bears' decision to cut McDonald at this point. I doubt any team is going to give him another chance.

 

Yeah, in this NFL climate, he's done.

Someone like Greg Hardy might keep getting additional chances, but McDonald is not at that level and isn't worth the headache.

When his former DC vouches for him and gets him signed and then he still goes out and fucks up, he should be done.

 

I hope the Union files a grievance on his behalf. I love assaultive righteous indignation

 

I wonder what crime it would take for the union to bail on a player. It would have to be pretty bad since they've filed grievances on behalf of Aaron Hernandez, Ray Rice and probably anybody else who has been in trouble.

I don't know if I should be impressed by their loyalty or repulsed by it.

 

Is there something in the NFLPA by-laws that state they must defend players? Because aside from them not wanting to set a precedent in case they actually get a player who is being steamrolled, it feels like they are compelled to file a defense. That's not a bad thing, even Manson was entitled to a lawyer.

But as for where they might draw the line, how about one player shooting another player or one player using some instrument to beat another player on the field? Something where the crime is so outlandish against another NFL player that to defend him would mean throwing one of their own under the bus.

 

Unions have what is called a "duty of fair representation" toward their members. Basically, as part of their status as the agent of collective bargaining, they have to defend their members with respect to grievances (assuming the member consents to such grievance) and must do an effective job (in other words, not sandbag the case).

Here, I'm not sure that the player has much of a leg to stand on because teams have very wide latitude in terms of their discretion to cut a player. If he had some guaranteed money coming and the team refused to pay it, that would be a different story.

 

I've always gotten the sense that that's just the way most unions are. The grievances are usually more about the union exerting power against management than it is trying to claim that nothing wrong took place. When they filed the grievance on behalf of Hernandez, I think it was more about avoiding a bad precedent than actually them defending his actions.

If they can collect workout and signing bonuses for a player who is in jail on murder charges, that makes it a lot easier to collect the next time the issue comes up for a lesser incident.

 

In yesterday's MMQB, Bedard wrote that the NFLPA did not look favorably on Tom Brady before Deflategate because he took less than market value when he signed his contract. I don't think he was insinuating that those feelings would impact the appeal of Brady's suspension, I just thought it was funny/interesting.

 

Players' union always have conflicts of interest, do they protect batters against headhunters or do they defend pitchers? In failing to agree to PED and drug testing or making the tests and sanctions too weak, are they defending cheaters over the majority? Are they protecting the players who want to be PED free but cant compete against abusers. Basketball union has always has the 1% in mind when negotiating. It's one thing to defend floppers. But in fighting flagarent foul suspensions are they sacrificing the victim?

 

I don't think they take sides in a "fight" where people from both teams are suspended or fined. I think they just appeal the suspension or fine.