Chaos!!

John Clayton reported earlier that there is a tentative plan to open training camps on July 24.

It will be chaos he says. No kidding.

The plan would be to open camp and run free agency for the first two weeks, during camp, and to give the players, coaches, and agents a rundown of the agreement on the fly.

Hail the almighty dollar! Why give any thought to the madness that will ensue. And forget about how coaches and gms will unintentionally break the rules. And how agents won't understand the rules of the road as they shop their players. And how the "games" (if you can call them that) will be nothing more than a disorganized scrimmage - for which the fans will be expected to pay full price!!

Assuming they make it back, the first game I'll actually watch won't be for 4 weeks, that is after the regular season starts.

Something I don't like about the new CBA...

Reportedly, both sides agreed that there would be a 4-year window to free agency.  No more "tags"other than one franchise tag,  And of course they agreed on a new salary cap.

As a fan, I suspect that this will lead to more transiency.  The players at the top will have their big paydays, while the players at the bottom will simply move around as they look for more money.  And the players in the middle will always be in search of a bigger payday, or in danger of becoming a low-end player.

I think for a lot of players, the rivalry aspect will go away.  It will be more common to see a player bolt from the Dolphins to the Patriots or Jets without a thought of them being a rival.  

And if you're a fan who likes jerseys you'll be shelling out that $100 more frequently as players leave the team. More player movement means that we won't see as many players play their careers for a team. 

We'll see.

and that's how it is?

I was just reading about J-Lo and Marc Anthony breaking up.  Its relevant for Dolphins fans because Anthony is a minority owner of the Dolphins.  (yeah, that's it)

The article was mildly amusing because it went on to say:

"What was interesting was you couldn't help but be a Miami fan, it's almost like America's team," Anthony said at the announcement. "Being born and raised here in New York, East Harlem, you'd thinkJets or Giants, but you were always aware of the Miami Dolphins and what [Dan] Marino was doing."

Financial terms were not disclosed and Anthony's specific role with the team is unclear, but the Dolphins owner was counting on his celebrity co-owners to help re-brand the Dolphins as a winning team with an entertaining game-day atmosphere.

Ross said he met Anthony when he got a call from a lawyer inquiring about his search for investors and suggested a meeting with the singer.

"Just listening to Marc, his enthusiasm ... he really has great ideas," Ross said.

So...we have Anthony to thank for some of the items like the orange carpet?   

Why is that?

I have been watching the women's world cup, and I couldn't help but
notice that the coaches for the women's teams are maybe 50/50 men and
women.

Then, I thought about all of these other women's sports - basketball
college and pro, lacrosse, etc. And I realized that the coaches are
mixed between men and women.

And yet in men's sports, *all* of the coaches are men. Why?

I never really considered just how Goldie Hawn playing a high school
football coach in "Wildcats" really was funny on a whole other
level...

Wanker of the week

He's not a Dolphin, but James Harrison is a wankerer of epic
proportions. In a recent interview with a magazine, he's shown
shirtless brandishing two handguns. And he goes on to call Roger
Goodell names (including the obligatory gay slur), and calls out two
of his team mates.

Whatever clout he had, and whether he was right or wrong about how
much he was fined, is now lost among stupid and ignorant statements.

And now what? - NFL edition

The NFL has proposed a timetable for the season, and I'm skeptical about it.

Let's suppose for a moment that the reports are accurate and they come
to an agreement by Tuesday the 19th. The players need a day or two to
evaluate and agree. The owners need a day or three to read it and
vote on it. The players can meet right away, and the owners have a
meeting scheduled for the 21st. Maybe the owners could vote and
agree on it as soon as the 23rd.

Then the mediator and court need to approve it. That could take as
little as a day, or as long as a couple. For argument, lets say its
one.

That puts the date at about the 24th. It will take approximately a
week to disseminate information to the teams and agents, which would
be about the 31st.

Then...what? There still would need to be some form of free agency,
and a semblance of a training camp. Its possible the two could run
simultaneously for at least part of the time. I think most people
would argue the minimum time between first suiting up and playing in a
game would be 2 weeks. If you look back in the history of the NFL,
long before year-round workouts, players would arrive in town about 3
weeks before the first scheduled preseason game, and would work their
way into shape. Could they get that here? Or is 2 weeks all they
will get?

So, lets assume they run them simultaneously, and they get 2 weeks.
That would make the first preseason game the week of the 14th of
August. At best. As anything else slips, so slips the schedule.

How in the hell does a team establish any new plays, add any new
players (unfamiliar with the system), or install anything new? And
how can there be time to establish a depth chart or have a competition
for a position? It would be a crazy mess.

You would literally be signing free agents based on past performance,
and not on workouts. I suspect that most players would simply remain
with their current team for one year. Good or bad, its the easiest
for everyone.

Now as for the timing, the owners are emphatic that they will NOT lose
out on the revenue from a preseason weekend. I have a hunch that the
players - realizing they get little from these games - won't care and
will actually try to work in some specifics to ensure that they get a
free agency period and more than 2 weeks before playing.

That might be a sticking point of course, and the players can regain a
sort of upper hand (and stick it to the owners) by simply delaying
everything by a day or two.

We'll see.

And now what? Dave edition

The lockout *may* be nearing an end. And that means that it's nearly time for football.

The question is where does that leave bitchin Dave?

Dave is not generally happy with the agreement because it does nothing to curb the runaway greed. In a sluggish economy, the NFL has done nothing to try and help things. Rather they argued about how to split up their enormous sums of money.

And I'm really not happy with the state of the dolphins - and I'm not ready to review that topic right now.

So...for me, I think it's time to take stand. I AM going to watch games this football season, and I'm still a fan of the dolphins. But I think I will watch whatever game happens to strike my fancy each week. Maybe it will be the fins, and maybe not.

I'll keep tabs on the fins and report on what I see and hear. And I'll poke fun at the team that will be making a run at the first overall draft pick whenever I feel like it. And I'll give them credit when it's due. I can be fair. :)

Also: I refuse to buy any NFL merchandise, I will rethink my buying habits as I see the advertisers, and I will not purchase tickets to a game.

That's how I will show the NFL how I feel. They get $0 from me, but I will watch their product. So there.

Is the labor dispute over?

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H447PHK0V04&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Losing money?

While the preseason is good for players to get in the rhythm and play in a game, there isn't much in the way of financial reward.

Players are given room and board during training camp and make about $10,000 in each game they play in.

Yes. It's real money. But it's not the 1/16th game check they'll be receiving a few weeks later.

The NFL has said that they'll lose $200 million for each preseason game lost (or whatever they're saying), but that is much more of a motivator for the owners than it is for the players.

I don't believe for a minute that this - in and of it's self - is going to motivate them to get a deal done.

Video: bitchin dave talks about the space shuttle - and the Dolphins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTGTxIZSV9o&feature=youtube_gdata_player

My take

This week, its been a lot of rhetoric that would make one believe a deal is imminent.  I heard one analyst suggest that they may have a deal ironed out by next Friday.

I'm still not convinced.  The judge's final ruling - tossing out the lifting of the lockout and giving the owners the upper hand - certainly would seem to suggest that they need to come to an agreement sooner rather that later.

The mediators set a new date for a negotiation day for July 19th.  The reason they did that?  Because the players have expressed some reservations in working with the owners now that they've lost some bargaining power.  

And remember, too, that the players still have their anit-trust case pending, with a new hearing date in August.  So they could drag their feet until July 19th, and then continue to "negotiate" until their trial date - or they could decide that any agreement they come to would be contingent on the outcome of the other case.

Hey who the heck knows?  All we know is that they are out of time.  With the first training camp tentatively scheduled for July 22, and all the rest within 10 days after, I can't see how they could possibly have anything resembling free agency, followed by enough workouts to be in shape to play games before the end of August.