By Tom E. Curran
CSNNE.com
We told you last week that the NFLPA's proposal to accept a 50-50 split of all revenues was no proposal at all. It was basically a request for the status quo. Now, after a week of the players being able to claim high ground because the owners walked away from that proposal, the league is trying to clarify. On the league's labor-related website NFLLabor.com, spokesman Greg Aiello (via PFT) stated, "Any interpretation that this was a new proposal and a move toward the clubs is not accurate. This was an offer to keep things where they are, to simply extend the status quo. It is consistent with what the Union has been saying for two yearsjust keep the current deal in place. As Kevin Mawae has acknowledged, the players got a great deal in 2006."There's that hammer the NFL is going to keep using - NFLPA president Mawae acknowledging the players killed the owners in 2006. The CBA defines what total revenue is in detail and gives the Union roughly 60 percent of that amount. The Union has created a new measure of revenue, which it calls All Revenue, and says that the players get 50 percent of that, Aiello said. Saying they want 50 percent of this new revenue base, is the same as saying they want 60 percent of the existing revenue base. It is a status-quo deal. That is exactly where we are today, and we have been clear that is unacceptable. This reported offer by the Union last week is just one more offer to just kick the can down the road, as Jeff Pash says, and keep things where they are. There was no change in the Unions position or movement off of their earlier proposals.So, like we told you last week, the NFLPA didn't bend over backwards. They didn't bend at all. And the owners spent a week getting their nose rubbed in the notion they took their ball and went home over a magnanimous offer from the PA.
Tom E. Curran can be reached at tcurran@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Tom on Twitter at http:twitter.comtomecurran