DonCanabis

2011 SEASON
END OF LOCKOUT QUICK HITS

CONGRATS TO THE 2010 DON’S PREDICTION LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

Ok, it finally looks like this stupid lockout will be over if off course Manning, Brees, Jackson and others can put personal greed aside and we might have a normal season after all with the biggest loss being having to endure 5 months of complete football garbage from the media, players and NFL personnel.

So, before training camp starts and 3 day Free Agency and all the Madness that’s going to happen in the next few days I wanted to share some quick hits of what’s going on, what’s to come and the bad moves the league is making for the future of the league. I promise not to bore you with the same washed up topics we’ve been over fed the past few months.

• The Biggest Winners of the Lockout!! There are actually three, NHL, NBA and Women’s Soccer. First of I know the NBA is having its own lockout but not having to compete with the NFL offseason gave all of these 3 sports and leagues their biggest audiences in years, heck we even got a riot after a final when was the last time that happened!. Many of you even I didn’t knew the Women’s team had actually already won 2 World Cup Championship but for the coverage they got, it actually felt like what they were doing was something that was never done before. I don’t even know if they even made the sports news the last time they actually won it. And at the end of the day by ending the lockout it will give the NBA some ground and the need to sit and negotiate.
  
• The Rookie Wage Scale we all knew it needed to be done with the amount of bust teams gets every draft and the astronomical amount of money they were making without even playing one snap was a necessity for the future of all franchises you can’t expect a team to advance when one bad pick in the top 5 can set your team back financially and competitively 5 years. It just became ridiculous when nobody wanted to have anything to do with the number 1 pick it became a burden not a reward.
  What nobody has asked themselves is could this become a problem with the 2011 draft class? Can we not expect a few draft brats suing the NFL induced by their agents saying that the new CBA is taking away the earnings they should be entitled for based on what previous players got in the past by being selected in the same spot or same position? Can we actually assume agents who live and breathe for getting these young talents and getting that huge rookie contract without having to maintain a good business relationship for years? Are we supposed to believe they won’t jump when the NFL cuts their commission by half? Think about it for a second can this actually be over or are we just in the tip of the iceberg.
  
• The NFL Safety Committee I truly believe this committee should be disbanded and the members of it put into a dungeon and throw away the key. These people have a faster trigger than a 16 year old boy holding a Playboy. Think about it every year the committee changes or puts at least a new safety rule for the next season heck we now even have changes during midseason. Some have been logical (concussion) some completely whack (New Hit zone and defenseless receiver) that they don’t even know how to write it or explain it.
  They say that it’s all for the protection of the players but we all know it’s to protect their pockets, The athletes that play this game know the risk of the sports, know the risk of permanent damage to their bodies it will have after their career it’s done they all knew it before they signed up for it they’ve been playing this sport for at least 12 years before they even set a foot on the NFL they reason they all do it, Yes they all love the sport but they also know it’s the only or easiest way the majority if not all of them will ever come across earning that type of money.
  You have to protect the game, the product the reason why this has become the #1 sport in the USA and the #2 in the World these people make so many quick changes without thinking of the repercussions to the product they’re putting on the field. Let’s be honest if Football the only dangerous sport in the world?
  Image for one second a Boxing committee controlling how many hits a boxer can take in the head or body before a fight being stop? Or Nascar & the F1 lowering the speed limits the cars can go each year based on the crashes? An UFC fight stopped because a fighter is bleeding? Catch were I’m going with this?
  To try to control what a player is doing while launching at full speed trying to create a game changing play for its team and have that same player be worried were his head is going his body, the angle it’s how you just won’t stop injuries for happening but will create more because a player will go against its own protection instincts.
  The more sane and logical answer to all this injuries questions it’s the simplest one. Keep the game as it is and protect the players after their football career by giving them full Health Care for the rest of their lives. The players are already asking for it and by giving it and making it a mutual thing with the NFL giving them a preferred rate for renewal and/or covering a part of the fee as well as the NFLPA that way you protect the player for future problems after the game and you protect the product in the field otherwise we will be playing Flag football in 10 years.
  Stop trying to Fix what isn’t Broken

The rest of the stuff we’ve all have talked about it many times heck for the past few months that’s all we’ve been allowed to do and not giving a lot of material to go with so there’s no point to continue with it again.

Once again I want to congratulate last year’s winners of the “Don’s Prediction League” mlmpetert and Sparty. I will be posting the invitation for this year’s league 6th Season last year we had 25 players from 8 different football message boards playing. Let’s see if we can get more people involve. Remember its FREE with a $25 gift price or donation to their board to the Winner!