Tom Talks

Time to end the posturing and public anger and play

    Is there a way players don't ratify the agreement proposed by NFL owners?

    I don't see it. Yes, they're angry. They feel as if a document the size of a Russian novel was foisted upon them before they had the opportunity to read every word.

     But how many of us read 500-or-so page documents?  The document will be the responsiblity of union leaders. They'll study the agreement owners submitted early Thursday evening and sign on or sign off. But they knew what was coming. There were few surprises.

    The speed with which the NFL wants to return to work is dazzling. Nobody will move that fast on turf all season.

     But what other way can it be? The longer the league dawdles, the less money owners, and players, make.

      Many of the players are angry, as their Tweets and Facebook postings attest. But a lot aren't. They are the quiet ones. And even though their voices might not carry as much volume, their vote carries as much weight.

      The agreement will be ratified if a majority of players vote for it. And they almost certainly will. 

The NFL is back. Or not.

   This is a weird way to make a living. You hang in a hotel lobby -- a nice hotel lobby -- from 9:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. You eat lunch, go outside to take and make cell phone calls and hope the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport airplanes don't obliterate the conversation.

    An NFL owner leaves his boardroom/bunker mid-afternoon. It's Jim Irsay from the Indianapolis Colts. Reporters crowd him. He says he's taking a bathroom break.

     That's the highlight until a big guy, media guy, sitting on the edge of a chair tips the thing over and falls on the floor. He's not hurt. Which is good, because we needed this.

     And then, finally, there's news. At about 7 p.m. we gather in a news conference and listen to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his associates, including Carolina Panther owner Jerry Richardson.

     The deal sounds extraordinary. Ten years -- 10 years of labor peace. But the players apparently don't like it. The acrimony runs deep.

     I've said from the beginning that I don't think the owners are greedy and I don't think the players are greedy. We fling the term around because we think that we'd play for free. We wouldn't. It's not about money. It's about doing what's right. But who decides?

      I like the deal. I like the structure. I like that the league goes back to work Saturday.

      But how would I feel if I were a player? I have absolutely no idea.  

      And I have no idea what happens next.

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the owners to end the lockout

    In an Atlanta hotel lobby waiting for the NFL owners to announce that they have a new deal. Could be here all day. One issue that could get in the way: owners won't cut a deal until the players drop their lawsuit. The suit is an absolute deal breaker.

     So we wait, standing on the shiny floor, sunshine flowing through the big windows. We line the corridor, waiting for owners to walk past and likely say nothing.

     But the commericial was right. There is no next best thing to being there. So we wait.

      Easier in the bar last night. There was Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins. Guy next to me said, let's charge our drinks to Jones. I said, no, I don't play that way. I have ethics. So how about we charge them to Snyder?

    Standing at the bar and not drinking were Carolina Panther owner Jerry Richardson and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

      As soon as the agreement is announced, and  I assume it will be late today, the story becomes free agency.

     I think the Panthers will make a run at all of theirs, including defensive end Charles Johnson, and DeAngelo Williams.

    They will spend millions. They'll spend most of it to retain their own free-agents and to try to sign stars who aren't free-agents to long-term contracts.

 

Kris Jenkins, former Panther, retires

   Kris Jenkins announced his retirement on his Facebook page today. Jenkins played the last three seasons with the New York Jets, and still was a force when he wasn't injured. But as his career wound down, he was usually injured. He's 31.

    A defensive tackle out of Maryland, he played his first seven seasons for Carolina. He was big, often enormous, yet remarkably quick, and he was fearless. Back when Tampa Bay ruled the NFC South, he loudly called out Tampa Bay star defensive tackle Warren Sapp (who will be in Charlotte Thursday to speak to the Touchdown Club).

    The Panthers hadn't had players who did that. Jenkins could back it up.

     I didn't know him well. He didn't like some of what I wrote, and said so to his friends, or friend, in the media. Just as it was my prerogative to criticize him, it was his to dislike me.

     When Jenkins emerged in the early 2000s, there was an innocence about the Panthers. There also was potential. They were growing and you better watch out because weren't going to go quietly anymore.

     Jenkins was a big part of that.

 

 

 

 

NFL owners and players will settle and then the fun begins

   I'm heading down to Atlanta for the meetings of the NFL owners. I suspect a deal will be reached tomorrow, that the lockout will end and the rush to sign free agents will begin.

    I don't think that anybody close to the negotiations ever expected games to be lost.

     When a deal is cut, the owners are not going to claim, "We won," unless the words come from a rogue owner who later will be shunned by his peers. Owners will say that the league won, which is to say that the fans won.

      I'm told that Jerry Richardson, the owner of the Carolina Panthers, has fought for the integrity of small-market teams such as his.

     That's important. The NBA offers no protection for small-market teams. The Charlotte Bobcats, despite the star power of Michael Jordan, are in position where, even to have a chance to avoid losing money, they have to do everything right. While the rich get richer, small market teams shrink.

     Their system has to be reworked, and the players will have to decide whether to accept responsiblity for helping rework it. Is it the obligation of employees to ensure that their employer is in a position to make money?

      Unless the employer has made frivolous decisions, I say yes.

      The NFL has thrived for many reasons, one of which is a real salary cap.

      The league's success is legendary and, after tomorrow, it will continue to be.

       Once an agreement is reached, the accent will be not on what happened but on what happens next.

      It will be like the ACC men's basketball tournament. Fun to keep up with, cool to watch, glad you determined a champion, now bring on the NCAA tournament.

      Once the league's future is secure, it will immediately be about the future of their team.     

     The mad scramble for free agents will be unprecedented, stock exchange traders holding up money and shouting out names. Be interesting to see whose voices are the loudest.

 

 

 

    

    

 

 

 

 

 

   

Minor league ballpark downtown is still a no brainer.

    Charlotte can't support Major League Baseball. No Major League team is going to relocate to this city in this economy or in a thriving economy. We'd fill the stadium up weekends because the bleachers would be full of fans from the Greenvilles and Greensboro. But on Tuesday night?

     So let's build a minor league ballpark downtown. The Charlotte Knights have always been willing to pay more than their share. Charge minor league prices and create an after work option for thousands.

     Kudos to the Mecklenburg Country Commissions for seeing the possiblities.

      If it weren't for the frivolous lawsuits that delayed construction, lawsuits filed by a real estate attorney who claims he knows a big league team that wants to move to Charlotte, the Knights already would be playing downtown. He won't name the team.

     I think it's the Hogwarts.

 

Soccer fans have access to email and know how to use it

    I wrote a column Monday about soccer. I wrote that I appreciated the conditioning and skill that are required, wrote how mid-July is ideal for an unconventional sport to emerge, wrote how I tried to like soccer -- going to games, reading books about teams in Italy and England -- but failed. Also wrote how  soccer fans often want others to love their sport the way they do.

     I knew I'd get slammed by readers, and I have. So you're not all on vacation.

     Some emailers were civil, recommending a soccer book I hadn't read, and in rare cases agreeing with me.

      But most responses went like this: Nobody cares about your opinion.

      I spent several hours Tuesday and Wednesday morning responding to readers who took time to tell me they didn't care about my opinion.

      Gratifying, at least to me, is that when I responded, some of the angriest readers became courteous. They didn't expect a response.

      I respond to every reader (eventually) unless -- they say the same thing in every email, strangely invoke dead people or post on a message board my response.

      About opinions: I like to read opinions that support mine as well as those that don't. There are political columnists with which I always disagree, yet I read them. I don't need movie critics or sports columnists to like what I like.

     Who lives in a world in which everybody agrees with everybody?

     I don't.

     I'm married.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The count, Roger Clemens, appears to be 3-0

    If anybody has followed the Roger Clemens 'roids episode, listened to the evidence and remembered and misremembered what you heard, there's only one conclusion, and it doesn't bode well for Roger. He goes to federal court Wednesday,

     Went to the Regal Manor Theater Monday afternoon. Like going back in time. Employee opened the door for us when we walked in and said thanks when we walked out. Classy.

     I think I'm the only one who doesn't believe NFL owners and players and NBA owners and players are greedy. What would you do if it were your livelihood? 

    

 

 

 

 

Kurt, Klitschko and cycling

    (1) If I covered NASCAR, I wouldn't write about Kurt Busch's separation from his wife. Twice after a high profile separation involving a Charlotte sports personality I was called by a woman who claimed to be a friend of the wife. In each case the woman  wanted to offer dirt about the husband. I wasn't interested. My life isn't so empty that I need to fill it with celebrity Charlotte sports gossip. Also, I can't justify pretending that it's my business.

    (2) British heavyweight David Haye is a coward. He talked such trash to Wladimir Klitschko. Talked incessantly about what he was going to do. When they fought Saturday, he did nothing. Haye flopped like a soccer player, or Shane Battier. Haye didn't even try. He just hid. Wladimir is an excellent fighter. Fans don't know it because he lacks a foil. The really good ones need somebody to measure and prove themselve against. Would love to have seen Wlad, in his prime, against Lennox Lewis, in his. I was at Madison Square Garden when Klitschko destroyed Charlotte's Calvin Brock. At least Brock had the guts to fight.

     (3) Today is the perfect day. There's nothing going on. Restaurants are empty and streets are empty and there's nothing, aside from walking the dog, I have to do. Alas, my mountain bike awaits. Don't know how many of you ride but cycles are freedom, at least until I hit McAlpine Park. The stretch I use -- Rea Rd., Johnson Rd., Highway 51 -- is dangerous because parents let their kids, and dogs, wander across the path. I've ridden there, run there, walked dogs there and walked there. Cyclists and runners usually are aware of their obligations. It's the others that cause the problems. Come around a corner and, wham, all the space is occupied. Work under the supposition that half the path is yours and you're golden.

   And no cell phones please. A woman was chattering on her phone while she walked her dog and the dog jumped in the water. Big dog, too. The dog was in no danger, but the woman didn't know what to do. I was going to help her, but I figured if I knew her I wouldn't like her. McAlpine is where you go to get away from phones. I think the dog was making a statement (hang up and walk!) and I didn't want to get in the way.