As NFL owners and players take the next step in their lockout legal battle Friday when they argue in front of a three-judge panel at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis , there is one overarching question:

Is this legal wrangle a good or bad thing for the NFL?

The obvious answer from most corners of the league – be it New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott(notes), New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft or anyone in between those polar opposites – is that the lockout is bad. In recent weeks, former players such as Terry Bradshaw and Cris Collinsworth have weighed in with opinions echoing league officials, essentially saying the matter should be negotiated, not litigated.

In the backdrop, the decertified NFL Players Association has been talking tougher in recent days, with executive director DeMaurice Smith saying the trade association might not assemble as a union again. Similarly, players such as Drew Brees(notes), London Fletcher(notes) and Chester Pitts(notes) have backed up Smith by saying they are prepared for a long fight that could curtail or completely wipe out the 2011 season.

On Wednesday, NFL general counsel Jeff Pash said he considered Smith’s statements a thinly veiled attempt to back up the players’ court case.

“I assume it’s principally meant by DeMaurice to bolster their media position and their legal claim that this was not simply a tactical move for negotiating position,” Pash said. “I think that DeMaurice would admit that other than to support their legal position, it doesn’t help generate a fair deal that both sides will benefit from. It doesn’t help the current players, and it doesn’t help the retired players.”

While Pash’s explanation makes sense because a formal collective bargaining agreement helps protect the many mechanisms that maintain the NFL’s competitive balance such as the NFL draft and the assorted restrictions on free agency, there is a flipside to being in court:

It helps keep the peace, which ultimately has been part of the NFL’s huge growth.

The longest run of labor peace in modern NFL history has been over the past 23 years. That coincides with when the NFLPA, then under the leadership of the late Gene Upshaw, decided to stop negotiating with the owners. Instead, the NFLPA and Upshaw went to court in 1990 and filed the antitrust lawsuit that became the Reggie White case and resulted in the 1993 CBA that expired in March.

Prior to that, the NFL and the NFLPA were regularly at odds. There were strikes in 1982 and 1987, both of which caused games to be cancelled. Previously, the relatively powerless NFLPA, which was officially recognized by the owners in 1968 when the two sides struck a CBA, voted three times to go on strike. However, none of the instances (1968, 1970 and 1974) resulted in missed regular-season games.

Ultimately, that means that over a 19-year span, the players either voted to go on strike or went on strike five times. As a result, union leadership changed drastically, with the 1982 strike resulting in the departure of former union chief Ed Garvey.

So while the current labor dispute may not be ideal for owners, players or outsiders, there is a positive side.

“I’m not going to say we were powerless, but there’s no question there was a limit to what we could do,” said Jeff Van Note, who spent his entire 18-year career with Atlanta Falcons from 1969-86 and was the team’s union representative in the 1980s. “The strikes just weren’t effective. The players couldn’t outwait the owners no matter what … the strategy [Upshaw] came up with [following the ’87 strike] was really smart. It was the only way the players were ever going to get any real leverage.”

Since the now-expired CBA began in ’93, the resulting labor peace has contributed to unparalleled economic growth. Now, however, players fear that the gains made over the past 20 years could be jeopardized if they are no longer under the umbrella of the court, where threats of antitrust lawsuits have largely kept the owners at bay.

When the NFLPA first decertified in the late 1980s, it took away the antitrust protections the owners had because the owners were dealing with individuals rather than a unionized workforce that was negotiating as one group. When the CBA was worked out in ’93, the owners required the players to recertify as a union as part of the settlement because the owners wanted protection from lawsuits, like in 2003 when Maurice Clarett challenged the NFL’s draft rule on underclassmen.

Now, the players have returned to court for basically the same reason they did in the late 1980s. As Van Note indicated, the owners consistently have leverage over the players because of the nature of the game. More so than in baseball and basketball players, football players have relatively short careers. The risk of losing a year of pay in a sport where your ability to play is regularly in jeopardy because of injury is extremely difficult to accept.

Without the ability to take the owners to court, the players have consistently lost because the labor process is so long.

Pash eloquently disagreed with the notion that court supervision helped create labor peace.

“I don’t believe that the court supervision has contributed in any way to the labor peace that we’ve had from 1993 through 2010,” Pash said. “What contributed to it was recognition by both sides that negotiations and collective bargaining, which is what went on for all that time, was in their interests and that they were able to build something great together. They were able to work through their issues in an honest and candid way that involved compromise.

“The owners certainly didn’t get everything they wanted through that time and the players didn’t get everything they wanted through that time. But together they recognized that what unified them was much stronger than what divided them. And that had nothing to do with the court. That had to do with recognition of where people’s mutual interests lay, that they had a shared responsibility to 100 million Americans who follow the National Football League and care about it passionately. That’s what gets agreements done, not complaints and lawsuits. Agreements get done when people have shared interests.”

Perhaps, but didn’t those “mutual interests” exist in the 1980s, when there were two work stoppages?

“You are sort of asking me to go back to a time when I wasn’t nearly as involved, but I think it did exist,” Pash said. “But it’s like any relationship: Sometimes it has its rocky points and so you had a strike in 1982 and then a strike in 1987, but both times the parties resolved those disputes and got the game back on the field and that can happen again. No court intervened in 1982 to get the game back on the field. No court intervened in 1987 to get the game back on the field. The players and the clubs got the game back on the field.”

Maybe, but even after 1987, the players walked away from the process dissatisfied with what they received, leading to the move to the courtroom.

More than two decades later, the players still hold a strong distrust of the owners. Whether they will be able to protect themselves in court remains to be seen.

(source Jason Cole – Yahoo Sports)

CAMPEONES NMF FANTASY

Como todos los años de en NMF se consagra un Campeón en el NMF Fantasy Football, algunos de los que compiten lo hacen desde que empezamos a competir hace res años tras, por el momento el campeón no ha sido el mismo, y eso es por que varios saben bien de lo que es el Fantasy.
En esta liga se compite con 20 equipos, no es fácil armar un súper equipo, y cada semanas cada uno deberá estar al tanto de los jugadores que están en su equipo, siempre con un ojo en los agentes libres, en los jugadores lesionados y otras cosas que hacen que este juego sea maravilloso.

Estos son los Campeones de NMF Fantasy Football:
2011- BenidormSilverghosts
2010- #89
2009- OSP25

(on what gave the team confidence that they could stop Tom Brady for four quarters) “We had to go out there and just get back to our basics and be relentless and understand this game wasn’t going to be easy. We knew that Tom Brady is an outstanding quarterback. We just had to go out there and just play ball and just rally it and do the best that we could.”

(on if the Giants defense made any adjustments to stop the short passing game) “We just put in a couple of different calls, and we played a little bit more man to man. We didn’t want to let him dink and dunk the ball off as he was doing pretty much the entire game. Like I said, our defensive coordinator has been outstanding for us and we knew he would put us in a position to make plays. We just had to go out there and just run them effectively.”

(on his injury) “I got kneed in the ribs, which hurts like hell right now, but I don’t think anything could take down my high at this point. I’m sure it’s going to hurt a lot more later on tonight.”

(on what happened with the Wes Welker play) “We were getting different signals, different calls. The communication started with one thing and when they went to a different formation, we were supposed to check to something else. Not everyone quite got it. We were just on a little different page, but it happens. You know, one mistake all game, we’ll take that.”

(on the team’s feeling toward the end of the game) “It was calm. Eli Manning had the ball and we all know what he can do with the ball in his hands. We just went out there and just had faith in him and knew that the game was going to come down to us. The game had to be won by the defensive side of the ball and made sure we stayed relentless in what we were doing.”

(on what he was thinking on the ‘hail mary’ play) “I actually was pretty close to the ball. My assignment was to jam the receiver and not let him get up the field. Front that point on, most of the ‘hail mary’ is in the air. At that point in time, it could be anyone’s ball. It could be anybody’s ball at that point. We just had to go out there and just do what we’ve been taught to do, go out there and make sure you bat the ball out and I was just making sure no one caught it afterwards.”

(on if the ball falling to Gronkowski is indicative of the team’s struggles the last six weeks and on a lot of things going their way in the end) “You can’t draw on that play. At that point in time with a ‘hail mary,’ it can be anyone’s ball. You just have to go out there and do what you’ve been taught to do and work your technique and let that speak for itself. Thank God we won the upper hand on that side.”

(on Chase Blackburn’s interception) “It was huge. It was definitely the play of the game. I think Chase went out there and he played exceptional ball for us today. He was all over the place and he made a lot of big plays. He’s been doing that ever since he stepped foot into Giants’ gear. We couldn’t have done this without Chase and that speaks volumes for what kind of guy he is, his character, and most of all who he is as a teammate.”

(on if he could envision this after he rallied the players after the loss to Washington) “I can’t say I imagined this, but I did know that we weren’t playing our best ball. All I asked was for us to go out there and give 100 percent in practice and just see where we go. If we were 8-8 with us giving 100 percent, I would be satisfied with that. But, I knew that we were a better team. I knew that we had more character. We were better. We were many times the team that had been playing for the previous weeks. Once we put it together and once we started practicing like our lives depended on it, this is the outcome we got. We won game after game after game while taking it one game at a time.”

Necesitamos mas Football y Varsity Travel te llevan al FOOTBALL TOUR 2012, 9 días a puro Football, juegos de la NFL, NCAA y High School, ya tenemos los juegos de la NFL para ir a ver en el mes de Octubre, por el momento sólo tenemos los juegos de NFL, los de NCAA y HS los sabremos mas cerca de la fecha del viaje.


Las imagenes y logos son a modo ilustrativo.

Para consultas del viaje nos podes escribir a.
necesitamosmasfootball@gmail.com
info@varsitytravel.com.ar

NECESITAMOS MAS FOOTBALL and VARSITY TRAVEL take you to our 2012 FOOTBALL TOUR. Come with us and enjoy 9 great days of pure football: NFL, NCAA and high school games. we have the NFL games to go and see in the month of October, so far only we have NFL games, the NCAA and the HS will know closer to the date of travel.

Dates and cities included on the flyer are just examples and will be adjusted to the 2012 season games.

http://www.facebook.com/events/248784668559554/

For inquiries please contact us at
necesitamosmasfootball@gmail.com
info@varsitytravel.com.ar

Saludos - Regards
NMF

NMF nació de un injusto recorte televisivo que dejo a muchos fans sin poder ver el deporte que tanto fanatismo nos produce, en el año 2007 vimos recortado el paquete Sunday Ticket de Directv, muchos son fervientes seguidores de un equipo en la NFL y luego del recorte no pudieron acceder a ver a su equipo favorito.
Muchos mails se mandaron durante el año previo a la temporada 2009 a directivos de NFL y Directv en USA, muchos pusieron su grano de arena, se tomaron el tiempo para escribir y mandar aun que sea un email, FUNSIONÓ.
Hoy en día Directv volvió a pasar el Sunday Ticket completo y todo esto se logro por que todos los que amamos este deporte hicimos algo desde nuestro lugar para que algo cambiara.
ESPN cuenta con la señal de ESPN2 donde se ven partidos Universitarios NCAA, Directv cuenta con el canal NFL Network que transmite los 365 días del año y Fox Sports podría pasar sus partidos en un horario normal.
Tenemos que seguir unidos para que se pueda ver mas de este maravilloso deporte.
Cada vez hay mas fanáticos y gente que juega este deporte. Latinoamérica, sigamos trabajando en equipo, fuera de la cancha y con la misma camiseta.
Necesitamos que nos ayudes, sumándote. Recomendá este blog, reenvialo, colgalo donde sea. Cuantos más seamos, más fácil va a ser ganarle al rival.

Porque mucho más doloroso que no jugar football americano, es no poder verlo.

Y si tenemos que ir al choque para que se vea mas football americano, eso vamos a hacer.
Porque para eso nacimos los que amamos este deporte.

NMF agradece a todos los que se pusieron y aportaron a esta causa, gracias a todos los que hicieron posible este cambio.
Ahora resta que sigan cambiando y mejorando para que los que amamos este deporte pueda ver mas Football.

La reunión de dueños de clubes trajo nuevas modificaciones a la reglamentación que serán aplicables en la temporada 2012, un breve resumen de ellas es:

a) En cualquier caso de cambios de posesión las jugadas serán revisados automáticamente por la cabina sin que se necesiten desafíos por parte de los entrenadores, recordemos que los oficiales en cabina ya revisan todas las jugadas de anotación.

b) Las reglas de anotaciones en el tiempo extra en la temporada regular empleará las mismas reglas que la postemporada (con un amplio consenso de 30 votos a favor y solo 2 en contra).

c) El equipo cuyo jugador patee ilegalmente un balón perdido -además de anular la jugada- será penalizado con la pérdida del down.

d) Pasa a considerarse "indefenso" a un jugador que reciba un bloqueo lateral y el equipo infractor recibirá una penalización de 15 yardas.

La regla de la revisión automática en caso de cambio de posesión parece acertada y en línea con la revisión automática de las anotaciones en la búsqueda del sustento tecnológico disponible en favor de un correcto arbitraje, así las cosas los entrenadores en jefe podrán reservar sus retos para otro tipo de jugadas dudosas y no sacrificar los mismos, a veces ciegamente, en especial en los cambios de posesión en acarreos que terminan en multitudinarios tackles y montoneras en los cuales tener certeza desde la banda es prácticamente imposible. También se decidió que quien dictamine el cobro definitivo de la jugada en revisión siga siendo el árbitro principal descartando una propuesta que consistía en que la decisión la tomaran los oficiales en la cabina.

Otro cambio que reafirma uno preexistente es el de las anotaciones en los suplementarios, ahora en la temporada regular el juego terminará en la primera posesión de un equipo únicamente si anota un touchdown o la defensiva consigue un safety. Si el equipo patea un gol de campo en su primera posesión, el equipo rival también tendrá una posesión. Si también patea un gol de campo, el tiempo extra continua.

Me resulta algo sorprendente la resolución sobre la perdida del intento en caso de puntapié intencional en casos de fumble ya que es algo que muy rara vez ocurre, en verdad el jugador de football es mas propenso a tropezar con el balón que a aplicar un puntapie, pero ya saben, ahora significará la perdida del intento.

En cuanto a la penalidad por el bloqueo lateral les diré que estoy en un todo de acuerdo, a poco que te calces un casco ya notaras que tu campo visual en los laterales de tu humanidad es prácticamente nulo de modo que la definición de indefenso me parece ajustada y además limita a las jugadas de bloqueos laterales algo dudosos que mas que laterales eran bloqueos ilegales con un alto porcentaje bloqueo por la espalda y bajo porcentaje del lateral del cuerpo.

Como anécdota les apunto que en la misma reunión se decidió que no está prohibido el tackle consistente en sujetar por detrás del cuello a los QB en tanto ellos estén en el pocket. A primera vista parece discordante con la política de protección a los jugadores que está intensificando la liga, sin embargo, parece tener un sentido físico claro. Esos tipos de jugada -en un altísimo porcentaje- se producen con un DL que esta siendo bloqueado por un OF y que apenas logra halar al QB que si bien está de espaldas, está prácticamente inmóvil buscando a su objetivo, de modo que la probabilidad de una lesión severa se me antoja prácticamente nula (muy distinto es el mismo caso en un tackle de este estilo a quien porta el balón ya lanzado en velocidad y es tomado así por un defensivo como ultimo recurso, ahí si la posibilidad de lesión es alta y el castigo -implementado hoy día- es naturalmente correcto).

La nueva reunión de dueños será en el mes de mayo, se espera ligeras modificaciones sobre el numero de jugadores habilitados para los roster en pretemporada y la posibilidad de cambios en las fechas límites de canjes una vez iniciada la sesión.

Palm Beach (Fuente AP)

Por Fernando Fumagalli

For a guy who has been suspended for a year, Sean Payton sure has been busy.

He's planned the Saints' offseason, put in time for next month's NFL draft and talked to mentor Bill Parcells to see if he would be interested in running the team while Payton serves his time for allowing a bounty system.

All of this is OK with the league, because Payton's suspension doesn't begin until Sunday. But what will Payton do during his time off, since he won't be paid his reported $5.8 million salary?

After all, a guy's got to feed his family, as Latrell Sprewell famously said when he turned down a three-year, $21 million contract extension offer from the Timberwolves.

The New York Times reported this week that Fox Sports is considering having Payton join its NFC coverage team.

"Our feeling about Sean is that he's bright, articulate and obviously contemporary," Lou D'Ermilio, a Fox senior VP, told the Times. "Any network with NFL rights would have to consider it."

Apparently not any network, since NBC, CBS and ESPN each have said they wouldn't hire Payton, even though the NFL seemingly is OK with it.

"He is suspended from the NFL for the season," the league said in a statement to the Times. "His involvement in any non-NFL employment or business matters is not our decision."

Is working on an NFL broadcast team really non-NFL employment?

And although Payton won't be paid, he's still under contract with the Saints, so wouldn't it be a conflict of interest?

This article was written by Tom Couzens and appeared in the Sacramento Bee.
(Getty Images)

You won’t hear Stephen Ross admit the team he bought for $1.1 billion is rebuilding because that’s a mortal sin cited in the NFL owner’s handbook just ahead of selling an opposing team’s T-shirts in your pro shop. And Dolphins coach Joe Philbin also won’t be uttering the “R” word because he has a logical reason not to make such a declaration.

“It’s way too early to predict where we’re going to be in the win-loss column,” Philbin said Tuesday, “and it would be a disservice to the players to say we’re in a rebuilding mode.”

We get it on both counts.

But the fact the Dolphins decline to tell you they’re undergoing at least a partial rebuild doesn’t change the facts.

This team is rebuilding, and it has nothing to do with the million-dollar construction that will add a new player lounge and update the locker room and meeting rooms at the team’s Davie practice facility.

The Dolphins of 2012 will be different. They will have different coaches. They will have different players. They will line up differently. They will play differently (hopefully). And they probably won’t be a finished product even after free agency and next month’s draft are over.

Miami will have a new starting right tackle, a new starting right guard, at least one new starting receiver, a new starting strong safety, perhaps a new starting free safety, and change at linebacker and cornerback is also a possibility.

Add to that the fact the offense is new, the starting quarterback is undetermined and the defensive scheme Miami has been running since Nick Saban was coach has changed, and you have a new, different team.

A rebuilding team.

That’s not a bad thing, by the way.

The Dolphins were 6-10 last season. They were 7-9 the two years before that. If they want to contend they’re not rebuilding and they really mean it, then they have a bigger problem because folks like me will be forced to ask why not?

What kind of organization, after all, would have three consecutive losing years and want to stay the course and keep the same players?

Rebuilding this team is not only a good thing, it’s the right thing.

Of course, that’s not what you’re going to hear from the organization.

Ross will decline to announce a rebuild because doing so is universally accepted by public relations and marketing people as a great way to keep fans away in droves.

Getting in on the ground floor is a great pitch for a stock. It isn’t the best way to pitch a football team in the same town with the championship-caliber Heat and the suddenly relevant Marlins. It isn’t the way to excite fans that aren’t in such a good mood to begin with.

Rebuilding simply isn’t sexy.

Deflect and deny

And so when Ross was asked this week if his team is in the midst of a rebuild, the owner did what any bright man in his position might do — answer the question with words that more or less ignored the question and didn’t really provide an answer.

“We think we have a fine nucleus,” Ross said. “I think we’re excited about where we’re going. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The Dolphins’ fine nucleus, by the way, consists of only a handful of players — Jake Long, Mike Pouncey, Cameron Wake and maybe Randy Starks, and just maybe Karlos Dansby. Dansby is a nice player, but he still has not played up to his salary.

Everyone else?

So far just a bunch of guys — some solid, many not yet at their potential, some playing frustratingly below expectations.

None of this applies to the team’s group of quarterbacks. Matt Moore, David Garrard and Pat Devlin are none of the above. Moore was a pleasant surprise who perhaps played over his head last season, Garrard is new, and Devlin is a developmental player.

One of them likely will be the club’s starter in 2012 unless general manager Jeff Ireland lands an amazing prize in the draft.

“I envision Matt Moore and David Garrard and Pat Devlin at this point in time getting a lot of repetitions in the minicamp and as things move forward, based on what happens, we’ll divide the reps from there,” Philbin said. “It’s going to be an open competition. We told both guys that. We’re very clear about that.

“I told David my only obligation to Matt Moore is he’s a member of the 2012 Dolphins. He’s under contract. He played well last year, and he deserves an opportunity to compete for the starting position just like David does because now he’s a member of the team.”

Auditioning

That’s it. Moore and Garrard have one year to show something because both have contracts that expire after the season. So for all we know, neither of them will be around after the coming season.

Let’s see … veterans who might or might not be around after the coming season man the most important position on the team.

The Dolphins are rebuilding.

This article was written by Armando Salguero and appeared in the Miami Herald.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak knew each name that would comprise the slim City Council majority backing his Minnesota Vikings stadium plan more than a month before the group put its support in writing.

The mayor's top aide was drafting letters of support as early as Feb. 21, featuring names of the same seven council members who eventually backed the deal on March 26. The letters are among 120 pages of e-mails released by the city at the Star Tribune's request that shed light on the behind-the-scenes frustrations and horse trading that preceded a March 1 agreement between the Vikings, the city and the state.

The e-mails also reveal the influence a top Target Corp. executive had in shaping even the smallest details regarding the city's Vikings stadium subsidy package.

A week before the stadium deal was announced, Target Executive Vice President John Griffith urged Rybak and others to finalize the city's agreement and bluntly told them what should be included and left out of the package. "I can imagine that some of this has made many of you anxious, my apologies," Griffith, the company's property development specialist, wrote on Feb. 21. "Much work awaits us. Let's go."

In those final days, the city's source of funding for its share of the nearly $1 billion stadium changed dramatically. In a Feb. 18 presentation by Griffith, much of the city's contribution came from a new hotel tax and game day parking surcharges, both of which were eventually dropped from the plan because of perceived opposition from Republican legislators and downtown residents. Other e-mails show the city pushed unsuccessfully to unload the city-owned Target Center onto a newly created stadium authority.

The messages from Rybak's inbox between Jan. 27 and Feb. 27 illustrate the round-the-clock drive to reach a deal, including many missives sent on weekends and late at night. While the stadium bill faces uncertain prospects at the Legislature, the plan got a significant boost when Rybak managed to pull together the narrowest majority in the face of six firm opponents on the 13-member City Council.

Tracking a swing vote

The e-mails show the shifting position of Council Member Sandra Colvin Roy, the crucial swing vote, who told the Star Tribune Feb. 14 that she still wanted a citywide vote on the stadium plan -- something that stadium backers thought would kill the deal. Colvin Roy inquired about the plan's finer points in mid-February, had an extended meeting with the mayor and then sought a meeting with the city's chief financial officer on Feb. 14.

"I think she is getting there," Jeremy Hanson Willis, Rybak's chief of staff, wrote on Feb. 15. "Meeting with her ASAP and underscoring the urgency to move will help."

Gov. Mark Dayton would later lobby Colvin Roy and Council Member Kevin Reich personally. But the mayor's office thought it had Reich's support early on.

On Feb. 3, John Stiles, the mayor's spokesman, outlined an upcoming press conference intended to "move weak Council opponents into the supporters column." Reich, who did not publicly support the plan until March 26, was slated to appear as "our 6th public City Council supporter" and was scripted to say, "I support this plan."

Reich, however, did not join them, and Council Member Diane Hofstede spoke instead.

"We thought that Kevin might join us there. And he obviously did not," Stiles said in an interview Wednesday, adding that Reich "was expressing interest in the event and in the jobs message of the event."

Council Member John Quincy asked the city's development chief, Chuck Lutz, for help crafting his initial position statement. Among other things, he felt the letter needed to address the city's position that there should not be a referendum, despite a provision requiring a citywide vote whenever the city spends $10 million or more on a sports facility.

"How to say this is a logical and good decision -- while weighing it against the risks of not honoring the charter, or appearing to be dismissing the voice of folks, or appearing slippery," Quincy wrote.

Council President Barb Johnson said Wednesday the draft letters featuring the list of eventual supporters, prepared by Hanson Willis, reflected "the people that were persuadable. And it just took a lot of time and answering of questions to ... get people to finally feel comfortable."

The e-mails also showed that city officials, in pushing for the letters, wanted to avoid a City Council vote on the stadium. Lutz said in a Feb. 20 e-mail that the letter was key not only for displaying support to the state leaders, but "avoiding a City Council vote at this time."

On the same day, Rybak wrote that without a letter of support "we will fight attacks from the council through this whole thing."

Unknown player

Griffith, the Target executive, had been a key player with the Downtown Council's planning vision for downtown Minneapolis, which included a new Vikings stadium. But the e-mails show that Griffith helped put together stadium slide presentations to help city officials sell the stadium plan, and even suggested in early February "a clean simple way to tell the story."

"This is meant to be a quick 'elevator' speech," Griffith said in a Feb. 9 e-mail. Rybak messaged Griffith back the same day that "we are very grateful for the exceptional help!"

On the same day, Griffith again said that "his team" had slides that would show "inflows will be $20 million in Vikings related taxes, taxes on the 3, 4 thousand jobs over the term as well as taxes on the construction jobs up front, additional hotel, restaurant, [and] bar revenue."

Griffith's influence also extended to the stadium's design, including a new plaza. In a Feb. 13 e-mail to Rybak, Griffith talked of having a plaza that at various times would feature six hockey rinks, two soccer fields, two lacrosse fields and an Olympic-size speed skating oval.

Griffith was not available Wednesday for comment, but Target spokesperson Amy Reilly said his stadium involvement dovetails with his extensive work developing a plan for downtown Minneapolis growth.

The Target executive also weighed in on another vital issue: Whether the City Council actually needed to approve the city's stadium subsidy package.

For Griffith, the answer was clear: No. "The legislation should simply state that if the city does not approve the deal, then the state will utilize the convention center taxes to pay the city's share of the stadium debt," he wrote on Feb. 21.

This article was written by Eric Roper and appeared in the Minnesota Pioneer Press.

Mike Powell/GETTY IMAGES

Even studying football when he volunteers with Shadle Park High’s team in Spokane, Wash., isn’t the same for the man who was Super Bowl XXVI’s most valuable player. The changes alarmed him.

“I was kind of a brainiac when it came to the game,” Rypien said. “The X’s and O’s came easily to me. I really have to struggle now. … It seems like I’m learning the game again which once came so easily.”

During a 25-minute conversation Wednesday, Rypien paused in mid-sentence trying to recall the year he absorbed a dizzying hit against the Minnesota Vikings. He remembered other details from the game, which was played in October 1992. But the year was like a black hole.

Adding to Rypien’s concern was last year’s suicide of Rick Rypien, his cousin who suffered concussions as an NHL enforcer.

So, Rypien filled out a survey on head injuries from the NFL Alumni Association two weeks ago and was connected with Craig Mitnick, co-counsel with Gene Locks in the suit.

Rypien still loves football. He would still play again knowing the risks. But he wished the NFL was more forthcoming about the long-term consequences of head injuries. He wants the game to be safer, where health matters more than wins.

“We need to take care of our people,” Rypien said, “not look after how much money we’re going to make based on putting people out there in very precarious, scary positions and really engaging them in a life-threatening practice.”

Fourteen other ex-Redskins are also part of the lawsuit, one of dozens filed against the NFL over head injuries. Mitnick’s group represents over 550 ex-players who have sued the NFL.

“We probably put up a good front,” Rypien said. “We want to make it look like things are OK. But each one of those individuals, like myself, has got issues going on and things that are alarming.

“I worry about 10 years from now.”

This article was written by Nathan Fenno and appeared in the Washington Times.

Last season, the N.F.L.’s postseason overtime rule got its first and only tests in two games, when the Denver Broncos beat the Pittsburgh Steelers with a touchdown pass on the first play of overtime in their playoff matchup and the Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers with a field goal in the N.F.C. championship.

That small sample size was apparently enough to convince owners that they liked the new format. On Wednesday, the owners changed overtime for the regular season so that it will mirror the postseason rule, which mandates that the team that wins the coin flip cannot win the game on its first possession with a field goal.

“It should be consistent,” said John Mara, the Giants’ president and a member of the competition committee.

The most significant of the other rule changes for next season calls for all turnovers to be automatically reviewed by replay officials without coaches having to use a challenge flag. The league does not believe that will add time to games because the clock already stops for turnovers. But owners rejected a proposal to have all instant replays reviewed by those in the booth rather than officials on the field.

The owners approved three more rules changes: the foul for having too many men on the field will now be a dead-ball foul with the clock stopping; a team will lose a down if a player illegally kicks a loose ball; and the recipient of a crack-back block is now considered a defenseless player, resulting in a 15-yard penalty.

A proposal to extend protection against horse-collar tackles to quarterbacks was rejected because it was determined that the risk of being injured by such tackles was not the same for a quarterback standing in the pocket as it was for a player running in the open field.

“We just didn’t see the injury risk,” said Rich McKay, the president of the Atlanta Falcons and the chairman of the competition committee.

Owners tabled until their May meeting proposals to expand the training camp roster to 90 players from 80; to move the trade deadline back two weeks, to the eighth week of the season; to allow one player to come off injured reserve during the season after an eight-week recovery time; and to create a roster exemption for a player with a concussion. Mara said he expected the bylaws to pass when owners reconvened in Atlanta.

This article was written by Judy Battista and appeared in the New York Times.

The courtship of Peyton Manning gets an exhaustive look from Peter King in the next issue of Sports Illustrated, and might leave Pete Carroll blushing.

King writes that amid Manning's flirtations with NFL clubs, Carroll wanted in on the action. But when the Seattle Seahawks coach couldn't get an audience he decided to go proactive.

Writes King:
One more surprise: Manning got a call informing him that Seahawks coach Pete Carroll had flown, unannounced, with Seattle G.M. John Schneider to the airport in Englewood. Carroll would do whatever Manning wanted -- talk for a while in Denver or on the plane to Arizona, his next visit, or fly him to Seattle for a lengthier discussion.

Peyton Manning does not like surprises. He said no thanks. Carroll flew home.

We suppose Carroll deserves points for trying, but that had to burn.

This article was written by Tom Weir and appeared in USA Today.

(Based on official notification to NFL office as of 3/28/12)

Una de las cosas mas atractivas de la NFL, a parte del deporte y la estrategia que conlleva, es el nivel de competitividad entre los equipos. Todos tienen la posibilidad de convertirse de un año a otro en equipos que pelean el campeonato, cosa que no sucede en casi ningún otro deporte en el resto del mundo y esto se lo debe en parte a su sistema de draft. También claramente entran en juego la agencia libre, el tope salarial, modo de definición y algunas otras reglas de la liga. Por esta razón es que el draft es una de las fechas mas importantes para los equipos para nutrirse de jugadores que le rindan frutos en un futuro.
Pero que tan importante es el draft respecto a la agencia libre y transferencias entre los equipos?
Esta es la pregunta que viene a la mente cuando la fecha del draft se acerca, sobretodo si tu equipo no ha hecho muchos movimientos en la agencia libre, no ha hecho los suficientes, o ha hecho demasiados.

Analicemos entonces 10 franquicias; 5 de las de mayor éxito en los últimos años y 5 que les ha costado mucho o demasiado para poder establecerse entre las mejores franquicias y no lo han podido conseguir aún.

Elijamos 10 equipos de los cuales tomaremos sus alineaciones iniciales (ofensivas y defensivas únicamente) de la temporada 2011. Analicemos cuantos titulares provienen de la agencia libre o traspasos y por otro lado cuantos por medio del draft, jugadores que no han sido drafteados (UDFA) pero si recogidos por el equipo y jugadores descubiertos en otras ligas (CFL u otras por ejemplo) que no han pasado por draft que incluiremos esta vez, entre los UDFA si es que no jugaron para otros equipos previamente.

Equipos que han tenido mayor éxito últimamente:

PITTSBURGH STEELERS:
SOLO 1 jugador que no fue drafteado o agarrado entre los UDFA

Entre los titulares:
8 fueron drafteados en primera ronda.
2 en segunda ronda
2 tercera ronda
3 cuarta ronda
3 en la, 6ta o 7ma ronda
3 UDFA

(Quizás con esto comprendan porque los hinchas de Pittsburgh están enamorados de sus directivos y busca talentos; no es para menos viendo estos números).


GREEN BAY PACKERS:
4 jugadores que no fueron drafteados o agarrados entre los UDFA.

Entre sus titulares:
5 fueron drafteados en la primera ronda.
4 en la segunda
2 en la tercera
2 en la cuarta
4 entre la, 6ta y la 7ma
1 UDFA


NEW YORK GIANTS:
5 jugadores que no fueron drafteados o agarrados entre los UDFA.

Entre sus titulares:
6 fueron drafteados en la primera ronda. (contando a Eli Manning)
4 en la segunda ronda
1 en la tercera
1 en la quinta
2 en la, 6ta o 7ma ronda
3 UDFA


NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS:
6 jugadores que no fueron drafteados o agarrados entre los UDFA.

Entre sus titulares:
5 fueron drafteados en primera ronda.
6 en la segunda
1 en la cuarta
1 en la 6ta o 7ma ronda
3 UDFA


NEW ORLEANS SAINTS:
7 jugadores que no fueron drafteados o agarrados entre los UDFA.

Entre sus titulares:
4 fueron drafteados en primera ronda.
3 en la segunda
1 en la tercera
2 en la cuarta
1 en la quinta
2 en la sexta o séptima ronda
2 UDFA

Ahora pasemos a equipos que han luchado por entrar en la elite pero aun no han podido (elegidos al azar):

DALLAS COWBOYS:
5 que no vinieron por draft o UDFA

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES:
8 que no vinieron por draft o UDFA

MIAMI DOLPHINS:
9 que no vinieron por draft o UDFA

CLEVELAND BROWNS:
9 que no vinieron por draft o UDFA

WASHINGTON REDSKINS:
13 que no vinieron por draft o UDFA

Como pueden observar, hay un patrón, donde los equipos que mas se han construido por medio del draft, suelen tener mejores resultados. Quizás puedan analizar los 32 equipos de la NFL, pero seguramente van a terminar llegando a la misma conclusión, donde el construir el equipo por medio del draft es la mejor manera de hacer que una franquicia sea exitosa, a menos que puedan conseguir a Drew Brees en la agencia libre, cambiando rotundamente el futuro de la franquicia.

Teniendo en cuenta estos números también pueden entender la GRAN importancia de elegir bien en la primera y segunda ronda, de donde entre los 5 equipos analizados provienen entre el 31 y hasta un 50% de sus jugadores titulares que es mucho decir, pensando en que es un porcentaje del total de sus titulares ante los que vienen de las otras rondas o de otros lados. Esto es INCLUSO que muchas veces, aquellos jugadores que vienen de otros lados, fueron selecciones de primera ronda en sus respectivos equipos iniciales, donde este porcentaje solo puede crecer todavía más!

Habiendo dicho todo esto, es fundamental para que un equipo prospere en la NFL tener una dirigencia inteligente y busca talentos que tengan buen ojo. Si ser audaces también en la Agencia Libre, pero definitivamente el draft es a donde los equipos deben apuntar para tornar sus franquicias en exitosas.

Espero que esto les ayude a comprender el porque se le da tanta importancia a la fecha del draft, la locura de esos días cuando este se lleva a cabo, porque son importantes los jugadores de primera ronda y cuan importante es que los equipos elijan correctamente.

Fuentes: nfl.com/teams, pro-football-reference.com/teams, wikipedia.org, sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams

Por Michael Ellis

If Dan Snyder hadn’t filed a grievance against the NFL, Washington Redskins fans might have filled out the paperwork themselves. They might even have occupied Park Avenue, where the league makes its high-rise home.

Two weeks later, the Twitterverse is still teeming with rage — and no small amount of incredulity — that the Redskins have been hit with a $36 million salary-cap penalty because of the way they structured contracts during the uncapped 2010 season. It’s a conspiracy, the fans say. It’s collusion. It just isn’t fair.

Fair? Let me tell you about fair, because that’s one of the things that seems to have been lost in this discussion — the great lengths the NFL goes to to level the playing field for all of its franchises, to make sure all of them have a chance win the grand prize.

It’s the cornerstone of the league — and has been for some time, much longer than it’s been a byword in other sports. In the NFL, the motto isn’t: Every man for himself. It’s: We’re only as strong as our weakest member. That’s why the draft was instituted in 1936, nearly three decades before baseball had one. It’s also why the NFL was the first to share its television revenue (1962), the first to test for steroids (1987) and the first to have a salary cap that wasn’t ridden with loopholes (1994).

Leaguethink, it’s been called, and it’s made the NFL the most successful enterprise in sports history. According to Forbes magazine, “the average team is now worth $1.04 billion.” TV ratings, meanwhile, are off the charts. And a lot of it is because, on any given Sunday or in any given year, any club can win, even the small-market Green Bay Packers.

The Redskins, as we’re all tired of being reminded, haven’t been to the Super Bowl in 20 years. In that time, though, 22 other teams have gone, and five more have — unlike the Redskins — reached the conference title game. The NFL is the epitome of competitive balance. Or to put it another way: In baseball you have the Pittsburgh Pirates, and in football you have the Pittsburgh Steelers. If an NFL club loses season after season, it isn’t because the deck is stacked against it; it’s because it doesn’t have the slightest idea what it’s doing.

But the league counts on its owners to be able to see beyond their own luxury boxes, to understand that when the greater good is put first, everybody benefits. Take the pooling of television money. Who had more to lose by evenly dividing the pie than the Mara family, whose New York Giants franchise is in the largest TV market? The Maras could have resisted the notion of sharing and, instead, followed the baseball Yankees’ model of World Domination. But if they had, would the NFL be what it is today, or would it be some lesser version overrun by a handful of big-market bullies?

So the Redskins aren’t getting much sympathy from the Giants’ John Mara, chairman of the Management Committee that took away their cap dollars. Indeed, Mara is feeling betrayed that Snyder and Dallas’ Jerry Jones, who also was punished, couldn’t behave themselves for a single uncapped year, couldn’t resist the urge to put themselves before the league. What, you don’t think other clubs, clubs with an average value of $1 billion, couldn’t have written checks for $21 million and $15 million if they’d wanted to game the system (as the Redskins did with Albert Haynesworth and DeAngelo Hall)?

Let’s face it, there was a certain amount of desperation in what Snyder and Jones did. After all, the Redskins, as previously stated, haven’t made the NFL’s Final Four since the 1991 season, and the Cowboys haven’t gotten that far since ‘95. So they jumped on the opportunity, even though the league discouraged it, to front-load contracts during the uncapped year. It was a major part of their rebuilding strategy (and, in Dan’s case, the latest in a succession of shortcuts that never seem to get the club anywhere).

It’ll all come out in the arbitration hearing, presumably. For instance, is the league really guilty of collusion? Did it really tell teams to keep their spending down? Or did it merely tell them not to seek advantage by loading cap dollars into the uncapped year? Big difference there.

There was nothing, certainly, to prevent the Redskins from spreading the payments to Haynesworth and Hall over a longer period of time. But for Dan Snyder, it wasn’t about fairness. It was about what was best for him. And the NFL didn’t get to be the NFL by putting individual self-interest ahead of collective goals.

Finally, there’s this whole idea that something got taken away from the Redskins. But is that what really happened? Or did the league simply say: “You’ve already spent this $36 million. We just aren’t going to let you spend it twice”? If it’s the latter, then the “penalty” isn’t quite as harsh as it’s been portrayed, is it?

This article was written by Dan Daly and appeared in the Washington Times.