re: DeMaurice Smith: 2-year strike may be necessary leverage for NFLPA in CBA negotiations

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The NFL doesn’t want to go to 17 games. But the players believe they do, so they’ll give up important shite to get them to drop it.

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Yep.

I loathe Goodell, but he's been playing chess while DeMaurice Smith plays checkers, and that's been the dynamic for a decade now.

I don't envy Smith, though. Given the size of NFL rosters and player turnover in football, the NFLPA is too big to have any real power because the players are incapable of sticking together and putting up a united front.

This is exacerbated by the fact that such a large percentage of players are making at or near league minimum or flat out irresponsible with their money and couldn't weather a work stoppage for any semblance of time.

Hell, in the 2011 lockout there weren't any games canceled save for the Hall of Fame Game, and you started to see some players come out in early July and say they needed to make concessions to make a deal because they couldn't hold on. Vince Young was one of the notable ones who took a 'lockout loan' at 20% interest because he was running out of money.

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