Durango53
03-03-2006, 12:35 PM
BIRK BODY SLAMS GENE
Vikings center Matt Birk, has taken aim squarely at NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw.
Birk was candid in his comments with The Minneapolis Star Tribune regarding the union and Upshaw's leadership of it in conjunction with the ongoing CBA negotiations.
"Don't put this in the paper ... no, wait, go ahead and put it in," Birk said. "Gene Upshaw is a piece of [insert colorful language here]."
And Birk isn't just some garden-variety pissed-off lineman spewing venom. Birk's pedigree gives him plenty of credibility. The dude went to Harvard, and he didn't get a six or a seven or a 16 on his Wonderlic.
He's smart, he's perceptive, and he's very dangerous to guys who hope to manipulate others through emotion.
As to the status of the on-again, off-again labor talks, Birk said: "It's a joke, it really is. Everyone is making money. A lot of money. You think anyone wants to hear about the money problems of the NFL owners or players? It's bad pub for the league. It's bad for all of us."
Birk told us a few weeks back that the union has left the players "[p]retty much in the dark" regarding the status of the talks. "One thing about the union, in my opinion, they're always watching out for the union," he told us.
Per Friday's story in The Star Tribune, Birk was at one point a player representative to the union, but he quit due to what he called "propaganda and poor leadership."
"When you go to those CBA meetings, you always feel like you're being sold something instead of being given the straight facts," Birk told The Star Tribune. "Through all the meetings leading up to this, it was always: 'The owners don't want an uncapped year. We'll get a deal, and if we don't, so what? There will be an uncapped year and there will be crazy money out there.' The reality is that's not the case. And you're seeing that it's not the leverage we were told it would be. . . .
"Instead, you go there and it's like some kind of religious revival. You don't feel you're getting the true message. And they're always talking too fast."
With all that said, we're still convinced that the deal between the league and the union will get done in a heartbeat as soon as the owners figure out what to do with revenue sharing. But if Upshaw really is willingly playing the bad guy as cover for the owners in the hopes that he'll be the next Commissioner, the owners might want to ponder the wisdom of an Ivy Leaguer before making a selection based on gratitude.
Gratitude, after all, is just another emotion.
Vikings center Matt Birk, has taken aim squarely at NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw.
Birk was candid in his comments with The Minneapolis Star Tribune regarding the union and Upshaw's leadership of it in conjunction with the ongoing CBA negotiations.
"Don't put this in the paper ... no, wait, go ahead and put it in," Birk said. "Gene Upshaw is a piece of [insert colorful language here]."
And Birk isn't just some garden-variety pissed-off lineman spewing venom. Birk's pedigree gives him plenty of credibility. The dude went to Harvard, and he didn't get a six or a seven or a 16 on his Wonderlic.
He's smart, he's perceptive, and he's very dangerous to guys who hope to manipulate others through emotion.
As to the status of the on-again, off-again labor talks, Birk said: "It's a joke, it really is. Everyone is making money. A lot of money. You think anyone wants to hear about the money problems of the NFL owners or players? It's bad pub for the league. It's bad for all of us."
Birk told us a few weeks back that the union has left the players "[p]retty much in the dark" regarding the status of the talks. "One thing about the union, in my opinion, they're always watching out for the union," he told us.
Per Friday's story in The Star Tribune, Birk was at one point a player representative to the union, but he quit due to what he called "propaganda and poor leadership."
"When you go to those CBA meetings, you always feel like you're being sold something instead of being given the straight facts," Birk told The Star Tribune. "Through all the meetings leading up to this, it was always: 'The owners don't want an uncapped year. We'll get a deal, and if we don't, so what? There will be an uncapped year and there will be crazy money out there.' The reality is that's not the case. And you're seeing that it's not the leverage we were told it would be. . . .
"Instead, you go there and it's like some kind of religious revival. You don't feel you're getting the true message. And they're always talking too fast."
With all that said, we're still convinced that the deal between the league and the union will get done in a heartbeat as soon as the owners figure out what to do with revenue sharing. But if Upshaw really is willingly playing the bad guy as cover for the owners in the hopes that he'll be the next Commissioner, the owners might want to ponder the wisdom of an Ivy Leaguer before making a selection based on gratitude.
Gratitude, after all, is just another emotion.