Wednesday was supposed to mark the day the players signed off on the new CBA. But at the end of the day, the litigation had yet to be settled, so signing a new CBA will have to wait until at least Thursday. If you are looking for a place to lay your blame, look no farther than the Patriots and Chargers.
The class action lawsuit that was filed against the NFL was on behalf of all 1,900 NFL players. But it took just two of them to stop it in its tracks. Those two players are Logan Mankins and Vincent Jackson.
A lot of people want to blame these two players for holding things up but they have a serious beef against their teams that they deserve to have resolved. They deserved to have it resolved prior to last season or even perhaps before that.
Mankins is the best offensive guard in the country. He is a three time Pro Bowler and was All Pro last season. He started every single game of his six year career helping the Patriots win the AFC East all six seasons. Yet his team insists on jerking him around and not giving him a long term contract. This is a common issue with players who are drafted by this franchise. He has played at an All Pro level while guarding for Tom Brady to throw for record numbers in the past few seasons.
The Patriots continue to string him along, paying him like a serviceable backup. He was set to make $1.54 million last season playing at a level that would earn him nearly ten times that. Bob Kraft and company have pulled this kind of disloyalty with their players for many years now. They won* three Super Bowls in the early 2000’s but when the players who helped earn those trophies wanted to be financially rewarded for their contributions, they were treated as expendable.
Just ask Richard Seymour.
The Patriots were extremely arrogant and the Spygate scandal seems to have done nothing to humble them. If anything, it has emboldened their cockiness, though they haven’t won another Super Bowl since the scandal broke and haven’t won a playoff game since 2007.
Speaking of arrogance: Chargers General Manager AJ Smith has had Vincent Jackson on the end of a thread as well. Jackson has been playing at a Pro Bowl level for the Chargers and is in the same situation as Mankins. Both players held out last season and both were given the cold shoulder.
Since AJ Smith joined the Chargers, they have had great drafts and had a decent amount of success. But it has come with a lot of friction between the players and Smith. He always seems to be in a battle of egos with his players. Most owners wouldn’t stand for that kind of friction, but the Spanos family just seems happy with Smith’s track record as far as the draft is concerned. It doesn’t seem to bother them that the Chargers can’t win in the playoffs and fall short every year.
Now what was once just Vincent Jackson and Logan Mankins’ problem, has become everyone else’s problem. They are holding out for a settlement to make up for the money they earned but were denied by their ungrateful, egomaniacal teams. And now the NFL must clean up their mess.
Perhaps Chris Kluwe should be calling someone else a “douchebag.”
Follow Levi on Twitter @LeviDamien or befriend him on Facebook
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
