1987 NFL Live Pregame Show Strike Year

the game the players wanted an equity position in the nfl's revenues 55 of the gross they also wanted it paid into a central fund controlled by their union and they wanted a stronger free agency position the owners wanted to retain their power their proposals for them to control the game as you can see we're in a position of dealing with people that have no sensitivity whatsoever towards the athlete most of the striking players conducted their own workouts while others broke ranks i don't think it's going to affect my relationship with uh my football team with the steelers i totally disagree with the approach that our association has opted for he circumvents every single one of us a lot of guys like myself don't want to be sitting around who want to play the stadiums remained empty the turnstiles were still while the players were losing an average of five thousand dollars a week the owners collected television rights fees and had insurance coverage the talks would begin and then break off some fans still went to the stadium to party in the parking lot while others found quieter ways to spend sundays even the gambling casinos felt the effects bengals became landscapers cowboys became real estate agents broncos became disc jockeys while others even tried out for game shows and one was even a broadcaster a federal mediator came in to bring the sides together first they prayed together [Applause] then they went to a hotel room to talk the meetings were very bitter and no agreement was reached the mediator finally went home the strike is now five weeks old week seven the owners offer a money now proposal some players reject it others don't vote or reveal a vote the new orleans saints accept it the rank and file is fractured everyone agreed the season was in jeopardy on november 16th the parties meet again both sides made offers and concessions and on that day the 57 day old strike was over we have uh indicated to management that we would ask the players to return to work as quickly as possible and the 1982 season was resumed the aftermath of those strike days well it looked like there was such confusion in the union that there would never be another strike it was disaster for ed garvey who resigned his position the players did not get 55 percent of the gross or a voice in running the nfl they did get wage severance and bonus scales however it's important to note that the free agency question and original goal in 1982 was lost in the long negotiations so the stage was set for 1987 in 1982. now i've always maintained that the reason that you play this game of professional football is for the money and the biggest and most important difference for the players is in the last strike they lost an average of five thousand dollars a week if it happens this time they'll lose an average of fifteen thousand dollars a week and another difference the last time when they finally did come back they received bonus payments ranging from around ten thousand dollars for rookies up to sixty thousand dollars for veterans management flatly says that won't happen this time and that might make a strike even harder to swallow for the players i think so that's why that fifteen thousand dollars a week that's a big consideration i don't know if it's worth it a couple more points while the owners did collect substantial television revenues back in 82 during the last strike they also had to rebate a substantial amount of money to the networks because of the missed games and also interestingly largely because of the presence of the usfl and the competitive bidding there the players now make better than 55 of the gross revenues of the nfl they didn't get it at the bargaining table but in fact they now have it in terms of their salaries a few moments ago we talked with the executive director of the nfl management council jack donald and we asked him why with the strike date so close the parties aren't meeting round the clock well i met with gene on friday when i went down there to washington uh to tell them you know gene we've given you a proposal which was a uh not a take it aleva type of proposal but one was supposed to generate some negotiations and having failed to do that i wanted to go down and make sure gene understood that we had a lot of uh other types of moves and i wanted to point them out to them and tell them we'd go to the 49-man roster and and the pension and the severance and the minimums and things such as that and i want to make that very very clear to gene you know gene told me made it very clear that he needed free agency that the players were going to move and that he'd be back in touch so you're saying as soon as he gets back in touch you'll jump into that room and stay 24 hours oh i think we should have been doing this a long time ago i mean there's no question in my mind about that i mean you know what we have here is we have two basically two different agendas we have every poll we've ever read so the players not that interested in free agency the union says free agencies the issue and then and and they keep a lot of other issues around and on the table i think to clutter up the uh up the mess the management council has said that free agency is the sole stumbling block does that mean that you've moved relatively close to the union's requests or demands on guaranteed contract on pension on other key issues oh no no no not at all just seven days seven days before the expiration of this contract that the union gave us for the first time their economic proposals those proposals were over 200 million dollars they gave us a proposal for the first time which would double our pension triple our severance so when you get a proposal like that you know that they don't really mean business that's why i went back down there but i told jean i said you know gene if we got down to some hard bargaining in six to eight weeks we could get this done except for the free agency issue why does football need a free agency system or non-system so much more restrictive than baseball and basketball well i think we all you have to do is take a look at what happened in baseball look at the baseball owners today look look what's happened so all we're saying is our system every every base every system every sport system does in fact have some orderly way to allocate our talent we've done well with it some of the players say they'll never be a settlement until donlin is out of there replaced by somebody from ownership who's authorized to truly bargain i told gene you know i've heard a lot of that you know i heard that in 1981 and 82 and when i was now talking to gene and as you know gene and i get along fairly well on a personal basis i said gene if it's the messenger and not the messenger i'll step out i've been doing this for 25 26 years i mean and if if i've become a source of irritation to the players i'd be happy to step aside and let someone else do it gene said as recently as friday jack it's not the messenger everybody agrees the strike is inevitable you want to speculate as to how long it might last no you know i'm still working on the theory that you know something like we might be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat i don't think it's very likely but i i gotta i at least think like that we should note that gene upshaw has turned down repeated invitations over the last several weeks to be with us he cites the technician strike here at nbc and he is honoring that union so he is not available to us now we turn to paul mcguire who is one of the few living humans who thinks there will not be a strike on tuesday i think it should it will be delayed bobby listen the players are all in four in strikes they don't want to be 0 and 5. the players don't want to strike the owners don't want to strike so get the two guys out of there donald and upshaw that are talking strike let's start talking positive let's let the players and the owners work it out how are you going to get somebody else in there between now and tuesday in time well if you get pete roselle in with five of the players wives i think they can sell it in about 15 minutes let's take the serious part of that the players will not accept pete rozelle in there as a mediator they want him identified clearly as a representative of management which in fact is what he is then let's get an owner in there one of the owners that represents all the other owners and do it all right paul thanks very much when we come back we'll talk with one of those players who might be a so-called scab a guy who's been paid a thousand dollars to stand by and be ready to play in the event of a strike stay with us ladies and gentlemen emmy award winner joanne woodward they said the car you drive says a lot about you that we think the kind of people who drive our cars says a lot about audi when you're ready to follow your own round you're ready for a now day [Music] look they're my parents and i tell you they're acting different i mean they go dancing herbert and jane dancing i know mother thinks it's fun she wears eye makeup now i don't know what's gotten into them hmm who's is this find out the actor age to help them get more out of life people are eating better some have found kellogg's product 19 100 of 12 vitamins and minerals feel good about yourself tennis they don't play tennis feel like 19 again [Music] i want my serta [Music] i want my serta here's why people want their serta why they're spoiled for any other mattress only serta goes beyond just being firm beyond what others do we top our support with the extra comfortable service surface a unique difference you can feel and assert a perfect sleeper marvin i want my serta [Music] stanley we open doors all across america [Music] doors stanley doors for the quality of your [Music] life nfl live is brought to you by taco bell just say hello to fresh exciting taste just say hello taco bell by audi when you're ready to follow your own road you're ready for an audi and by kellogg's product 19. welcome back to nfl live if the seemingly inevitable strike comes to pass there will be no football next sunday but the following week the owners vow they will play games with what they will likely call substitute performers and the union will call scab players this is walter briggs a division three all-america quarterback at montclair state a year ago this year in training camp he lasted until the third cut with the new york jets he is one of those who has been paid a thousand dollars and is standing by ready to play in the event of a strike walter you're going to be called a scab call me anything bob call me whatever you want sticks and stones will break my bones and names will never hurt me is what i used to be told but i want to play football and if this is one heck of a way to get into the nfl after being waived or waiting until next year to go into camp again but if this is how one way i can show what i can do besides going back into camp next year early then that's what i'm going to do do you see this is pretty much your only reasonable chance to play in the nfl no not really because um i think if with the jet situation that i got into this year with um pat and kenny there um and coach walton was only gonna keep two um i think if i went somewhere else maybe i'd lasted a lot longer or still have been there so i don't think that this would be my just only hope if you last beyond a strike are you afraid of physical reprisals by veteran players who'd hold a grudge against the so-called scabs well i guess um for the for the free agent first year players the um the union strike going on so we're i don't think we're too familiar with the union so i i don't think they're going to look at it that way but um but if we played for a scab team so i guess if they want to do that and they want to get physical or whatever then i guess that's something i have to put up with if you'd been a little lucky or you might have made a team and been a member of the union right therefore do you have mixed feelings are you in sympathy to some extent with the union situation in a certain in a certain way yeah i meant i am sympathetic but um i've never been involved in a strike before so um i am a little biased on both ways because i guess if i was in the union like right now i would feel that there would be a lot of things that i wouldn't do like probably play but this is the situation that i am and i was always told take day by day and this is one way i think i'm going to have to do it have they told you would you be the jet starting quarterback in a couple of weeks if there's a strike i really don't know with um our two quarterbacks who were in camp with me um dave nori and um bill ransdell the only two that were were in camp with me when i left uh are both are injury reserved so i was the only one um i am the only one i guess that is capable of starting so i really don't know but that's entirely up to coach walton i guess when i get there all right walter thanks very much there's another side to this story there are some veteran players who at least previously had indicated that in the event of a strike they'd cross picket lines and play now some may have backed off that original stance but earlier the likes of freeman mcneil of the jets and joe montana of the 49ers had said that they didn't want to strike our john matuzak out in los angeles asked two of his former raider teammates linebacker rod martin and defensive lineman howie long how they felt about veteran players who wouldn't honor the union stance i'm at the raider training camp at the great outside linebacker rod mart rod would you uh hesitate at all to punish someone like a montana or mcneal with a little uh extra shot well you know we really don't want to hurt an individual but it sticks in the back of your mind too is when the guys like that go against the organization go against your calls and things you're going to do a little something extra out there you know to let them know that uh you didn't particularly like the way they stood up for the with the union and the rest of guys in the league it's a lot of money you know every individual has to make his own decision it's it's a tough one it's a lot of money it's a lot of money trust me out there folks it's a lot of money we trust you howie standing by at our burbank studios is john matuzak twos how emotional do you think this situation has become now it's become a very emotional decision uh the fact that they're gonna strike really affects a lot of players a lot of people have their uh their lives planned out for this uh for this football season they've got their house payments to make the car payments to take the kids to school that's what i'm worried about here bob is is a man in between the player i've talked to guys from the rams the 49ers the raiders these guys really don't want to strike they can't afford to but they they need to make a statement to the owners the free agency thing is really almost emotionally ludicrous because it's something that they won't get they have to load up on asking for their pension benefits because they're going to need those things they're going to need insurance for 20 30 years after they're done believe me they're going to need it medically what i'm worried about is the donlins and the upshaws the people with political aspirations getting caught up in their emotions and forgetting about the man who this thing is all about which is the players and the fans if they forget about those people we're in trouble and i don't like seeing that it's like iran iraq only the peasants are going to lose and i don't like that although thankfully not nearly as serious how united do you think the rank and file is behind the union leadership right now if you could poll the players rather than their leadership at this point how united would they be behind the idea of a strike well i'm in a position right now or i should really be careful what i say about that because i know the guys would really like to stick together but the problem is the biological clock the owners want us want us by us i mean the players to really bargain against ourselves and if we do that we're going to be in trouble and with our biological clock ticking away every day counts and the owners know this is going to happen the owners can sit out and wait they have a predetermined time do you think there's going to be a point during a lengthy strike at which players break ranks and begin to filter back i hope not but i'm sure you're going to see some of that especially like you pointed out montana and freeman mcneil these are guys at the end of their career and they have to make whatever they can while they can do it they're really not concerned with the future that much because their future is the immediate future and that's what they want to take care of and you can't blame them too much for that really twos thanks very much john matuzak from our studios in burbank when we come back after this break it'll be act two for jimmy cephalo and bob trumpy a week ago they had a sharp disagreement on the air about the possibility of a strike we'll give them another shot at it in just a minute platoon the best motion picture of the year the film you must experience the picture you'll never forget see platoon on video soon louisiana and old milwaukee books mean something great to these guys the feet means flat bottom boat racing and a cajun feast that'll set your mouse on fire an old milwaukee means a great beer cold crisp old milwaukee beer and smooth golden old milwaukee light there's nothing like the flavor of a special place [Music] milwaukee an old milwaukee light it doesn't get any better than this wow i feel good time to go boys you've been in there long enough [Music] no matter how far we go but no spark plug guarantees that we do yeah we're the auto line so go pull the plug on somebody else [Music] tried it now i believe it denorex tingles tells me it's doing more head and shoulders no tingle both have dandruff medicine but dendrx adds both an extra anti-itch medicine and conditioner too goodbye head and shoulders hello denirex back now by popular demand those noted sparring partners jimmy cephalo and bob trumpy jimmy we'll start with you and i heard you say a moment ago you got a plan in mind that might save face for both sides oh somebody's got to solve this thing how about this we take a player who's been in the league for eight years say he's in the san diego but he's got a reason that he wants to go to st louis he's got an ailing family there it's his hometown he's got business connections let's call it his golden time allow him to go to saint louis without compensation but an increase in salary of only 20 percent this way the player has the right to choose the area of the country in which he wishes to live or write most americans and enjoy and it takes away the economic burden from the ownership all right trump how do you respond to that well bob i think this is the reason that we have the strike and that jimmy cephalo is still preaching the theory that the national football league players association is espousing the need for free agency i think if you talk to the vast majority of the players in the nfl right now free agency is a moot point it's gone it was negotiated away back to the owners back in the 70s they're not going to get it back we're in the same situation robert right now we were just before the strike in 1982. the money's on the table the players had 1.6 billion offered to them by ownership before the strike they went out for 57 days came back and got 1.6 billion dollars this is a money issue at this point and i think it can be hammered out trump when did you become a friend of paul brown the problem is we've got 28 owners that are republicans voting for socialism we've got to give a player the right to be able to choose an area of the country in which he wishes to live and work at some youngster during the line why shouldn't have the same right as other basic americans jimmy look if you want to restructure america run for office if you want national football league players with free agency you should have voted to turn down the offer that garvey made the owners back in 77. not only not only did he give him back the draft not only did he give back free agency he also promised to never sue the nfl again now that i i call that the terrible triad bob you're going back to the allegations in 1974 and that was a time when there was no collective bargain agreement for three years on the table at the time the alexander settlement was trumpeted as a real way that labor management could work together in this country bob i still wasn't in in professional football jimmy you're missing trump let the ref jump in here trump what about this they're going to play with these scab teams and i'm thinking part of management's strategy here is that if i'm on a potential playoff team we have no idea how good the scab backups are going to be now i'm a member of the chicago bears in comes my substitute team they lose three straight games we know we're coming back at some point and i'm blowing my chance to go to the playoffs it's more pressure on me to accept the settlement by my opinion of those free agent games or scav games as they're being called is it's the stupidest mistake owners have made in a long time because all it does is give credence to the fact that the players need a union the worst thing that could happen to the nfl is if the national football league players association goes away they've been their own worst enemy last comment trump you're starting to sound like joe biden i said that last week the scab games are a ridiculous idea they should never be played on that point we agree jimmy and that's it indeed it is and so much for that genteel exchange when we come back we'll have a final word and wrap things up for this edition of nfl live please stay with us i'm 80 years old and i love kellogg's frosted flakes brave adults are coming forward to challenge the notion that frosted flakes is just a kid's cereal i eat them i love them and i don't care who knows with that extra crunch and milk that frosting just right they have a taste adults can love every bit as much as kids go ahead shirley you can do it i love him thank you what more can you say frosted flakes have the taste adults have grown to love they're great [Music] they say the car you drive says a lot about you but we think the kind of people who drive our cars says a lot about audi when you're ready to follow your own round you're ready for an audio way i look at it i've kept my mouth shut long enough one bite of steak and you won't open your mouth for ordinary fast food again new steak fajitas real steak real fast oh and another thing taco bell the only real choice just 29.95 you can get this just go to midas yeah and ask for the new midasizer muffler for 29.95 it's guaranteed for as long as you own your car wow the midasizer from midas 29.95 a small price to pay for peace and shh the new midasizer 29.95 yeah coming up at halftime frank deford of sports illustrated gives his views on the key issues separating the two sides as a strike looms and we'll also talk with stan white the former lion and colt linebacker who served as a union official during the last strike in 1982 but before we go we got to get paul mcguire's picks after all he was 4-0 against the spread last week all right first of all the giants are over dallas give the 12th denver over green bay give the 10. chicago bears over tampa give the 14 and monday night make a mortgage payment take new england over the jets minus two thank you paul and thanks to all of you for being with us we'll be back at halftime with frank deford stan white and of course all the scores and highlights so long everybody thursday the season premiere of the biggest cheers in years who are these people

Channel: Mr. J

Views: 1,603

Keywords:

Id: h7CdFVg6QVY

Length: 24min 42sec (1482 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 19 2020