lockout Page 16 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Smart Way To Expand The NFL Season: 18 Weeks, Not 18 Games
This is Regressing, a numbers-minded column by our clever friends at the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective. Today: Why a second bye week makes sense....

One Thing I Think I Think: Peter King Is The Latest In A Long Line Of Management Stooges
First there was that epic profile of Roger Goodell, which was 6,000 words of Peter King trying to stuff some brains and character into an empty suit. Then there was this item the other day. I know it's CBA season, and I can only imagine how difficult and disorienting it must be for football writers ...

Ryan Clark Straight Up Torches The NFL's Negotiating
"If they told you, whatever your salary is we're going to give it to you even if you don't come to work. What's your incentive to come to work? And essentially that's what the owners have." Some really good stuff in this interview. [SportsRadioInterviews]...

The Cleveland Cavaliers Are On A One-Game Winning Streak
Your morning roundup for Feb. 12, the day Mars-commute impregnating became a non-starter in the name of continuing the colony....

Everything You Need To Know About The Upcoming NFL Labor War
The NFL season is over! No! NO! NOOOOOOOOOO! Oh, fuck you, God! You've got some nerve allowing late winter, spring, and summer to get in the way like that! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!...

The NFLPA Can Make A "Let Us Play" Ad, But The Networks Don't Have To Let It Play
The NFLPA released an ad for its "Let Us Play" campaign, and CBS won't run it during Saturday's Texas-America All-Star game. Could this be what the NFLPA, which is better at internetting than most teenagers, had in mind to begin with?...

NFLPA's Labor Strategy Involves Liberal Use Of Twitter Hashtags
Today, all current and former NFL players received an email from NFLPA President Kevin Mawae, planning a day of solidarity on social networking sites tomorrow. @drMLKjr would be proud....

Today In Dumb Anti-NFLPA Spin
Florio has a pretty good rundown of the NFL's coming labor apocalypse, but there's one point he makes that I really hope doesn't catch on, even though you can be sure it will....

A Former Player Responds To Roger Goodell's Open Letter
What a buzzkill. On the eve of the playoffs, just when fans' excitement in the sport is cresting, Roger Goodell tripped on his shoestrings again, puked all over his keyboard, and then hit "send."...

Don't Worry: In The Event Of An NFL Lockout, Bob Costas Will Still Get Paid
Here's a letter from Mary Cavallaro of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. In it, she assures the NFL broadcasters among her membership that they'll still get paid their current salary even if there are no NFL games to broadcast....

NFL Wants To Take Hard-Earned Money From All Those Players Who Shoot Themselves In Bars Or Something
NFL executive vice president Jeff Pash has some serious problems with the current collective bargaining agreement, foremost being that all those football players shooting themselves in bars get to keep their signing bonuses. Outrage!...

Canceled Training Camps Are Early Warnings Of NFL Labor Strife
Jacksonville and Detroit became the third and fourth teams to cancel OTAs after players complained about the workouts. Have today's players turned into delicate little doilies, or is it the hand of the union at work in advance of contentious CBA negotiations?...

Does Anyone Have Leverage In The Threatened MLS Lockout?
It's true that MLS players work under conditions that would be intolerable in any other sport. But it's also undeniable that MLS is a niche league that might not survive a prolonged lockout....

David Stern Peels His Scabs
The referees you've always hated will probably be back for Tuesday's NBA opener, replacing the replacement referees you were going to hate even more. And so ends a monthlong referee lockout that really had nothing to do with the referees....

Fired NBA Refs At Head Of Line To Join The Scabs
The NBA needs replacements for their locked out referees so they're putting together a list of guys who own whistles—one of whom just happens to have been fired for being terrible at refereeing NBA games....

Deadspin National Poll Of The Week: Who Should Replace NBA Refs?
With the NBA referee lockout a foregone conclusion, we asked millions of Americans who they thought would make the best replacement referees for the upcoming 2009-2010 NBA season. Here are the results. [Source: Gallup]...

Anyone Want To Ref Some NBA Games?
"The NBA formally declared a lockout of its referees Friday, virtually guaranteeing that the league will open the preseason with replacement officials in two weeks." [NYT]...

NBA Players Will Have To Call Their Own From Now On (UPDATE)
Here's a tip for the NBA referee's union. When negotiating for better benefits and more job security, try to avoid bargaining from the position of being the most hated and least respected workforce in America....

Sympathy For The Refs
More and more it's looking as if the NBA will lock out its referees and turn to scabs instead, and no one will much protest because NBA refs aren't exactly coalminers in Matewan. But this is nevertheless a bad development....

Hockey: It's BAAAAAACK!
NHL.com might not be acknowledging it — in fact, its "CBA News" page hasn't updated in two weeks, because the staff is so busy — and league reps are denying it, but the weird anonymous guy at Eklund's Hockey Rumors and a story in the Los Angeles Times confirm: The NHL and the players unions have ...