Brees rips NFL owners over money grab: report
NEW YORK — New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has told Sports Illustrated that National Football League club owners took advantage of union leader Gene Upshaw's death to try a money…
NEW YORK — New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has told Sports Illustrated that National Football League club owners took advantage of union leader Gene Upshaw's death to try a money grab from players.In a story on the magazine's website, Brees said the ongoing lockout of NFL players while they fight an anti-trust lawsuit in court has its roots in the 2008 death of Upshaw from pancreatic cancer.Upshaw's death left a void in the NFL Players Association that management hoped to exploit, Brees said."Ever since Gene Upshaw passed away, I'm just going to lay it all out there, the owners saw blood in the water," Brees said after a workout with other players in New Orleans."They felt like, 'This is our opportunity to take a significant piece of the (financial) pie back at all costs, a piece that we will never have to give back again. This is our chance, while they don't have leadership, while they are scrambling to find a new executive director. This is our time.'"Brees became a hero to a city rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina's 2005 devastation when he joined the Saints, devoted time and money to construction projects and led New Orleans to a first-ever Super Bowl title in 2010.He is among the players whose name appears on the lawsuit undertaken when talks on a new contract broke down in March and minced no words in ripping the owners."Their philosophy was, 'We're going to give you a very sub-par deal, a slap-in-the-face deal, and hope that you'll accept it because hopefully we've intimidated you enough into thinking that this is a take-it-or-leave-it deal, and you're just going to succumb to the pressure," Brees said."Well, guess what? We're a lot more informed and educated than in the past, and we're much better businessmen than you think and we're going to stand up for what is right and what is fair."Fifty-fifty is fair. It has been fair for the last 20 years and I think the game has done pretty well over the last 20 years. I think franchise values have gone up at a pretty good rate over the last 20 ye
last modification 2011-05-27 21:45:21
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